Special Presidential Representative for Environmental Protection, Ecology and Transport Sergei Ivanov said that the spotted predator’s population was already hard-pressed for land, and that the park was therefore set to expand. He made this statement while speaking with journalists at the national park’s central compound during the 4^th Eastern Economic Forum.

“After solving one problem, one often faces another one. Quite soon, the national park will prove too small for the Far Eastern leopard population. Therefore it is necessary to set aside new areas in the Primorye Territory where the leopard once lived. In effect, they will return to their historical range,” he said.

During his trip, Sergei Ivanov and Alexei Titovsky, head of the Department of State Policy and Regulation in the Area of Development of Protected Areas, chaired a meeting to discuss plans to expand the national park’s territory to the south and to set up the Gamov Leopards cluster.

The Far Eastern Leopards autonomous non-profit organisation received a land plot, due to accommodate the cluster, as a gift and registered ownership of it in 2017. The future national park cluster will occupy part of the Gamov Peninsula. Local nature is typical of the south of Primorye Territory and is suitable for leopards, boasting mountains, cliffs, broad-leaved forests, and a network of rivulets and streams crossing deep valleys. Far Eastern leopards and Amur tigers have been repeatedly sighted there.

Yelena Gangalo, general director of Far Eastern Leopards, informed meeting participants about work to draft project documents on expanding Land of the Leopard National Park. Next, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment will submit a draft resolution on incorporating the new cluster’s land plot into the national park to the Government for consideration.