Lake Baikal is the world's oldest and deepest lake. It lies in southern Siberia, its watershed extending across the Mongolian border. Literally millions of hectares of natural and old-growth forest-covered mountains ring the lake. The lake and its environs make one of the largest World Heritage sites on the planet. Both Russians and the indigenous peoples who have lived here for centuries revere Baikal as a sacred lake. It has been a centre- piece of the environmental movement for decades since the Baikal Pulp and Paper Mill was constructed on its southern shore and began to pollute its pure waters. World Heritage status, it is hoped, may finally bring resolution to this contentious problem.

Oldest and Deepest Lake

The lake is indeed old: clay samples taken in 1990 show that Lake Baikal is at least 30 million years old, making it the world's oldest lake, while few lakes in the world are more than a mere 30,000 years.

Lake Baikal is almost 700 kilometers from end to end and its shoreline extends 2,000 kilometers. At its deepest Lake Baikal reaches 1,637 meters in depth and holds 23,000 cubic kilometers of water. By comparison, the largest of the Great Lakes in the US and Canada, Lake Superior, holds only half that amount.

Biodiveristy

Lake Baikal is a self-contained aquatic ecosystem, home to more than 1,500 endemic species found no where else on earth. Among these unique flora and fauna are the Baikal seal, believed to be a relative of the Arctic ringed seal, and the omul, a fish considered to be a delicacy in the region. Some of the plants and animals can be dated to prehistoric times. Saving the lake means saving its watershed and the protective forests that surround it.

Plans for the paper mill at Baikalsk began in 1954. The public was informed in 1957. Protests were held, but twere ingnored. The mill was built on the belief that heating Baikal's mineral-free waters, then spraying them over the pulp of the Siberian pines, would produce a "super" cellulose that could be used to make durable jet tires for Soviet Air Force planes. It now makes ordinary paper and continues to pollute 200 square kilometers of the lake, releasing chlorinated organics from the waste chemicals involved in pulp bleaching.

common tree species: larch Siberian pine spruce birch fir

common animal species: bear deer badger otter sable

region:

• Southern Siberia

indigenous people:

• Buryat
• Evenki
• Dilin
• Yakut

area:

• 8.8 million hectares

ecosystems:

• lake
• boreal
• alpine
• sub-alpine

threats:

• industrial pollution
  
• damming of hydrological systems
  
• logging
  

rare and endangered species:

• Baikal seal
• Baikal fish species
  • golomyanka
  • gobies
  • omul and siganid (salmon-type);
• epishura and gammarid shrimps
• numerous unique protozoa, crustacea (gammarids) and algae.