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“A little money spoils the body, and a lot of money spoils the soul. A man is in great trouble… What is he going to keep his soul in if he corrupts his body? And what should he keep in a healthy body if he is left without a soul?”
This aphorism by a famous Serbian writer and radio host, Dushan Radovic, came into my mind after I visited Katon Karagay in Eastern Kazakhstan and talked to the people developing tourism there.
Katon Karagay is a region in the Altay mountains, one of the longest mountain chains in Asia that stretches for two thousand kilometres through Kazakhstan, Russia, China and Mongolia.
Unlike most of Kazakhstan, which is scorched in summers and frozen solid in winters, Katon is green with picturesque forests on lower mountain slopes and eternal glaciers on the higher peaks.
Those glaciers melt to create a whole web of pristine, even drinkable creeks and rivulets. There are many waterfalls and several crystal-clear mountain lakes. In other words, a piece of paradise on Earth that you can compare to places like the Swiss Alps or the American Rocky Mountains.
It is also one of the few places on the planet undisturbed by the tourists who come to enjoy nature unmarred by the tourists. And therein lies a problem.
Fighting depopulation with education and ecotourism
Being so high in the mountains, the region is isolated from the rest of the world. It takes six to eight hours by car to get there from the nearest airport in the city of Ust Kamenogorsk.
In recent years, Katon has seen significant depopulation. The number of inhabitants fell from almost 40,000 to 17,000. In many villages, only old people remain, and the usual story is that 15 to 20 people are dying in a village every year, with only 5 babies being born.
People leave for bigger cities mainly because of the lack of educational, health and transport infrastructure. A successful businessman who was born in Katon organised a fund to help reverse this trend and develop Katon.
“The people who left were saying they were not worried about themselves but about their children. They wanted better education and future for them. And so our project appeared that was initially aimed at improving schools,” says Fatima Gerfamova, the Director of the Social Fund for Sustainable Development of Rural Areas.
“We secured the expertise of the best school in the country, the Nazarbayev Intellectual School, and they came to help local schools. If the schools meet the conditions, they will stay for three years and analyse them, find out about the level of education in each subject and then train teachers and make curricula.
“And those three schools in Katon now show progress and good results. For instance, in 2019 we had only three pupils participating in national contests, in 2024, there is 200.”
But the depopulation problem goes beyond education. Educated children are the first to leave. It’s about the financial well-being.
The economy of Katon Karagay is basically selling what nature gave: non-timber forest products, deer herding, honey production, natural medicine and scenery, that is, tourism. And tourism is what the local government wants to develop first.
“Tourism is one of the key directions of development, especially environmental, ethno-cultural, therapeutic kinds of tourism. In parallel, we will develop agriculture, including bee-keeping and growing wild herbs. We will support local entrepreneurship, old crafts and social initiatives,” the governor of the East Kazakhstan Region, Nurymbet Saktaganov, confirms.
Locals can’t wait to get tourists, but they’re afraid
Driving to Katon, we see a lot of construction. A new road is being built. And an airport that will save you those six hours of torment on the road from Ust Kamenogorsk.
“The completion of the runway and attached infrastructure is planned for the end of the year. The airport is strategically important as it opens new horizons for tourism development,” says Governor Saktaganov.
“We are actively negotiating with airline companies, both national and foreign, and they already express interest in introducing seasonal and charter flights.”
So, the pristine, peaceful lakes Rakhmanovskoe and Karakol, whose glass-still waters mirror eternally white peaks of the Beluha mountain, may soon be easy to get to. For me and for many thousands of other people who appreciate nature but can’t help but disturb it.
Will I be able to hear the call of the moose from the other bank through the mist that floats on the surface of the lake at dawn? Will there be any moose, wild goats, deer and snow leopards, or will they be scared away by the new resort and its nightclubs?
The locals can’t wait to get more tourists, but are afraid of them at the same time. Everyone fears that mass tourism might spoil nature, disturb the peace and destroy the local way of life. But it is this way of life that young people have been fleeing from. And so, there is a debate.
“Every year we organise a big gathering of the local people where we inform them about our budget, our plans and the plans of the local authorities for the development of tourism and infrastructure. You have seen the bad state of the roads and we are now trying to improve healthcare in the villages because it is difficult to travel,” says Fatima Gerfamova.
