Geology, geography and global energy

Scientific and Technical Journal

NATURE MANAGEMENT OF THE LANDSCAPES OF THE WESTERN CAUCASUS AND THEIR DEVELOPMENT BY THE COSSACKS

2021. №1, pp. 87-94

Litvinskaya Svetlana A. - Institute of Geography, Geology, Tourism and Service, Kuban State University, Krasnodar, Stavropol st., 149

In an article on historical documents of the XVIII-XIX centuries the landscapes of the Western Caucasus are being restored before its settlement by the Cossacks. The information is collected and the characteristics of the plain steppe, forest-steppe, delta-flooded and foothill-mountain landscapes are given. Historical documents allow tracing the processes of degradation and replacement of natural landscapes under anthropogenic pressure. The peculiarities of natural resource use of migrants and the beginning of violations of natural resources are shown. The development of the Kuban Territory by the Black Sea Cossacks begins in 1792. Show the change of economy in the steppe and foothill landscapes. The leading position in the economy of the Black Sea Cossacks was occupied by stock raising. The development of the mountainous part of the Western Caucasus by the Cossacks developed in a different way than the steppes of the Ciscaucasia. From the middle of the XIX century intensive agricultural colonization of the Kuban plain and foothills begins, which changed the structure of local agriculture. By the 90s of the XIX century. the primary forest vegetation was almost completely destroyed. XIX century went down in the history of natural ecosystems and society as the century of the beginning of social upheavals and transformations of natural landscapes under the influence of man.

Key words: Western Caucasus, steppe landscapes, forest-steppe, flooded, mountain-forest, Cossacks, nature management, transformation

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