An expedition to the north of the Kanin Peninsula in the Nenets Autonomous Okrug confirmed the high natural value of this territory. The World Wildlife Fund proposes to give it a special protection status by expanding the Shoinsky regional reserve.
«Now the Kanin Peninsula needs protection more than ever. We constantly receive signals that tourists are visiting the territory uncontrollably - by helicopters, ATVs, snowmobiles, yachts and sea vessels, at any time of the year. And poachers are engaged in illegal hunting and fishing here,» says the coordinator of WWF-Russia projects in the Nenets Autonomous Okrug, Sergei Uvarov.
«For the territory to become a regional reserve, new scientific data are needed, and the last serious research was carried out on the Kanin Peninsula several decades ago. Therefore, the data of the expedition, which took place with the support of WWF Russia, are extremely important - both for ecologists and for the nature of the Nenets Territory.»
The members of the expedition - employees of the Federal Research Center for the Comprehensive Study of the Arctic and the Institute of Geography of the Russian Academy of Sciences - spent 2 weeks "in the fields". During this time, it was possible to carry out a comprehensive ecological survey of the territory: to study the flora, vegetation cover, communities of vertebrates and ichthyofauna.
«The study of the nature of Northern Kanin during the expedition was not limited only to field studies. Information about the natural features of this area was collected and analyzed during meetings with local residents visiting Severny Kanin and reindeer herders grazing herds of domestic reindeer in this area,» said the head of the expedition, Vladimir Anufriev.
The collected data, after processing and analysis, will form the basis of a comprehensive environmental feasibility study for the expansion of the Shoinsky reserve. Its area can be increased several times. Should it be approved, this will happen next year.
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