The New Siberian Islands Nature Reserve has been established to protect Russian Red Data Book species, including the polar bear and the Laptev Sea walrus, as well as to study the unique island ecosystems and to maintain the environmental balance in the Russian Arctic.

“The New Siberian Islands Nature Reserve been established for the conservation of the islands’ ecosystems, rare plants and animals and unique inorganic natural objects, as well as for the development of ecotourism in the Arctic,” Natural Resources and Environment Minister Sergei Donskoi said.

The nature reserve’s terrain comprises Arctic tundra, tundra and other marshes, Arctic barren, shoals and dunes with sparse vegetation, Arctic semi-deserts and deserts. A number of rare plants grow on the New Siberian Islands, including, such as roseroot (from Russia’s Red Data Book), draba pohlei (a rare variety of whitlow grass), Artemesia Richardson, as well as Svalbard and Nenets crowfoot (ranunculus) from the Red Data Book of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia).

There are three historical monuments related to the discovery and study of the New Siberian Islands, and the world’s largest accumulations of mammoth and other fossil bones of Pleistocene megafauna. The world’s northernmost Stone Age site was found on Zhokhov Island.

Management of the New Siberian Islands Nature Reserve has been entrusted to the Lena Delta Nature Reserve of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia).