The article focuses on the environmental consequences of abandoning rural life, increasing urbanization and the problem of deforestation in the Baikal region, Russia. Specifically, it analyzes a recently proposed “Social Flock” project of the Buryat Buddhist community for the revival of nomadic cattle breeding in the districts of Buryatia, and its potential impact on the environment. We argue that taking into consideration the global value of the Lake Baikal, the “Social Flock” project can not only satisfy the practical needs of people and reduce the social aspects of environmental problems in Buryatia, but also potentially contribute to dealing with environmental problems of global importance.

The article deals with the issues of anthropogenic impact on natural landscapes of the Baikal region through mining and agricultural development of the region. A brief description of environmental problems of the region is given, the impact of human activities on the environment of the Baikal region is assessed. The authors take into consideration specific cases of harmful environmental management that can lead to ecological disbalance and landscape degradation. In such a way, the scale and nature of mining increased significantly in recent years. In order to preserve the natural landscape, it is necessary to carry out geological work with minimum losses, and perform thorough environmental and geochemical expertise. In agriculture, harsh natural conditions of Transbaikalia (sharp continental climate, low rainfall) necessitate more efficient farming methodsmelioration, which is aimed at radical improvement of land, however, fails at times.

The increase of ethnocultural and ethnoconfessional interactions in the context of modern cultural and religious diversity of Russia demands modernization of learning process according to the existing educational policy of multicultural education and defines the relevancy of the article. The purpose of the article is to analyze retrospectively the functioning of Buddhist religious education system in the Republic of Buryatia taking into account the multicultural component. The central methods in this research along with analysis, synthesis, abstraction, induction, deduction, generalization are the analysis of interactive documents and the method of case-study, an active problem-contextual analysis. The article briefly characterizes the main stages of Buddhist education development and the current religious situation in the Republic of Buryatia, reveals the peculiarities of introducing the subjects studying the basics of religious cultures and secular ethics in educational process, defines national and territorial characteristics of Buddhist education implementation in secular schools in the Republic of Buryatia, justifies its preventive educational potential for multicultural society. The study material can be useful for orientalist scholars and also both theorists and practitioners of general pedagogics, Buddhist and multicultural education.

Searching for identity has never been straightforward -not at any time nor at any place. Our doctoral program "Searching for Identity: Global Challenges, Local Traditions" did not defi ne a priori the concept of identity, nor the meaning of searching for it. Despite these doubts, our joints eff orts and searches, discussions and disputes, proved to be helpful in building our research project. That is why for the topic of my fi nal refl ection I chose my own experience in searching for the identity of a nation, specifi cally the Polish nation. I wish to explain how I have reached a systemic conceptualization of the matter -and what results from it.National identity is sometimes understood as belonging -that is, a feeling of participation within a community that is a nation. Members would thus accept their national identity from the community -regardless of whether ethnic-natural roots are posited for the nation's identity, or if the community was simply imagined. These identities are accepted and imagined in diverse ways, depending on the changing circumstances, and scientifi c disciplines have developed diff ering approaches to the matter 1 According to Edgar Morin, "Le terme de dialogique veut dire que deux ou plusieurs logique, deux principes sont unis sans que la dualité se perde dans cette unite."

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