The results of the All-Russian conference of heads of specially protected natural territories are summed up. Representatives of the Amur Tiger Center took part in the meeting.
The congress of Protected areas managers from all over Russia was held in the Primorsky Krai from 4 to 9 October 2015. It was organized by the Ministry of Natural Resources of Russia and the Land of the Leopard National Park. Within the framework of the conference, several meetings were held, during which the participants discussed important issues concerning the activities of nature reserves and national parks. In particular, the development of educational tourism. Here, the heads of the Protected areas face a difficult task - to “open” protected areas for visitors and at the same time eliminate additional anthropogenic pressure. In addition, it is necessary to form a positive image of the reserve system of Russia.
In 2017, in our country, the Year of Specially Protected Natural Territories will be celebrated. The Minister of Natural Resources and Ecology of Russia, Sergey Donskoy, made a number of statements. So, according to the head of the relevant ministry, by the end of 2015, another national park will appear in theProtected areas system of the Primorsky Krai - Bikin. Its area will be more than a million hectares, which is the key habitat of the Amur tiger. In addition, the financing of the activities of specially protected natural areas next year will remain at the same level and will be about 6 billion rubles.
“We will insist that this amount of funding be maintained. PAs should be financed, albeit in today's difficult conditions, but in sufficient amounts,” - said Minister Sergey Donskoy.
The conference also discussed issues of safety and the use of technical innovations in the protected areas. Employees of most Russian reserves and national parks have long been successfully using photo traps, webcams, unmanned aerial vehicles, and satellite monitoring devices in their activities. They help not only for scientific purposes, but also to counter poaching. It was decided that specially protected areas would expand the practice of using modern photo and video surveillance tools.
That is why experts from the Amur Tiger Center and other public organizations were invited to exchange experience at the conference.
“It so happened that many modern methods of studying and protecting animals are first “tested” in those areas where the Amur tiger or the Amur leopard lives. This, in turn, favorably affects the general state of the population of other animal species. For example, when criminal penalties were imposed on poachers who hunted tigers, this equally affected the protection of the polar bear, snow leopard, argali, saiga, and others,” - said Sergey Aramilev, director of the Primorsky branch of the Amur Tiger Center. - The protected area system is a safety cage that allows you to provide the necessary minimum for the conservation of nature areas and even certain types of animals. I am very pleased that this system is developing and adopting everything that is advanced in the conservation of nature.”
At the end of the All-Russian Conference, the final resolution of the meeting was drawn up and signed.