On 1 July, a student environmental team called Tiger, which was set up under the auspices the Amur Tiger Centre, will arrive at the Sikhote-Alin State Biosphere Reserve in the Primorye Territory for a two-month-long mission to create infrastructure and improve ecological trails. The team will comprise 25 young specialists from six Russian universities.

This year, the geography of the project’s participants has been expanded. Apart from students from the Primorye State Agricultural Academy who fitted out the Mys Severny (Northern Cape) eco trail in the Sikhote-Alin reserve last year, it will also include representatives of the Voronezh State Agrarian University, St. Petersburg Academy of Veterinary Medicine, Moscow Skryabin State Academy of Veterinary Medicine and Biotechnology, and Novosibirsk State Agrarian University.

The team will spend two months working on the Lake Blagodatnoye eco trail that winds round a lake of the same name and along the picturesque coast of the Sea of Japan, repairing observation towers and putting up signposts.

Foremen and an eco trail development and reconstruction expert from the Great Baikal Trail interregional public organisation, Anna Gritsuk, will coordinate the work.

Throughout its history, the main objective of the Sikhote-Alin State Biosphere Reserve has been to preserve the planet’s rarest wild cat species – the Amur tiger. Despite an increase in the Amur tiger population thanks to the efforts of Russian conservationists, this species still remains in the Red Book of Russia. Sikhote-Alin is home to natural tiger habitats that have survived intact. Besides drumming up support for the nature conservation and using the Amur tiger to demonstrate its importance, the Tiger student team will also help boost ecological tourism in the region.