Work on the conservation of transboundary protected areas should be strengthened

The event was attended by 700 delegates from Russia, CIS countries, Latin America, the Middle East, Asia and Africa. As a result of the conferences, the working group developed a number of proposals that will be submitted to UNESCO.

In particular, the forum participants proposed, on the basis of intergovernmental commissions, to agree on common rules for transboundary World Heritage sites. In addition, it is proposed to consider tourism at World Heritage sites as a significant tool for their conservation through the identification of optimal options and the search for the best complementary or compromise solutions in the constant conflict of interests of conservation and sustainable development.

The working group also proposes to identify the best models for the responsible management of World Natural Heritage sites for the formation of a strategic natural reserve of mankind and consider the possibility of creating specialized structures for climate change and environmental monitoring as part of international macro-regional and regional organizations.

Vsevolod Yakovlev, Acting Director of the Kronotsky Nature Reserve, also took part in the forum and noted the need for a unified approach to tourism development.

The Kronotsky Reserve belongs to the World Natural Heritage, as well as the South Kamchatka Federal Reserve and four clusters of the Volcanoes of Kamchatka Natural Park. In 1996, UNESCO representatives unconditionally recognized these territories as worthy of special protection and for the whole world to know about them, including them in the World Natural Heritage List under the general name "Volcanoes of Kamchatka".

“Despite the fact that the Volcanoes of Kamchatka is not a transboundary World Natural Heritage site, due to its uniform uniqueness and high significance for Kamchatka as a whole, the site requires coordination of the management of our protected areas, which are of federal and regional significance,” Vsevolod Yakovlev said.

“We need a unified approach to the development of tourism, taking into account the methodology for the maximum allowable calculation of recreational loads, which will allow regulating tourist flows and minimizing damage to natural complexes,” he stressed.