Marine Protected Areas

Marine Protected Areas

Marine Protected Areas of Russia

At present only one mostly marine protected area – the Far Eastern Marine Reserve - has been created in Russia, while about 100 reserves and national parks has been created on land.

Nevertheless, the following land reserves protect marine areas as part of their total area: Astrakhansky, Dagestansky, Kandalakshsky, Nenetsky, Bolshoy Arctic, Taimyrsky, Ust-Lensky, Magadansky, Poronaysky, Koryaksky, Komandorsky, Kronotsky, Dzhugdzhursky, Kurilsky, Sikhote-Alinsky and “Vrangel Island” reserves.

Marine protected areas are within some federal game reserves such as: “Frantz-Josef Land”, Nizhne-Obsky, Uzhno-Kamchatsky and “Malye Kurils”.

The total area of marine areas defined as MPAsis close to 9.1 thousand km2, which covers 1.8% of Russian Federation continental shelf.

There is another form of marine areas conservation – protection of marine mammals’ habitat. Such areas are protected by the federal department of fish industry. By strict regulations some of them approach status of MPAs.