This paper aims to identify details of interaction and mutual influence of tourism and transport infrastructure development using a combination of sociological and statistical methods. For the analysis, five key sites were selected in several parts of Siberia, differing in natural, socio-economic, and ethnocultural quality, but possessing the presence of compact indigenous communities that reproduce traditional forms of both cultural life and economic activity. While each community has its own unique culture and resources for development, several similar characteristics were revealed. It has been revealed that tourists themselves and workers of the tourism sector, including local residents, are unequivocal supporters of transportation system development. A significant part of the population, recognizing the need and advantages of having a well-functioning transport infrastructure, expresses a negative attitude towards easy accessibility of the territory for outsiders who violate the rules and regime for usage of natural resources and augment economic and cultural competition for the local population. Understanding key processes of interrelations, both explicit and hidden, concomitant to socioeconomic development of remote indigenous communities, with the simultaneous development of tourism and transport, allows the authors to propose a model outline of attitudes of local communities towards tourist and transport perspectives in the territory of their residence.

Modern network science has become a prominent concept, attracting diverse scientific societies to solve a wide spectrum of theoretical and practical problems. Tourism is a sphere wherein the outlines of the network’s scope are distinct. In the study, the network approach was applied in its dual form for both network-like regional tourism data (NLRTD) and network-unlike regional tourism data (NURTD), to explore the tourism destination of Baikal natural territory, Russia, in regard to the challenges of the general sustainability of regional socio-ecological systems. The aim of the study is to elaborate a comprehensive network platform to harmonize such complex and fragile systems as Baikal natural territory. Saturated with networking ideology, the approach spans a huge set of interacting social, technological and ecological elements of the comprehensive system in order to support its functionality and sustainability in general. Particularly, the paper utilizes data from interviews done in Olkhon island (2017–2018), and publicly available textual, spatial and temporal data. NLRTD with pertinent networkization procedures was utilized in transportation schemes, while the NURTD concept implies the networkalization of landscape and land use maps. The platform provides researchers and stakeholders with concentrated information which might be not only effectively processed, but also intelligible, and correctly compared and implemented in contiguous spheres.

The paper reveals opportunities and limitations of tourism development in one of the most inaccessible areas in the mountains of Southern Siberia: Todzhinsky kozhuun, Republic of Tyva, RF. Taking into account key indicators that reflect the natural, historical, cultural, and socio-economic characteristics of the territory, using GIS technologies, a comprehensive assessment and mapping of the tourism and recreational potential (TRP) of the territory was carried out. The method of multicomponent scoring was used in this work. Consequentially, the study area was divided by means of a regular hexagonal network into many operational territorial cells; for each of those, the sum of scores was calculated according to the conditions and objects that are localized within its boundaries. The set of operational territorial cells filled with visual information made it possible to create an assessment map of the tourism and recreational potential of the Todzhinsky kozhuun territory. This map highlights the areas of the five value ranks, from the highest to the lowest. The areas with the highest scores are obviously the most suitable for the development of tourism industry. In general, the basis of the region’s TRP is picturesque virgin natural landscapes with many large lakes, unique traditional ethnocultural landscapes of the mountain–taiga reindeer herders, biological resources for hunting and fishing, and healing mineral springs (arzhany). The key limiting factor in the development of tourism is the underdeveloped transportation system and the insufficiency of special tourism infrastructure facilities. Such an assessment made it possible to identify territories favorable for the creation of three specialized tourist clusters: ethnocultural tourism, “Reindeer herders of Todzhi”; water, ecological, and fishing tourism, “Todzha Lakes”; and mountain and sports tourism, “Big Sayan”.

Transport provision in remote territories is one of the most important factors in maintaining the sustainability of socio-economic and ecological systems. Indigenous peoples of Siberia have always been mobile using diverse traditional ways across the taiga. During the Soviet period, the transition to settled life, along with technological development and the emergence of new modes of transport, such as off-road cars, snowmobiles, and motor boats, significantly affected the level of population mobility, including remote areas where people are engaged in traditional nature management. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, there were significant changes and reductions in the subsidies of transportation systems for remote terrains that made them isolated. Transport connectivity has been realized through rare plane flights (once a month or less) or by cars on dirt roads (actually off-road) that take several days of travel. Siberian territories rich with natural resources, low population density, and weak infrastructure might be attractive for mining companies. Being difficult to access not only for the local population, but also for industrial companies, the territories imply the allocation of a significant share of road construction and transport costs in the cost items of miners and processors. The problems of sustainability and resilience of the indigenous peoples of Siberia require special attention when restructuring transport communications, but they have practically not been studied before. Methods of in-depth and group interviews with local residents were used. Based on comparative geographic and statistical analysis and generalization of data, network and problem approaches applied for various sources and field materials (including in-depth and group interviews), the factors of sustainability and resilience, which the indigenous communities of three remote Siberian territories pin their hopes on in the context of the transformation of transportation infrastructure, have been identified. If geographic remoteness remains an unchanged fact, the expansion of desired transport accessibility (mainly due to investments by industrial companies) is associated by locals with the possibility of additional income related to provision of services, the emergence of new types of employment of the population that have not been observed before, and the implementation of new transport modes to support traditional activities.

Cryosphere has a global role as a biogeophysical phenomenon. It affects the livelihoods of people inhabiting permafrost areas and is affected by human activity within and outside of the cryosphere’s geographical span. ‘Frozen commons’ (FCs) are cryosphere resources and landscapes, defined by snow, ice, and permafrost, that are experienced, used, protected and managed by groups of people together. This paper highlights collaboration between herders and scientists aimed at improving the understanding of FCs in northern Mongolia, a region of rapid cryosphere transformation. The impact of climate change on Indigenous and pastoralist communities in Mongolia is profound, leading to the damage or loss of FCs critical to local livelihoods. Therefore, Indigenous and local knowledge becomes crucial in assessing and predicting the climate-driven dynamics of FCs. In 2022, 2023, 2024 a team of permafrost scientists, geographers, and economists conducted interviews in reindeer and cattle herder camps in Khövsgöl Aimag (Province) located in the northern part of Mongolia. Local livelihoods do not depend only on cattle, which allows us to examine a variety of animal–environment interactions and impacts on pastoralism. The analysis of interviews indicates that FCs are a vital resource for the Khövsgöl communities and holds significant importance in their daily lives. Permafrost plays a key role for herders as it provides water resources for pastures and local rivers, which is critical during dry summers. Ice and snow also have many uses, such as a source of water, winter transport and the basis of cultural events. As winters become shorter and ice conditions become less predictable, the sustainability and availability of these resources for local people are under threat. In light of these challenges, it is imperative to formulate climate adaptation and mitigation strategies through collaborative efforts that actively involve and respect the perspectives of Indigenous and local people.