The paper analyzes the state and dynamics of key actors and institutions that regulate the use of resources within the protected areas of the North Caucasus, using the examples of the Teberda Biosphere Reserve and the Elbrus National Park. The network of protected areas created in the North Caucasus during the Soviet period relied on government support, and the participation of the local population in nature conservation was very limited. After the collapse of the Soviet Union and the demonopolization of state land laws, new actors emerged, such as the local population and business. This has led to an exacerbation of the conflict between the tasks of nature conservation and the interests of business and local communities. The introduction of market mechanisms and the commercialization of the tourism sector threaten the state of protected natural areas (PAs) and require effective ways of land matters regulation. The paper analyzes the question of whether the PA system created in the Soviet era should continue to be exclusively the privilege of the state using a centralized approach to management? The contradictions in legislation and conflicts of nature management have cast doubt on the effectiveness of the system of environmental institutions inherited from the Soviet period. One of the solutions could be the actualization of environmental legislation, bringing it in line with civil and land regulations, as well as the wide involvement of the local communities and the public in the evaluation of economic and legal projects.

Landscape maps of Russia at various scales, including individual cartographic products, maps in scientific papers, and comprehensive scientific-reference atlases, as well as digital spatial data on landscapes, have been inventoried. A review of data sources for landscape-cartographic studies in the area of contemporary Russia from 1959 until now and the results of searching for landscape maps on the Internet are given. Taking the difficulties in searching for analog and digital landscape maps and sets of spatial data on landscapes in libraries, bibliographic publications, and databases into consideration, it is proposed to create a metadata base and provide free access to it on the Landscapes of Russia geoportal. It is aimed at disseminating existing Russian and foreign data sources and integrating geosciences data based on geoportal technologies and web mapping tools. The current status of landscape mapping of land and aquatic areas of Russia (Far East; southern Eastern Siberia; Altai; North Caucasus; and the north, northwest, and center of European Russia) is illustrated by some regional case studies (totaling approximately 60 names), which differ in the available cartographic data. The prospects of future landscape mapping include a further improvement of methods and technologies to obtain remote sensing data, as well as the identification of emergent properties of geosystems. The principles of compilation of landscape maps and of the structure of their analysis are formulated with regard for the system properties of the research object (a special subject of landscape science, which is not limited only to the synthesis of information from geology, geomorphology, pedology, botany, etc.), and for practical needs of nature management.