July 27, 2018 was a significant day in the history of the Prioksko-Terrasny state biosphere reserve – on this day the reserve’s security zone was put on cadastral register as a zone with special conditions for use of the territory.
To understand the importance of this event, first a little dig deeper into the story. The Prioksko-Terras state reserve was established in 1945 as one of the five parts of the Moscow Nature Reserve, in 1948 it received a separate status. An important milestone in his activities was the entry of the reserve in 1978 into the UNESCO World Network of Biosphere Reserves.
As a consequence, in 1984, by decision of the executive committee of the Moscow Regional Council of People’s Deputies, a guard zone around the reserve was created to reduce the anthropogenic impact on the specially protected area.
It included a strip of forest from the western, northern and eastern sides of the reserve, 2 km wide, and on the south side – floodplain meadows stretching to the Oka River itself.

As stated in Decree No. 138 of the Government of Russia of February 19, 2015 “On Approving the Rules for the Creation of Protected Areas for Certain Categories of Specially Protected Natural Territories, Establishing Their Borders, Determining the Protection and Use of Land Plots and Water Bodies within Such Zones”: ” to prevent adverse anthropogenic impacts on national nature reserves, national parks, nature parks and natural monuments in adjacent land and water bodies. At the same time, land plots that are included in the boundaries of the protection zone are not withdrawn from their owners (land users, landowners, tenants), but are used by them with observance of a special legal regime established for such land plots. ”

In the protected zone, those types of economic activities that do not cause significant damage to nature are allowed. For example, it is allowed to cultivate without using pesticides, mow the hay, graze small flocks of cattle, but you can not conduct solid logging, plowing new lands, mining, building dachas and other places of rest.
Time passed, laws changed, an electronic public cadastral map appeared, and the reserve faced big problems in maintaining a special regime of this territory without setting up a security zone for cadastral registration. For several years unsuccessful attempts were made to do this, and finally it happened!
Our reserve is one of the few in Russia who managed to bring this procedure to a legal, logical conclusion. It is good that now this territory has got a clear legal status, which in the densely populated suburbs is very important for the effective preservation of the environment.