TITLE: ENVIRONMENTAL RESOURCES AND CONSTRAINT S IN THE FORMER SOVIET REPUBLICS : Chapter 5 : TILE RUSSIAN FAR EAS T AUTHOR : HOLLY STRAND THE NATIONAL COUNCI L FOR SOVIET AND EAST EUROPEAN RESEARC H TITLE VIII PROGRA M 1755 Massachusetts Avenue, N .W . Washington, D .C. 20036 PROJECT INFORMATION :* CONTRACTOR : San Diego State University PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR : Philip R . Pryde COUNCIL CONTRACT NUMBER : 807-04 DATE : July 27, 1994 COPYRIGHT INFORMATION Individual researchers retain the copyright on work products derived from research funded b y Council Contract. The Council and the U.S. Government have the right to duplicate written reports and other materials submitted under Council Contract and to distribute such copies within th e Council and U .S. Government for their own use, and to draw upon such reports and materials fo r their own studies; but the Council and U.S. Government do not have the right to distribute, o r make such reports and materials available, outside the Council or U.S. Government without th e written consent of the authors, except as may be required under the provisions of the Freedom o f Information Act 5 U.S.C. 552, or other applicable law . The work leading to this report was supported in part by contract funds provided by the National Council fo r Soviet and East European Research, made available by the U. S. Department of State under Title VIII (the Soviet - Eastern European Research and Training Act of 1983) . The analysis and interpretations contained in the report are those ofthe author. NCSEER NOTE This report is part of a Council funded research project entitled Environmenta l Resources and Constraints in the Former Soviet Republics . Twenty one reports, listed below , resulting from this project will be distributed seriatim by the Council, and will collectivel y become the chapters of a book to be published in 1994 by Westview Press. Eighteen of the 2 1 (written by other authors) deal with the fifteen former republics, and three (written by Dr. Philip R. Pryde, the Principal Investigator) are summarizing reports. Chapter 1: The Environmental Implications of Republic Sovereignty . (Pryde) Chapter 2: Russia - An Overview of the Federation . (Pryde) Chapter 3: European Russia. (Kochurov) Chapter 4: The Urals and Siberia . (Scherbakova & Monroe) Chapter 5: The Russian Far East. (Strand) Chapter 6: Estonia. (Soot) Chapter 7: Latvia. (Dreifelds) Chapter 8: Lithuania. (Kritkausky) Chapter 9: Ukraine. (Stebelsky) Chapter 10: Environmental Management in Ukraine . (Freeman) Chapter 11: Belarus. (Cherp & Kovaleva ) Chapter 12: Moldova. (Dinu & Rowntree) Chapter 13: Georgia. (Richards) Chapter 14: Armenia. (Valesyan) Chapter 15: Azerbaijan. (Wolfson & Daniell) Chapter 16: Kazakhstan. (Smith) Chapter 17: Turkmenistan. (Micklin) Chapter 18: Uzbekistan . (Lubin) Chapter 19: Kyrgyzstan. (Braden) Chapter 20: Tajikistan. (Eicher) Chapter 21: The View to the Future . (Pryde) Environmental Resources and Constraints in the Former Soviet Republic s The Russian Far Eas t Holly Strand Executive Summary The following paragraphs summarize the main contents and conclusions of a chapter on the Russian Far East, which has been prepared as part of a larger work on the environmenta l and economic-geographic situation in each of the former Soviet republics . The full study , edited by Philip R . Pryde, will be published by Westview Press under the title "Environmenta l Resources and Constraints in the Former Soviet Republics . Funding assistance from the National Council for Soviet and East European Research is acknowledged with appreciation . In this chapter, the physical geography and demography of the Far East is briefly summarized, including a survey of its main economic resources and any significan t environmental constraints (climatic, geomorphologic, etc .) that affect the region's development . The contemporary state of the development of industry and agriculture within the Far East i s reviewed, with a focus on the environmental disruption that has resulted from thi s development. The current situation with regard to biotic preservation is also reviewed , including a section on the establishment of nature reserves and parks . Particular discussion is directed to the problems that currently exist with regard t o logging activities, mineral extraction, industrial processing, and agricultural practices . Specia l note is made of pollution problems in Komsomolsk, in the Dalnegorsk industrial region, and a t Lake Khanka . Problems of poor management of biotic resources is also discussed . The main conclusions of the chapter are that the Far East at present is one of the leas t polluted regions of the former Soviet Union, but that its future is difficult to predict due to th e contemporary emphasis on industrial growth, foreign investment, and private economi c development . Because of its easy access to the Pacific Rim, the Far East has both economic advantages and a high degree of environmental jeopardy . Philip R . Pryde, June 6, 1994 Chapter 5 . THE RUSSIAN FAR EAST Holly Strand The Russian Far East is a vast and varied region forming the northeastern frontier of th e Eurasian continent . Although the entire Russian territory east of the Urals is often labelle d "Siberia," the Far East is actually a separate geographic unit whose territorial size is almos t equal to that of West and East Siberia. Furthermore, there are striking differences in bot h natural conditions and the economy of the two regions, as the Far East is heavily influenced b y its proximity to the Pacific Ocean . In this chapter, the Russian Far East will be defined as the former Soviet Union's Fa r Eastern economic planning region . Its area is 6,215,900 km 2 , or 36% of the total area of the Russian Federation; this is roughly three-quarters the size of the conterminous United States . The region is divided into the following administrative sub-units : Primorskiy Krai (or territory , also called Primorye or the Maritime Province), Khabarovsk Krai, Kamchatka, Amur , Sakhalin, and Magadan Oblasts; the Republic of Sakha (sometimes given as Yakut-Sakha , formerly the Yakut Autonomous Republic), and the Jewish, Koryak, and Chukotsk Autonomous Regions . The 1990 population of the Russian Far East was only about eigh t million . Physical Setting Because of its vast size and latitudinal distribution, the Far Eastern landscape i s tremendously varied. The southernmost tip of Primorskiy Krai lies at about 42° north latitude , similar to Chicago in the United States . The northernmost point is Wrangel Island at aroun d 72°, slightly higher than Point Barrow, Alaska . In the Diomede Islands of the Bering Sea . Russia comes within 4 miles of the United States . The disputed southern Kurile Islands are similarly close to Hokkaido, Japan.' The Amur River forms a large portion of the souther n border with China . Much of the region is covered with medium to low elevation mountains, no more than 3000 meters in height. The more significant ranges are the Stanovoy Range on the norther n border of Amur Oblast, the Verkhoyansk and Chersk Ranges in Sakha, the Kolyma and Koryak Uplands in the northeast, and the volcanic ranges on Kamchatka . The Dzhugdzhur an d Sikhote Alin are coastal ranges on the Okhotsk Sea and Sea of Japan, respectively . The Kamchatka Peninsula and the Kuriles are located at the eastern edge of the Asian continenta l 1 Figure 5 .2 . The harbor at Nakhodka, with an oil tanke r at center ; the tanker symbolizes the increase d environmental jeopardy that will come to th e region as it becomes more involved in th e Pacific Rim economy . plate and the western edge of the Pacific plate ; tectonic interaction between these two plate s produces an extremely active seismic zone . Soviet geologists have delineated about two fifths of the Far East as susceptible t o earthquakes destructive enough to cause large cracks in the ground, rockfalls, landslides, an d mud eruptions, and to deform ground and surface water regimes (Medvedev, 1976) . Earthquakes with epicentres off the Pacific coast are capable of generating powerful tsunamis . The area surrounding eastern Kamchatka and the Kuriles is one of the most seismically activ e places on earth, as it coincides with a subduction zone where the Pacific plate dives under th e Eurasian continent . Lively geological processes result in high mountains, volcanoes, an d occasional valleys of hot springs and geysers . The Kuriles have forty active volcanoes and Kamchatka twenty-two . Asian Russia's highest peak, Mt . Kluchevskaya, is a Kamchatka volcano which rises to 4750 meters (see Figure 5 .1). The largest rivers are the Amur and the Lena, ninth and tenth longest in the world (441 6 km and 4400 km, respectively) . Among other Russian rivers, only the Ob' is longer . The Lena, Indigirka, and Kolyma all flow north into the arctic seas, while the Amur flows mainl y eastward and empties into the Tatar Strait, near Sakhalin Island . Over six thousand miles of coastline gives Russia a considerable strategic presence in the Pacific . With the secession of the Baltic republics and Ukraine, and therefore reduced access t o the Atlantic, the importance of this presence has intensified . There are some excellent natura l harbors, such as Vladivostok and Nakhodka, but icebreakers must operate to keep many o f them open (Figure 5.2) . The Sea of Okhotsk is frozen for much of the year and even the Se a of Japan is completely free of ice for only a few months . Climatic conditions in the Far East are highly variable. The precipitation regime i s complicated by great fluctuations, and both flooding and droughts are not uncommon . Much of the coast is under the influence of a variable monsoon climate regime . Summers are humid an d foggy, and the winters very dry with strong winds. Snow usually occurs in just two or three heavy storms, but evaporates quickly, leaving the soil without insulation and consequentl y encouraging the formation of permafrost .