Discovering Kamchatka
12’10”
A Report by Eric Campbell
Kamchatka,,
view from helicopter |
Music Campbell: As the mist clears on a new day, Yuri Dubik
flies to work. |
01.00.00.00 00.12 |
|
His
office, for the next few hours, a giant Soviet built helicopter, will take
him to a world of awesome but dangerous beauty. |
00.18 |
Kamchatka
volcanoes |
In
Kamchatka, Creation has not yet ended. |
00.35 |
|
Yuri: You can see it not only in the volancos, but
also in the earthquakes that occur here often. For us it’s wonderful because
we are professional who work on the volcanos. But for those that live here
it’s a real danger |
00.38 |
Kamchatka
map |
Music |
00.58 |
Campbell
and Yuri in helicopter |
Campbell: Yuri first came here as a young scientist
32 years ago. He’s been captivated ever since. The lure was a chain of almost
500 volcanoes. |
1.17 |
|
Yuri
took me over some of the 29 that are still active. Their immense subterranean
heat sending steam through the ice and snow. |
1.27 |
|
Music |
1.36 |
|
Campbell: Our destination was a volcanic lake named
Karymski, recently covered by fresh lava after a giant eruption. |
1.46 |
|
Yuri: It was an exceptional eruption, because the
eruption took place here. All this lake was boiled and steaming. |
2.00 |
|
Campbell: After two and a half years it’s still
steaming. |
2.12 |
|
Yuri: Yeah. And that lake is still warmer than it
should be. |
2.14 |
Yuri
at lake |
Campbell: Until recently, Yuri could rarely share his
passion for Kamchatka, or even use the rudimentary English his mother taught
him as a child. |
2.25 |
|
Yuri: This is real moon surface. Small craters,
there’s boulders, all things. |
2.38 |
|
Campbell: Amazing place. |
2.47 |
Lake |
Campbell: For the west it might as well have been on
the moon. There were no foreigners among the small closed community of
scientists, fishermen and military. |
2.53 |
|
Kamchatka
was a spectacle of nature sealed off by politics. |
3.03 |
|
Music |
3.10 |
|
Campbell: If the world had gone to war it would
probably have started here. Radar stations track the north Pacific sky, ready
to alert MIG fighter jets for quick and merciless attacks. |
3.18 |
|
The
peninsula was dotted with military bases and a nuclear powered fleet. |
3.32 |
|
Even
Soviet citizens needed special permits to visit. |
3.40 |
|
Like
most of Russia Kamchatka can no longer rely on the state it defended. The Military are still here the troops and
officers are lucky to even get their wages. The 270,000 residents of the
capital, Petrapavlous have felt the collapse of the soviet state harder than
most. |
3.50 |
|
Beaurocrats
in distant Moscow, nine time zones to the West, did nothing to prepare them
for life after the cold war. The Kamchatkas authorities believe Moscow’s
neglect may prove to be it’s salvation. The legacy of military occupation is
that their environment is almost unspoilt.
The years of military restrictions kept out development as well. |
4.11 |
Vice
Governor |
I’m
happy to say that the destruction that occurred in Russia over the years
never reached Kamchatka. |
4.36 |
Vice
Governor getting into helicopter |
Vice
Governor Vladimir Balakayev has a dream. It’s not of helicopters transporting
troops or vulcanologists, but wealthy – even armed – western tourists. |
4.48 |
|
Vladimir: We realise that we still can’t attract
large groups of tourists to Kamchatka. It’s due to the fact that our tourism
infrastructure isn’t up to scratch. Everyone in Kamchatka is ready to welcome
tourists from all corners of the world by starting with an amateur tourist
industry but ending up with a professional one. |
4,59 |
View
from helicopter |
Music |
5.26 |
Businessmen
in helicopter |
Campbell: On this second helicopter ride, the
passengers were European businessmen holding an out of the way convention. |
5.35 |
|
Most
were keen on enjoying nature, though some were more intent on killing it. Two
of the men had paid $5,000 extra to go bear hunting. |
5.42 |
Yuri
and Campbell disembark helicopter |
As
yet, helicopters are the only way to travel around Kamchatka. The Soviet
military only built roads to connect their bases, not the remote town and
settlements. |
5.52 |
|
But
even at this embryonic stage, where tourism is confined to the rich and
occasionally bloodthirsty, a small trickle is becoming a steady stream. |
6.03 |
|
FX: Geyser |
6.15 |
|
Campbell: Until 1941, nobody had ever seen the Valley
of the Geysers. The area was so remote it was only discovered after
scientists stumbled across it during a long overland trek. Now, as many as
four helicopters a day are bringing tourists. |
6.20 |
Valley
of the Geysers |
Scientists
still come to study one of the world’s biggest concentrations of geysers and
hot springs. But for them such field trips are now rare events. |
6.41 |
|
Their
shrinking budgets have to stretch to buying seats on tourist flights. Even
so, Yuri shows little resentment that his once exclusive domain has been
thrown on the private market. |
6.52 |
Yuri
interview |
Yuri: I think this peninsula can survive after
great earthquakes, eruptions. So, I hope that it can stand the peoples too.
