Day of Nature Reserves and National Parks

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.