Elena Istmina and Svetlana Solodyankina of Geography Institute of Siberian Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences, who participated in Khakusy Ecological Camp, published a report on the first pilot session of the eco-camp.

On July 11-23 , 2011, the camp named after the project was organised for young ecologists by the Fund for Protection of Lake Baikal.

The research and fieldwork at the camp brought together students from two large towns located near Baikal, Irkutsk and Ulan Ude. The participants from Irkutsk included 2 professors from the V.B.Sochava Geography Institute of Siberian branch of Russian Academy of Sciences: a PhD in Geography, researcher and docent of Geography Faculty of Irkustk State University Svetlana Solodyankina and a PhD in Geography and senior researcher Elena Istomina and 11 students specializing in Ecology and Land Use who completed the 3rd and 4th year of Geography and Biology faculties of Irkutsk State University and Agronomy Faculty of Irkutsk Agriculture Academy. The Buryatia participants included The Head of Sports Management Department of Buryatia State University Bair Naidanov and 6 students of BSU specializing in ecology and tourism in different years of training.

The main objectives of the first pilot eco-camp were to conduct the ecological research and to monitor the Khakuna unique natural complex, to study geographical and ecological background for tourism, to carry out the clean up of the area, to introduce ecological education for students and visitors and to identify the young leaders of the ecologic movement at Lake Baikal.

The Khakusy eco-camp carried out the major research of the area. They collected large amount of primary data: surveyed landscape in 30 locations, interviewed 62 tourists, described 39 resort infrastructure buildings, recorded bearings of tourist attractions near the resort, made descriptions of the main tourist paths. All this information needs to be processed and analysed by the participants of the eco-camp and will be used as a foundation for courseworks and graduate works by the students.

Collection of data and samples was complemented with improvements to the resort and neightbouring area: campers cleaned up the beach and cleared the tourist path from Khakusy to Caves (Peschery).

The collected data was used to create a detailed map of the resort. The scientists plan to make landscape and landscape evaluation maps of different scales, forecasts of prospects for Khakusy resort area, to estimate threshold loads on the landscape and its elements considering various possible locations of the recreation area. The area near Khakusy resort has a multitude of natural landscapes and tourist attractions, so it cannot be researched within one season.

The Khakusy eco-camp is rightfully the first student environmental camp that allows young ecologists to practically apply their knowledge and to try out cutting-edge methods for protection of environment under supervision of professors and experts. Students have gained valuable learning experience during the comprehensive research at the unique nature and tourism site Khakusy, learned to make landscape descriptions, improvements to the pathway and acquired experience in organising hiking trips.

The Director for Protection of Lake Baikal Boris Danilov visited Khakusy eco-camp and gave a lecture on How to Become an Environmental Leader. In his speech, he emphasized three crucial qualities of a leader of ecological movement which are integrity, proactive approach to life and responsibility.

The Fund for Protection of Lake Baikal will continue with this eco-project in order to create the most comprehensive and scientifically justified tourism project at Lake Baikal in order to minimize the impact on ecosystems of the lake and the waterside.
The goals for the next sessions of Khakusy eco-camp are to carry out physical and geographical study of the area, to identify new sites of key importance and to study processes of landscape formation using duplicate observations, to evaluate landscape stability against antropological impacts, to carry out further sociological research, ecology monitoring and much more.