Words: Elizabeth Lihart
Photos: Igor Shpilenok

Wrapping itself around most of the Northern Hemisphere, Russia spans eleven time zones, includes nearly every major biome, and is the largest country on Earth. But despite its vastness, Russia’s open space has always been vulnerable to human demands. One hundred years ago, in a moment of forward thinking, some of Russia’s great scientific minds recognized that unless something was done, these wilderness areas, so integral to Russian identity, would vanish.

“We are sorry to say,” lamented famed soil scientist Vasily Dokuchaev in 1892, “that our virgin black-earth steppes with their original charm, boundless expanses, feather grass, unique dwellers like babacs, great bustards, wolfberry, ect., are surprisingly quickly disappearing from the face of the Russian land.” These words prompted the creation of a strict scientific reserve in the steppes of Ukraine called zapovedniks, or commandments. “These areas must be ‘zapovedniks’ in the full sense of the word,” wrote Grigory Kozhevnikov, one of movement’s founders. “Nature should be left as it is and we shall watch the results.”

Since then the zapovedniks have grown into one most diverse systems of nature reserves on the planet. Today there are one hundred different reserves covering eighty-three million acres with a geography based on ecological instead of political boundaries. They encompass marine ecosystems, virginal boreal forest, high alpine peaks, the great arctic expanse, arid steppes, and the world’s deepest lake. Accessible only to scientists, few people know about their existence despite their size and ecological importance.

The success of the zapovedniks has not come easily, and in the course of their history they have faced many challenges and near liquidation. The most severe test came in 1991 with the dissolution of the Soviet Union. As the economy collapsed, the zapovedniks faced a slash in funding to a fraction of what it once was. Becoming clear that they were near extinction, members of the international scientific and conservation community rallied together. In 1994, the World Wildlife Federation in partnership with the United States Agency for International Development joined with the directors of the zapovedniks to map out strategies for the survival of the system.

Aware that they needed to attract both money and attention, the group developed a plan that included creating outreach programs and environmental education campaigns as well as opening up certain reserves to eco-tourism. These decisions, especially opening up the reserves, drew much debate. Proponents argued that the plans would heighten public awareness, create an influx of cash to the fiscally-strapped reserves, establish mechanisms to control unregulated “wild tourism” already occurring in popular areas, and provide jobs for local people who, in lieu of other economic prospects had turned to poaching in and around the preserves.  Read More...