All chapters:

Introduction

Climate

Waters and water management

Ecosystems and ecoregions

Species diversity and use of biological resources

Nature conservation: econet and protected areas

Countries & cultures

Economy

Land use

International policy

The total population of Russia in 2002 was about 145 million, of which some 5.5 to 6.5 million people lived in provinces that overlap or lie within the Amur-Heilong basin. In these provinces, about 4 to 4.5 million people actually live in the Amur-Heilong basin and the remaining 2 million people live outside the basin, mainly on the Pacific coast and in the Lake Baikal area. The 2002 population census showed a decline of more than 15 percent from the early 1980s. This was due mainly to emigration from the region to other parts of Russia and the former Soviet Union where standards of living are higher.

Three broad demographic zones – south, central, and north – are evident in the eastern part of RFE based on population density, length of settlement, ethnic composition, population dynamics, and living conditions. In general, both population density and numbers of cities decline from south to north. While the southern zone has 24 cities, the northern zone has none. Similarly, population density is nearly 15/km² in the south, but only 0.5/km² in the north. The average population density in southern RFE is 3.5/km².

The western demographic zone is represented by Chitinskaya Oblast and Aginsky Buryatsky Autonomous Region (ABAR). Recent depopulation in these provinces is particularly severe in the south, a pattern distinct from that in the other demographic zones. This is mainly because settlements and infrastructure in Chita province, like the other Russian Amur Basin provinces, are located along the Tran-Siberian Railroad.

A particular feature of the RFE is that despite the large share of people living in cities, most are closely linked to natural resource use by:

•  direct or indirect (through a member of the family) participation in the natural resource sector of the economy (nearly half of the population);

•  traditional natural resource use by indigenous peoples (one percent of the population);

•  leisure time and vacations in nature, sport hunting, and collecting berries and mushrooms for personal use and for sale (one-third of the urban population and nearly all of the rural population); and

•  growing vegetables for personal use and to sell on plots outside the city (one third of the urban population and nearly all of the rural population).