TOMSK, Aug 12 – RIA Tomsk. Vasyugan swamps are constantly changing: they are partially overgrown with forests, while taking over new territories; their area is now 5.5 million hectares, but on average it increases by 800 hectares per year, Director of the Reserve Olga Antoshkina told RIA Tomsk.
The Great Vasyugan Mire is one of the largest swamp system in the world, and most of it is located in the Tomsk region. It was previously reported that at the end of 2017, Vasyugansky State Nature Reserve was created within the Great Vasyugan Mire by a decision of the Russian government. The directorate of the reserve is based in Tomsk and its office opened in 2020.
"The mire is of scientific interest in terms of the evolution of swamp ecosystems. Our swamp is a growing organism, it is alive. There is a constant swamping of areas", – Antoshkina said, specifying that on average the swamp area increases by 800 hectares per year.
The entire swamp now covers 5.5 million hectares: it is located in the Tomsk, Novosibirsk, Omsk and Tyumen regions. "It is actually a very large swamp. The reserve was created in the Tomsk region, because it's the only place where there's an untouched part of the swamp left. Basically it is developed everywhere: peat harvesting, extraction of carbon materials (oil and gas), somewhere the swamp is drained", – she said.
The interlocutor of the agency noted that on the territory of the Great Vasyugan Mire, including the nature reserve, one could follow the evolution of the swamps: from origin to extinction when the swamp "goes away" and only wooded areas remain.
According to Antoshkina, the evolution of swamp ecosystems is one of the criteria for the nomination of the Great Vasyugan Mire to the UNESCO World Heritage List. The natural object has been in the Tentative List of candidate objects from Russia since 2007.
Earlier it was reported that the administration of the Tomsk Vasyugansky State Nature Reserve, located in the swamps with the same name, plans to launch scientific, cognitive, photo and even "mystical" tours starting in autumn 2022. Such a trip to the swamps will take at least three days. By the time the excursions start, the administration plans to put the infrastructure in place: equip car parks, overnight accommodations and ecological trails.
