Currently, Karelia harbors quite a few federal-level protected areas (state nature reserves, national parks, etc.) and 146 regional-level PAs.

Olga Bakhmet, Director General of the Karelian Research Center RAS and Deputy Chairperson of the Environmental Council, informed that scientists at KarRC RAS have extensive experience in preparing substantiation papers for protected areas, have long been assisting in the conservation of natural heritage, handling administrative issues in PA operation, and popularizing the results of scientific research in PAs. For example, in the Kivach Nature Reserve, the Center's staff organized a number of test sites for the national climate monitoring system. The goal of this project is to study carbon pools and fluxes in forest, wetland and aquatic ecosystems as part of the creation of a unified greenhouse gas monitoring system.

At the same time, Olga Bakhmet added, the conservation and study of these natural areas should be aligned with economic development and involvement of PAs in the tourism infrastructure.

“Eco-tourism is now one of the most promising development paths in this sphere,” - said the Head of Karelia in his opening speech, adding that the tasks of involving natural destinations in the tourist infrastructure are set out in the new national project “Ecological Wellbeing” and in the regional program for ecological development of Karelia.

“PAs are to be streamlined with the region's economy, and Karelia can become a model area for the federal program for PA network development, including due to its tourist attractiveness and proximity to major metropolitan areas. The Karelian Research Center has concrete proposals for creating a network of tourist routes incorporating the region's PAs”, - said Olga Bakhmet to the members of the Council, suggesting to discuss this initiative in more detail at the next meeting of the Environmental Council on KarRC RAS grounds.

Photo: Respublika Information Agency/Oksana Kudryashova