Five new protected areas to be opened in Year of Ecology in Russia

TheYear of Ecologywill see opening of fivenew protected areas (PAs)in Russia. This was saidby the deputy director of the department of state policy and regulation in the field of environmental protection of the Ministry Natural resources of Russia VsevolodStepanitskyduring the International Conference “Reserve management. Results of the century”. “The Year of Ecology and protected areas will be marked by opening of new national parks and reserves. It includes creation of national parks “Saylyugem” in Ulyanovsk region, state natural reserve “Ingermalan” in Leningrad region, State Natural Reserve “Vasyugan” in Tomsk and Novosibirsk regions, expansion of other areas, creation of the Federal Reserve on the archipelago of the New Siberian Islands, creation of a national park “Ladoga skerries” in Karelia. We hope that all this will be accomplished in 2017”. According to him, alreadythis year the territory of the National Park “Russian Arctic”was expanded and national park “Kislovodsk” was created.

         Now on the territory of the Russian Federation there are 12,900 Protected Areas, covering a total area of ​​204 million hectares. The federal protected areas network includes 103 state reserves, 50 national parks, and 59 federal reserves. Over the past 10 years there have been created 3 new wildlife sanctuaries, 12 national parks and two reserves, expanded the territory of 5 protected areas and 1 national park, so the total area of ​​the federal natural areas has increased by 6.5 million hectares.

Press-service of MENR of RT