Great News For Russian Wildlife

Russian wildlife has received a huge boost to it’s conservation as the Russian government announced 9 new national reserved and an amazing 13 new national parks will be constructed. This means that 3% of Russia’s huge landmass will be protected. There are also plans for marine buffer zones to be established in Russian waters.

Russia’s enormous environment contains 3 major biomes:

• taiga – wet coniferous forests with productivity mainly confined to summer months.
• steppe – semi-arid grassland plains with wide temperature ranges between summer and winter and day and night.
• tundra – cold treeless environments with a permafrost under the soil. Marshes and bogs offer feeding and breeding grounds during the summer.

Endangered animals from Amur tigers and leopards to polar, brown and black bears as well as sea otters, eagles and walruses Russia has one of the richest and diverse range of wildlife in the world. These new plans to increase the number and sizes of nature reserves will help make sure that these species have the best chance of survival into the future as well as helping to expand their population sizes.  An area the sicze of Switzerland is hoped to be protected over the next 10 years.

This coupled with the size of the country and the amount of untouched wilderness, Russia has a booming Eco-tourism industry as more and more people head to once unreachable places like Kamchatka and Siberia.

Rolf Hogan who is a Biodiversity Manager for WWF International has said; “We need to understand that protecting biodiversity means not only protecting nature but also our economy and wellbeing. By allowing biodiversity loss to continue we are undermining our future”.

These plans are part of a worldwide attempt to halt the loss of species by protecting habitat and putting in place species management plans. The global goal is to prevent further species loss by 2020.  Over 300 researchers have helped to put this Russian plan together and will help to implement it

Russia’s most endangered mammal species are:

IUCN: Critically Endangered:

• Evorsk Vole (Microtus evoronensis).
• Mediterranean Monk Seal (Monachus monachus).
• MuiskVole (Microtus mujanensis).
• Wrangel Lemming (Dicrostonyx vinogradovi).

IUCN: Endangered:

• Blue Whale (Balaenoptera musculus).
• European Bison (Bison bonasus).
• European Mink (Mustela lutreola).
• Fin Whale (Balaenoptera physalus).
• Long-tailed Birch Mouse (Sicista caudata).
• Sea Otter (Enhydra lutris).
• Sei Whale (Balaenoptera borealis).
• Snow Leopard (Uncia uncia).
• Steller’s Sea Lion (Eumetopias jubatus).
• Tiger (Panthera tigris).
• Ussuri Tube-nosed Bat (Murina ussuriensis).
• West Caucasian Tur (Capra caucasica).

Amazing 3 of the 4 species of critically endangered animals in Russia are endemic to Russia; meaning they are found no where else in the world. They are the Evorsk Vole, Muisk Vole and Wrangel Lemming. There are 20 endemic mammal species in total living in Russia. There are also many bird, reptile, amphibian, fish, plants and insects that are at risk of loss.

This is a bold step for Russia and the right one designating these new nature reserves and will help keep the country the spectacular wilderness it is.

We have a fantastic range of Bear Watching Holidays and some amazing Russia Wildlife Holidays for you to look at.