Improving Economic Instruments for Water Resources Management in the Republic of Buryatia
(Lake Baikal Basin)
A major challenge facing the Republic of Buryatia, subject of the Russian Federation,
is how to balance the task of protecting Lake Baikal – a unique water object and ecological
system included in the UNESCO list of World Natural Heritage Areas – with the need
for dynamic and sustainable socio-economic development of the republic. This requires
streamlining and improving water policy jointly with economic, administrative, information
and other policy instruments. The recommendations in this report aim to help achieve
this objective. They include the introduction of abstraction charges for irrigation
water as a natural resource; enhancement of state support to the water sector; and
improvement of economic instruments for managing risks of water-related hazards (such
as compulsory insurance and differentiated land tax rates in flood prone areas). A
few innovative instruments are also recommended for pilot testing such as establishing
limits for discharges of certain hazardous substances in a pilot area (e.g. Selenga
river basin) and progressive development of market for tradable quotas for discharges
of the “capped” pollutants; and introducing a charge (tax) on toxic agricultural chemicals
(pesticides, herbicides, etc.) and synthetic detergents so that to create incentives
for the reduction of diffuse water pollution.
Published on November 15, 2016Also available in: Russian