For more than 50 years during summer and autumn time the numerous groups of amateur tourists and climbers have been rushing to the exceptionally beautiful area near Belukha Mountain. Mainly the tourists use the well-known route ?Yazevoe Village ? Maly Kokkol Waterfall?. As a rule, nobody accompanies the tourists. As a result the number of marks left after bonfires in the most beautiful places keeps increasing, the meadows are trampled down, springs and forest meadows are contaminated with rubbish and fires destroy the habitat of the valuable forest species. As a result, for the last twenty years 50% of reserves of the plants in the foothills of Belukha Mountain have been destroyed. Katon-Karagaisky State National Park is unable to solve these problems alone as it has neither financial, nor labor resources to control every group of numerous tourists. During summer season more than 200 tourist groups pass on this route and some of these groups include up to 80 persons, which is absolutely inadmissible.

In order to preserve the biodiversity of the unique region and for the purpose of ecological education and upbringing of the people, the working group consisting of the members staff of the Ecological and Tourist Center ?TEK?, Katon-Karagaisky National Park, LLP ?Rakhmanovskie Klyuchi? and Public Association ?Altai Guardians? made decision to furnish the route and develop the methodical basis for cognitive excursions and schedule of the recreational programs and give this route a status of the recreational-cognitive ecological path. Availability of tourist shelters and properly equipped camps will decrease substantially the number of groups that leave the path and set their camps on the picturesque forest meadows, hills, river banks and lake shores, thus increasing the anthropogenous factors (trampling down, puddling, littering, setting bonfires, etc.)

Objectives:
1. Concentrate the efforts on development of the planned (organized) tourism in this region with a view to preserve the biodiversity on the territory thereof.
2. Develop the alternative activities for the local residents and involve them into the environment protection activity.
3. Bring the attention of the tourists to the scientific and cognitive value and esthetic significance of the region biodiversity and nurture the environmental friendliness based on the vivid examples of well-furnished ecological path and protected landscape.
4. Organize the ecological education and nurture of the tourists by means of the cognitive excursions and explanation of the rules of conduct.

Expected outcomes:
?Evaluation of the biodiversity in the area of the ecological path.
?Organization of the annual international ecological camp and development of new ecological routes will make it possible to disperse numerous tourists into groups with the numbers of persons that do not impose threat to the biodiversity of the region.
?Development of the planned tourism will enable to form such groups in advance and set for them different routes without overloading them.
?Establishment of the guest houses and provision of service to the tourists by the local people will allow raising their living standards and creating additional jobs.
?Organization of the recreational-cognitive ecological path will create prerequisites for the efficient ecological education of the tourists connected with organization of the active cognitive rest, reduce the recreational loading on the surrounding natural landscapes and promote restoration and presentation of the region biodiversity in general.
?Organization of cognitive excursions and information and explanatory activity carried out by the ecological brigade of specially trained instructors and public instructors will allow raising the cultural level of the National Park visitors, especially of young people that do not have sufficient tourist practice.
?Development of the institutional relations by means of agreed solution of the imposed objectives between the interested parties with a view to preserve the biodiversity of the region through development of the ecological tourism.