First climbed over ninety years ago, Kyrgyzstan’s 7,134m Pik Lenin (Lenin Peak) was the focus of significant Soviet mountaineering tourism from the 1950s and a permanent complex of buildings exists to this day in the valley at 3,600m. Since the mid-1990s and the collapse of the Soviet Union, there has been significant interest from mountaineers from across the world. This sustained interest has combined to exert significant pressure on the mountain’s environment and brought it to attention as a candidate for state protection.
Dr Stephen Taylor of University of Cumbria and Dr Vladimir Komissarov, President of the Kyrgyz Alpine Club, lead the international research team which has been active since 2017. A research report providing a full overview of the challenges facing sustainable tourism on the mountain was submitted to the Kyrgyz government in 2018. In 2019 the first phase of the identified research programme involved the identification and the geolocation/mapping of the significant rubbish and debris generated by years of activity on the mountain’s main glacier at the site of numerous advanced base camps at an altitude of 4,300m. A non-technical version of the research can be found here. In 2020, during the lull of normal commercial activity imposed by COVID, the formal research report was used to secure local government funding (26,000 USD) to remove 7 tons of debris from the glacier. Additionally, this usefully provided an income to the horsemen normally employed in the mountain’s normal tourism activities.
In 2022, the focus shifted to the camp located at 5,300m, where debris from commercial operations is an issue. More significantly, the lack of any controls or systems for dealing with human waste poses a major challenge and is currently being investigated.
In 2023, Dr Stephen Taylor proposed a Co-management Network Governance System, outlined in this research note (Taylor, 2023).
Partners: Kyrgyz Alpine Club
Funders: Local government funding for rubbish clearance, but longer term funding and support is being sought as part of the ongoing activities and funding related to tourism by Helvetas (Kyrgyzstan) Helvetas Kyrgyzstan | Independent Swiss development organisation
Contact: Dr Stephen Taylor
Photo credit: Jason Sheldrake
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