The number of visitors to the Arctic protected areas increased by 40 percent last year

Alexey Tikhnenko, Deputy Director of the Department of State Policy and Regulation in the Sphere of Protected Areas Development - the Ministry of Natural Resources of Russia, presented trends in the development of ecotourism in the Arctic specially protected natural areas at the Clean Country forum-exhibition.

According to him, in 2022 they were visited by over 130 thousand people, which is more than 40% more than in the previous year. Roszapovedtsentr reported this on its website.

“The most visited at the same time were the national parks Onega Pomorie, Lena Pillars, Kostomukshsky and Kalevalsky,” the report says.

In addition, the indicators of tourism activity in the Arctic protected areas have increased. So, in 2022, 88 contracts were concluded with travel companies, more than 3 thousand excursions were conducted, 425 groups of children were accepted, 177 tourist routes and ecological trails were in operation.

Tikhnenko spoke about several “points of attraction” for tourists in the Arctic protected areas.

For example, Onega Pomorye is the only national park in the European part of Russia that combines marine and taiga nature. Its unique feature is a large array of indigenous taiga forests overlooking the sea coast.

“One of the wonders of the Beringia National Park (Chukotka Autonomous Okrug) is the unique monuments of the ancient culture of sea hunters. In addition to the famous Whale Alley, a monument of history and archeology, the likes of which are not found anywhere else in the Arctic, many traces of ancient culture have been preserved along the entire coast, from Stone Age sites to later residential and ritual structures made of bones of marine mammals.

According to Roszapovedtsentr, today in the territories of 9 subjects of the Arctic zone there are 32 specially protected natural areas of federal significance: 14 nature reserves, 10 national parks and 8 wildlife sanctuaries. Some of them have been formed quite recently. Thus, in 2018-2022, the Kytalyk National Park, the Bear Islands Reserve, and the Paraskiny Lakes Reserve were created in the Arctic. The total area of new protected areas amounted to about 2.72 million hectares. In addition, in 2019, the Gydansky nature reserve was transformed into a national park.