The Day of Protected Areas is being celebrated in Russia on the 11th of January. The date is not randomly selected, as if the 29th of December, 1916 (the 11th of January on the Gregorian calendar) the decree about founding the first reservation of our country – Barguzinsky, - was signed. Forming of this specially protected territory on the bank of Baikal was during the years of The First World War that means that the Government of Russia was very attentive to the preservation of the natural heritage.
There are more than 13 thousand Protected Areas of federal, regional and local importance in Russia. Their total area, excluding sea area, makes 195,5 mln hectares or 11,4% of the territory of our country.
The basis of the reserve system of Russia is the following: 103 reserves, 48 national parks and 63 state nature reserves of federal importance.
According to the words of the Minister of Natural Resources Sergey Donskoy, the year of 2015 was successful from the point of view of developing federal reserve system. Thus, in the end of the past year a significant event took place – a new national park Bikin with the area more than million hectares was founded. A new national park will not only let stabilize and increase populations of Amur tiger, black bear and the other rare animal species, but to preserve the unique arrays of cedar-broadleaf forests as well.
Also the area of Orenburg reserve was 76% increased in 2015, that let the work on the reintroduction of the Przewalski horse be started.
In 2015 the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin signed the decree of claiming the 2017 year - The Year of Protected Areas.
In 2016 there are five new protected areas are planned to be created: reserve on the Solovetsky archipelago, national park Ladoga Skerries in Karelia, the National Park Sengiley Mountains in the Ulyanovsk region, nature reserve Vasyugansky in Tomsk and Novosibirsk regions, the federal reserve on the New Siberian Islands.