State and use of land resources in the Republic of Tuva of the Russian Federation

Abstract

The area of the Republic is 168,604 km2 (3.28% of the territory of the Siberian Federal district, 0.98% of the area of the Russian Federation - the 20th in terms of area). Tuva basin, stretching more than 400 km from West to East along the Yenisei river, is an open hilly steppe space, located at altitudes from 500 to 1200 m. Mountain ranges, crossing it, divide the basin conditionally into three parts: Chemchik, Ulug-Khem and Turano-Uyuk. Of the total land area, most of the land is classified as forest land (64.5%), agricultural land accounts for 19.9% of the main specialization of livestock (mainly sheep and dairy cattle, goat and horse breeding). The area of farmland is more than 4.5 million hectares. The peculiarity of the pastures of Tuva is the ability to use their considerable part all year round for grazing cattle and livestock. In the conditions of the high-altitude zone, a wide variety of types of territories determines the nature of land use. As we approach the mountain-foothill landscapes, the degree of development of the territory decreases, the share of agricultural land, the share of intensive types of agricultural land use (arable land, intensive crop rotations and so on) decrease. As the height increases, the cadastral value of land plots should be reduced, which is caused by an increase in the possibility of dangerous geomorphological, climatic, neotectonics, hydrological processes and an increase in the complexity of agricultural land use. In this regard, the basis for the formation of agricultural land use in the conditions of high-altitude zones should be the similarity of the types of natural environment.