Baikal Starts the Year of Specially Protected Natural Areas

On January 11, 2017, the head of the Ministry for the Protection of the Environment and Natural Resources of Russia, Sergey Donskoy, is going to take part in the opening of the visit-centre of the Baikal Reserve.

The opening of the visit-centre «Baikal Reserve» and the ecological and tourist complex will mark the start of the Year of Specially Protected Natural Areas. During the event, the participants will have a look at the new objects of the Baikal State Natural Biosphere Reserve (the Republic of Buryatia) and take part in the discussion of the urgent problems of Lake Baikal conservation as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, as well as the biological and landscape diversity of the Baikal Natural Area. The participants of the discussion include the head of the Republic of Buryatia, Vyacheslav Nagovytsin, the governor of the Irkutsk Region, Sergey Levchenko, and the heads of the Specially Protected Natural Areas and Baikal management of the Federal Service for Supervision of Natural Resource Usage.

Let us remind you that on January 11, 1917, the first national reserve in the history of Russia was open – the Barguzin Nature Reserve on the coast of Lake Baikal. The reserve, created to protect the Barguzin sable, the population of which dramatically dropped in the beginning of the twentieth century, still continues its work.

In total, today there are over 12 thousand Specially Protected Natural Areas of different levels and categories in Russia. The federal system of Specially Protected Natural Areas, which has been formed for almost 100 years, at this stage includes 103 state natural reserves, 47 national parks, 67 federal sanctuaries. The whole area of all federal Specially Protected Natural Areas covers almost 3% of the territory of Russia, while the Specially Protected Natural Areas of all categories cover 11%.

Photo by www.baikal-zapovednik.ru