This year, a new nature park will be established in Russia’s Siberian region of Khakassia, to accommodate rare animal species including the snow leopard, the regional leader, Viktor Zimin, said.

The plan is to set up the park, Khakassia, on 160,000 hectares of mountainous and taiga land in the Tashtyp District on the border of the Kemerovo Region. The new nature park will also border on Lykov Zaimka (part of the Khakassky Nature Reserve) and the Pozarym federal reserve, which also seeks to preserve the snow leopard.

“The nature conservation efforts in the new park will be aimed at preserving the unique highland landscapes, cedar forests and rare animal species, including the snow leopard, Siberian ibex, reindeer, black stork and golden eagle,” Zimin said.

Specialists at the Khakassky Reserve expect the new nature park to become a buffer zone for the reserve, and eventually to increase the population of rare animals. “We fully support the initiative to set up a nature park. It will act as a buffer zone for the reserve, while the nature conservation work will help restore the population of rare animals as well as game such as the roe and the elk,” the reserve director, Viktor Nepomnyashchy, said.