Russia plays an important role in sustaining global biodiversity and biospheric processes on our planet, Director of the Department for State Policy and Regulations in Environmental Protection of the Natural Resources Ministry Dmitry Belanovich said at the Green Expo exhibition in Mexico, the Ministry reports on its website.

The Russian Government and the Ministry of Natural Resources are contributing to this cause in every possible way.

“A powerful system of specially protected natural areas has been created in Russia and is constantly being developed, incorporating around 12,000 wildlife reserves of various categories and levels. The core of the federal system of wildlife reserves consists of 102 reserves, 43 national parks and 70 specially protected federal areas. We are planning to create 11 new nature reserves, 20 national parks and one specially protected federal area over the next eight years. The total area occupied by federal wildlife sanctuaries will increase by 18 percent to three percent of the country’s territory,” Mr Belanovich said.

To restore the populations of some mammal species in Russia, special projects have been launched and are being successfully implemented. These include the Polar bear rescue programme in the Arctic and similar programs for the Amur tiger and Far Eastern leopard in the Far East, for gray whales in the Sea of Okhotsk and for the Persian leopard in the Caucasus.