On November 3, 2015, the Russian Government endorsed a resolution establishing Bikin National Park. The 1.16 million hectare park incorporates the regional Verkhnebikinsky State Nature Reserve and part of the Bikinsky traditional nature management area. According to Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Sergei Donskoi, Bikin will be the biggest specially protected natural territory in the southern Russian Far East and will make it possible to preserve key Amur tiger habitats.

Six hundred thousand hectares will be set aside for indigenous peoples to hunt and fish.

“This is an advance in preserving the Amur tiger and securing the existence of the indigenous peoples. At long last, the efforts of many public and state organisations, including ours, have been crowned with success. As of today, the federal specially protected natural territories are the most effective method to preserve forests and animals. According to this year’s Amur tiger count, at least 30 Amur tigers inhabit the new park. But we are faced with an even more challenging task: We must ensure that the park is efficient. For this, we should create infrastructure from scratch, hire skilled staff and provide decent funding. Our main task is to preserve the unique cedar-broadleaf forests and animals, as well as the traditional occupations of the indigenous peoples and their culture. At the same time, we’d like to make it possible for all people in this country to see the glories of the ‘Russian Amazon’,” said Sergei Aramilyov, director of the Primorye branch of the Amur Tiger Centre.

The Far East’s Bikin River, which forms the border between the Primorye and Khabarovsk territories, is known as the “Russian Amazon”. Cedar-broadleaf forests occupy 4,000 square kilometres in its basin. Apart from the Amur tiger, the territory is inhabited by 50 mammal species, including lynx, Far Eastern red deer, elk, sika deer, and brown and Himalayan bears. The vast marshy forests in the basin of the Bikin are home to 194 bird species, 7 amphibian species, and 10 reptilian species.