NEWS
The All-Russian Day of Nature Reserves and National Parks is a relatively young date in the calendar environmentalists. It has been celebrated since 1997. On that particular year, Biodiversity Conservation Center and World Wildlife Fund put forward an initiative to annually celebrate in the Russian Federation the Day of Nature Reserves and National Parks. There is good reason for choosing the date of January 11; on this day in 1916 the first national nature reserve – Barguzinsky – was established in Russia. Within its territory there is a wonderful place – the Valley of Geysers.
By 2020, in Russia there will be 11 new nature reserves, 20 national parks and 3 federal sanctuaries.
As of today, in the Republic of Tatarstan there are 174 specially protected natural reservations, the total area of which is 168.85 thousand hectares. Thus, the proportion of lands dedicated to the specially protected natural reservations in the Republic of Tatarstan is 2.48% of the total area of the Republic. 25 specially protected natural reservations are classified as “sanctuary”, 11 of them have their own administration. In addition, in the Republic of Tatarstan there are 144 monuments of nature.
On specially protected natural reservations the unique landscapes and the diversity of fauna and flora are preserved in their original form, which helps to save from extermination a variety of rare species of animals, some of which exist today only in nature reserves, sanctuaries and monuments of nature.
In Leskhozskaya Secondary School of the Arsky Municipal District the results of the campaign “Forest Crop” have been summed up. The event to collect cones of conifers and harvesting seeds for the restoration of future forests was organized by the experts of Arsky Forest Establishment with the Council of the school forestry unit. Following the results of the campaign, 1349 kg of pine cones and spruce have been gathered. The most active in gathering the forest crop were the pupils of the 10, 6, 7, 4, and 8 grades. “An exceptionally fruitful year turned out to be in our forests, it would be inexcusable to use the generous gift of nature for restocking the conifer seeds. The coniferous forests are being cut down at a fast pace, the natural increase is not enough to compensate for losses, that’s why the seed stock is required for reproduction,” said the head of the school forestry unit Gaynanova F.N. The young foresters have passed the gathered cones to the Surnarskoye District Forestry.