On 23 April, the annual meeting of the Russian Geographical Society (RGS) Supervisory Board took place at its headquarters in St Petersburg. The meeting was attended by the board chairman, President of Russia Vladimir Putin. At the meeting, RGS President Sergei Shoigu spoke about the main results of the society’s activities last year as well as the main projects that would be implemented this year.

In his turn, Chairman of the RGS Media Council, member of the Supervisory Board Dmitry Peskov spoke about studying and preserving rare animal species such as beluga whales, snow leopards, Amur tigers, Far Eastern and Persian leopards and polar bears.

Dmitry Peskov noted that every year the society provided grants to support projects aimed at restoring the populations of the Red Data Book animals. He added that it was necessary to continue to study beluga and killer whales: at present, the number of many animals living in the wild is unknown, and this data is the main basis for the decision to provide or not to provide quotas for catching them.

Studying and preserving rare animals is a priority of the Russian Geographical Society. It supports special programmes that aim to protect and study populations of the Amur tigers, polar bears, snow leopards, Far Eastern leopards and beluga whales, carried out within the permanent expedition of the Russian Academy of Sciences held to study animals protected by the Red Data Book of Russia, as well as other important species of fauna.