On April 22, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a list of instructions concerning the creation and development of the Bikin National Park. The area of the park will be the largest in the range of the Amur tiger and will be 1.1 million hectares.
The list of special assignments designed to speed up the process of creating the park and to ensure the observance of the rights of indigenous peoples, was the result of the work of the interdepartmental working group on the preparation of proposals for the creation of a specially protected natural area in the upper and middle reaches of the Bikin River. The group was headed by Assistant to the President of the Russian Federation, Head of the Control Department of the Presidential Administration of the Russian Federation, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Amur Tiger Center Konstantin Chuichenko
The Bikin River basin is a unique natural complex. There are still untouched places and you can see nature in its original form. In addition to the host of the taiga - the Amur tiger, here you can find brown and Himalayan bears, moose and red deer, spotted deer and roe deer, musk deer and wild boar, mink and sable, lynx and wolverine, and many other species. Here is the last largest intact array of cedar-deciduous forests.
Since ancient times, the Bikin shores have been inhabited by small indigenous peoples, mainly Udege. Most of the representatives of this ethnic group live in the village of Krasny Yar, located in the lower reaches of the river.
When working on the park’s project, the interests of small indigenous peoples were taken into account. Thus, according to instructions, before July 1, the Government will have to ensure amendments to the legislation of the Russian Federation providing for representatives of small indigenous peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East of Russia to have the right to conduct traditional lifestyle and implementation of traditional business activities.
“It is worth noting that the uniqueness of the Bikin river basin is not only in pristine forests and large groups of Amur tiger, but first and foremost the people living in the area. A fusion of traditions of indigenous peoples and pristine nature opens up broad prospects for the conservation of the socio-natural complex, a status indicator of which is the well-being of the Udege and the Amur tiger. We have no doubt that the national Park is currently the only form of nature conservation that is able to implement and provide an opportunity for the citizens of Russia to see reserved places, not destroying them,” says member of the Working group, the Director of the Primorsky branch of ANO Amur tiger Center Sergey Aramilev.
In addition, the Cabinet must ensure the adoption of regulations on the creation of a national park, as well as a federal state budgetary institution for its management. By September 1, 2015, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Ecology of the Russian Federation, together with the authorities of the Primorsky Krai, should ensure the adoption of the regulation on the Bikin National Park and provide mechanisms for participation in the management of the park of representatives of indigenous peoples.
“Bikin National Park will be created in the north of Primorye on an area of 1.16 million hectares. For more than 10 years, the World Wildlife Fund has been implementing, together with the Tiger Genus Community, projects to preserve the unique nature and traditional nature management,” says Yuri Darman. “Considering the ambiguous situation and the difficulty of coordinating the approaches of various departments, I believe that the instructions of the President of Russia to create a national park are timely. For the first time in Russia, a national park is being created that fully takes into account the interests of the indigenous minorities living here.”
The creation of a national park will help attract new tourists to Primorsky Krai. The government, together with the authorities of the Primorsky and Khabarovsk Krai, needs to develop and approve a comprehensive program for the development of tourism activities in the territory of the planned national park.