Vegetation as a factor in the system of natural environment preservation of Prebaikalia

A central role in the formation of the natural environment of Prebaikalia is played by vegetation having the environment-forming and environment-protective functions. Nowadays, it is experiencing ever increasing anthropogenic impacts which lead to disturbances in its structure and decrease its ecological potential. This creates certain challenges of a local and regional character, because the main territory of the region is within the zone of atmospheric influence and within the western portion of the central ecological zone of the Baikal natural territory focus on preserving the ecosystem of Lake Baikal as the UNESCO World Natural Heritage site. Therefore, the main direction of nature conservation activity aimed at improving the quality of the region’s natural environment remains focused on the preservation and recovery and of its primary vegetation. Some measures are suggested concerning ecologically oriented nature management in Prebaikalia. We have defined the goals for the scientific accompaniment of the measures for the preservation of vegetation as an important factor of the environmental quality. The paper demonstrates the effectiveness of integrated study into the entire florocenotic diversity of modern vegetation, its evolutionary-genetic basis and the ecological and dynamical potentials of plant communities for the purposes of forecasting the ecologically oriented development of the region’s natural environment. The recommendations are formulated in accordance with the State Ecological Program for the period until 2030. The map entitled “Protection of vegetation in Prebaikalia (recommendations for optimization of the ecological policy)” has been developed, which provides information on territories with a different environmental quality having regard to the ecological potential. The legend includes the following parts of the map: special preservation of primary vegetation (full and partial), recovery of disturbed vegetation (active and passive recovery of primary forests), and economic rational (ecologically oriented) use of vegetation.