How Things Are Done

In late May, Ariadna Reida, a Great Baikal Trail (GBT) coordinator, was asked about the project’s relations with the government. She replied, “In Russian, we have a saying: ‘Let them not support us, as long as they do not prevent us from doing what we are doing.’”

The meaning became clear on June 17th, when GBT’s first group of summer volunteers boarded a bus in Severobaikalsk in north-west Baikal, ready to start the first ecotrail-building project of the season. They had just finished loading when the head of the Severobaikalsk Regional Department of Tourism called and demanded that the team go to the opposite shore and build a trail there. When GBT organizers said last minute changes were impossible, they were told to follow orders or they would never work in Severobaikalsk Region again.

Various explanations have been offered for this last-minute meddling. When asked, tourism officials explained that the press had already been informed of the new location and that “people” were already on-site to welcome the crew. The “people” – a ranger named Volodya – said that the orders had in fact come from Ulan-Ude, the regional capital. Both these explanations beg the question.

One veteran GBT member gave three explanations. She noted that GBT crew members helped Volodya carry a large number of provisions to his cabin, many of which weighed in excess of 60 pounds. Thus, perhaps the project was rerouted simply to shuttle his supplies. Another possibility, she said, is that the local administration, by changing the location of the project, hoped to take credit for the project. Finally, she suggested that the administration hoped to bring hunting parties to the location of the new trail – despite that hunting is forbidden at the zakaznik.

When reminded that the trail runs through the territory of a zakaznik, in which all forms of hunting are forbidden, she answered with a long look, asking: “What country are we in?”