LAKE BAIKAL, RUSSIA
BL A ZE A TRAIL AT THE WORLD’S BIGGEST
FRESHWATER LAKELake Baikal is so vast and deep that locals regularly
refer to it as a sea. Covering around 12,200sq miles and
with an average depth of 2,442ft, the massive lake is
a natural wonder. It’s also in serious trouble. Despite
being named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996,
ongoing pollution, the recent weakening of government
protections and new threats, such as large-scale tourism
development, caused the IUCN (International Union
for Conservation of Nature) to deem the environmental
World Heritage Outlook of Lake Baikal of ‘significant
concern’ in 2020.
Visitors can help safeguard the lake and its wide array
of landscapes — including tundra, steppe, boreal forest
and virgin beaches — by volunteering with Great Baikal
Trail (GBT), the nonprofit environmental group creating
a hiking route around the lake. “Volunteering helps
protect Lake Baikal nature by developing ecotourism
infrastructure,” says Great Baikal Trail Association
president Elena Chubakova.
Hiking the GBT is also a planet-friendly way to spot
some of the 1,200 Lake Baikal plant and animal species
found nowhere else on Earth, such as the nerpa, the
world’s only exclusively freshwater seal.
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC TRAVELER (RUSSIA)KENT, UK
BISON IN THE KENT COUNTRYSIDE &
REWILDING SUCCESS STORIES NATIONWIDE
When Kent Wildlife Trust and the Wildwood Trust
set out to hire the UK’s first bison rangers in early 2021,
more than 1,000 applications flooded in. Successful
candidates Tom Gibbs and Donovan Wright have an
exciting task ahead: in spring 2022, they’re managing
the reintroduction of four European bison, bred by the
European Endangered Species Programme, to Blean
Woods near Canterbury.
Hunted to extinction in Britain thousands of years ago,
bison are forest architects: by rubbing against trunks and
eating bark, they cause weak trees to tumble, allowing
multiple plant and animal species to thrive. Once the
foursome has settled in, Donovan will help visitors
approach them, at a safe distance, on foot.
Elsewhere in the UK, other rewilding projects are
gathering pace. There are several beaver reintroduction
sites to visit. Fans of BBC Two’s Springwatch will
recognise Ladock’s Cornwall Beaver Project and Norfolk’s
Wild Ken Hill, a mosaic of farmland and regenerated
habitats. Or revel in the drama of Wales’ red kite feeding
stations, and enjoy the romance of Knepp Wildland in
West Sussex — where visitors can watch storks, bats and
deer, then snuggle down in cosy treehouses or tents.
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC TRAVELLER (UK)
Ice formation on Olkhon Island
in Lake Baikal, Siberia, Russia
FROM LEFT: A golden-fronted
woodpecker eats a papaya in the
Crooked Tree Wildlife Sanctuary,
Belize; hollow rock, an iconic coastal
formation on the north west of Lake
Superior by the border of MinnesotaBEST OF THE WORLDJan/Feb 2022 93