On 22 April, Vladimir Putin signed a list of instructions on the creation and further development of the Bikin National Park with an area of 1.1 million hectares, to become the largest habitat for the Amur tiger.

The Bikin River Valley is a unique natural area and the habitat of the Amur tiger, brown and Himalayan black bears, elks, the Far Eastern red deer, the Japanese deer, roe deer, musk deer, wild boars, minks, sables, lynxes, wolverines and many other animals. It also has the country’s last undisturbed belt of cedar-broadleaf forests.

“The Bikin River Valley is unique not only for its virgin forests and a large group of Amur tigers, but also for the people who live there. The combination of the traditions of the small ethnic groups and virgin nature offers a unique opportunity for preserving this social and natural habitat where the welfare of the Udege people and the Amur tiger serves as area barometers,” said Sergei Aramilev, Director of the Primorye branch of the Amur Tiger Centre and a member of a working group set up to prepare proposals for a federal protected natural area in the upper and middle reaches of the Bikin River.

As per the instructions, the Government is to ensure the amendment of legislation by 1 July to give the small ethnic groups of the North, Siberia and the Russian Far East the power to preserve their traditional way of life and to engage in traditional economic activities in the national parks.

The Government is also to ensure the adoption of regulatory acts on the creation of a national park and the federal enterprise that will manage it. By 1 September 2015, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, working in cooperation with Primorye Territory authorities, is to ensure the adoption of regulations on the Bikin National Park and the involvement of the local small ethnic groups in its management.

The Government and the authorities of the Primorye and Khabarovsk territories must also prepare and adopt a comprehensive tourism programme for the proposed national park.

“We have no doubt that a national park is the only effective nature protection mechanism, which people can use to see protected areas without damaging the nature,” Aramilev added.