But it depends on people of course. On their education, ecological education,
on their mentality. : |
7.08 |
|
Campbell: Yuri hopes to see visits that go beyond
hunting and sightseeing to eco-tourism.
Something that might give work to scientific guides as well as
business people. |
7.37 |
|
Yuri
: In my experience I met many, many people who are interested, to know new
things. So they came not only to see the landscapes, beautiful landscapes, but to know more
about the earth and this is the right place for these purposes |
7.51 |
|
Campbell:
The concrete horror of the soviet Petrapalous capital ? is testament to the
soviets stunning disregard for the physical environment. Across the soviet
union authorities dug up or developed everything they could in the process
destroying most of the country. The
post soviet authorities here face a choice – do they continue to protect the
environment at any cost or start digging? . |
8,22 |
|
Music |
8.48 |
|
Campbell :The one thousand kilometer peninsula holds an abundance of
minerals and high quality forests. |
8.54 |
|
|
|
|
Music |
8.59 |
|
Campbell: So far development has been small
scale, unlike in the rest of Russia where corrupt local administrations have
raced to strip the regions resources and split the proceeds. Vice Governor ? promises that won’t happen
here. |
9.04 |
|
Vice
Governor: The first thing we did about the development of mineral resources
was to say that the natural environment found today in Kamchatka must be
protected. Therefore all projects linked to the gold-ore industry in
Kamchatka are watched over by ecologists. And the search for technology in
Kamchatka done through Canadian, American, and Australia companies, and
others, must not harm our rivers, our fish or our natural environment. |
9.20 |
|
Campbell:
For once a local government might actually mean it. |
9.57 |
|
The
big timber and mining interests have
less influence than other parts of Russia. Kamchakas isolation and lack of roads make
logging and mining much more
expensive. |
10.03 |
|
A
far stronger lobby here is the fishing industry which is solemnly opposed to
development. |
10.16 |
|
Salmon
isn’t just abundance here it’s almost
embarrassingly easy to catch and fishermen like Alexander Barayin want to
keep it that way. |
10.28 |
|
While
Russia has lax rules for protecting fish stocks, in Kamchatka they’re stronger than anywhere else in the
country. Logging can’t take place
within 300 metres of a river. It’s
totally forbidden near areas where fish spawn. |
10.41 |
|
I
think we will be able to resist the temptation to sell the territory as some
kind of easy solution or to get rich oe to get help from sponsorship. We have
the goal of leaving something for our children. |
10.57 |
|
Music |
11.27 |
|
Campbell: Like everywhere in Russia, Kamchatka faces
an uncertain and precarious future. But this is one place that could rise
above the post-Communist fate of decline and decay. |
11.34 |
|
Simple
economics is guiding it towards a post-Soviet rarity – preservation of a
wilderness for generations to come. |
11.51 |
|
Music |
12.00 |
Negus |
Negus: Eric Campbell there in the spectacular
wilds of Kamchatka peninsula. And that’s our program for another week. Hope
to see you again next week for more of Foreign Correspondent. Ciao. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
KAMCHATKA Reporter ERIC CAMPBELL Camera TONY DE CESARE DEAN
JOHNSON Sound VIACHESLAV ZELENIN Editor GARTH
THOMAS |
28:48:09 |