“When it comes to development, we always face a lot of criticism. Some people want more tourism, some do not. We try to convince them that we want to organise sustainable tourism that will not have an adverse effect on the nature. We know that we are obliged to leave our land to our children in a better condition than we inherited it in.”
“This is why we have developed a plan for the green region of Kazakhstan, the one which will have zero emissions and minimal waste. At the same time, without tourism, there may be no one to leave our land to,” Fatima Gerfamova adds.
Locals are turning their homes into guesthouses
There is already tourism in Katon Karagay. Tens of thousands of people, from Kazakhstan, Russia and the European Union, come every year to enjoy the untouched nature.
Fatima Gerfamova’s fund and Tourism Kazakhstan have organised a number of workshops for the local people to teach them how to join the hospitality industry. The provincial government extended grants.
Reluctant at first, the locals have now turned many of their old traditional homes into guest houses. Some have even erected ancestral yurts to accommodate guests. They sell homemade food, honey and other products.
Traditional healing is popular as well. Damir Kalikan has turned his isolated household into a medical centre of a very unique kind. Like generations before him, even during the Soviet Union, he herds deer. But unlike his ancestors, he does not keep them for meat but for their antlers.
“In spring, deer start to grow new antlers. Those fresh antlers are called “panty”. They are soft and full of blood. They are also full of substances that boost growth, including thirteen different amino acids. This is why they can grow five centimetres a day. Those substances all have healing powers,” explains Damir, who has built a traditional medicine spa.
In it, people, some of whom come from Switzerland and Germany, take baths in hot tubs filled with “panty” bullion. The doctor in the spa claims it heals neurological disorders, painful joints, skin diseases and prostate problems. The spa is currently in the process of replacing the old guest houses with new, luxurious ones.
“Of course I want tourists and I want it to be easy for them to come,” says Damir, offering his own sustainability model.
“We are full as it is, and I think that we will simply improve our amenities and service, offer more luxury and then increase prices, go towards exclusive tourism. In that way, we will earn the same but prevent mass tourism.
“Because mass tourism will create a mess, there will be no peace and rest, which is what the people come for.”
Does Katon Karagay need tourism limits?
Another tourism worker, Anatoly Slavitchev, whose project ‘Kat’n’Go’ focuses on individual tours for people who want to shake off urban stress, often watches protests against tourism in Venice, Barcelona and other European hot spots.
“Our guests are people from the big cities. They come here, as we say, ‘without a face’, tired and stressed. They constantly have the feeling that they have something to finish and that there is some looming disaster waiting to happen,” he says as we sway along the dirt tractor road that is challenging even for our sturdy off-road vehicle.
“Here, these forests, pastures and rivers unwind them, they slow down, take a moment to reflect on their lives and the world. No one would be able to do that with another thousand people making noise around them.”
I point out that the road is bad and that they are lucky the new asphalt will be announced soon.
“Ironically, that bad road is what is saving Katon Karagay,” he replies.
He believes that there should be some kind of control over the number of tourists and thinks about online ticket sales or permits for entry into the national park. But he fears that the decision may not be left solely to the local people. If infrastructure develops, there will be other players interested in earning from tourism.
“The big industry is not interested in the local way of life. They do not care about the people and what they need. They are only interested in profit,” says Slavitchev.
“Local projects like ours, we include local people, we work with them, and we can enable them to earn money. I believe that the only way for us here is sustainable tourism, focused on conscientious clients who are only interested in relaxing while respecting nature.”
‘We do not strive to have mass tourism’
The governor of East Kazakhstan assures the local population that they have nothing to fear as he is on the same page with them.
“This is a really important issue. We know how fragile the ecosystem of the Katon Karagay National Park is. And that’s exactly the reason why our approach is based on sustainable tourism,” says Governor Saktaganov.
“We intend to control the number of visits to the areas under special protection with the system of permits. We will also educate tourists and involve local population in the active system of environmental protection.
“We do not strive to have mass tourism. Our goal is to save the uniqueness of Katon and secure its attractiveness in the long run.”
Driving to the Rakhmanovskoe lake, we discuss the ways to limit the number of tourists but still allow each child in Kazakhstan to use their right to visit this corner of their country. Everyone is positive that this is doable.
But the conversation somehow dies when we pass by the big Chinese bulldozers felling the trees to make way for the new asphalt road leading to the most beautiful lake.
