Become a sponsor of the "Great Baikal Trail"

An ambitious project in a fascinating and unique region of our planet needs sponsors! We're looking for people, who want to take up a sponsorship of small segments of the "Great Baikal Trail" in order to support soft tourism around Lake Baikal and to protect the biggest and most beautiful lake on earth. The "Great Baikal Trail" (GBT) is a hiking trail all around Lake Baikal, which - with its planned length of 1800 km - will be one of the longest and most impressive trails in the world. The trail connects 6 national parks and preservation areas, and it also functions as a link between the eastern Russian Steppe and the Mongolian highlands. A complete hike around the lake would take about 100 days - that is more than 3 months – but you would get the chance to experience a landscape whose flora and fauna are unique in the world. The goal of this project is to find a way to enable people to explore the region by foot as "soft tourists", and to provide the people living in that area with an economic perspective that doesn't include irreparable exploitation of Lake Baikal. Only if the interest in the preservation of the "blue pearl of Siberia" with its intact wilderness remains strong do developments threatening the environment, such as the construction of power plants, pipelines and factories along the shores of Lake Baikal, have a hard time gaining ground.

Soft Tourism is the only way to bring economic interests in line with conservation and environmentalism. The GBT is an international project which was initiated by Russian partners with worldwide support. And you can be a part of it, too! You can acquire this unique sponsorship for yourself or your company or even as a present for friends and acquaintances. With your sponsorship donation, you purchase a symbolic part of the "Great Baikal Trail", and as a little thanks you will get a high-quality color certificate with "your" part of the GTB on a map, including your name or the name of the person the present is for. For donations of 100 Euro and more, you will also get a 20x30 cm picture from our illustrated book called "Baikal - Faszination und Mythos Sibiriens" (Baikal - Fascination and Myth). All sponsors are mentioned in the detailed description of this project.

The money from your sponsorship will be used during the construction season 2005 for creating and marking the trails as well as for the compilation of map material and the building of simple refuges. Of course, we will write out a receipt for the tax-deductible donations where necessary. In order to obtain more information about the "Great Baikal Trail" as well as the sponsorship application form (sent via mail), please, choose one of the following contact options: email: info@baikalplan.de phone/fax: +49 (0)351-4276620 address: Conertplatz 18 01159 Dresden Germany You can also download the sponsorship application form as a .pdf file.