A congress under the auspices of UNESCO, a dictation with 20,000 participants, returning seal haul-outs and trails built without concrete.
2026 marks 30 years since Baikal was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List. The anniversary was marked both scientifically and educationally.
The congress and the dictation
On 24 September the Baikal International Ecological Congress under the auspices of UNESCO opened in Irkutsk, with about 800 participants from 15 countries. In spring more than 20,000 people in 50 regions took the Baikal Ecological Dictation devoted to the anniversary.
The seal returns
Expeditions in 2024 found seals at haul-out sites described as early as 1916 — at Svyatoy Nos, Olkhon, the islands of the Small Sea and along the Circum-Baikal Railway.
Careful tourism
Pribaikalsky National Park has about 250 km of eco-trails. At Cape Kobylya Golova a new trail is being designed without tree-felling or concrete, on screw piles, while monitoring the endemic Olkhon vole.
Sources (in Russian): Glagol, 22 September 2026; Glagol, 22 April 2026; IrCity, 6 February 2025; Teleinform, 7 October 2026; IrCity, 13 October 2026.
