Volcanoes of Kamchatka

Little information is available and no systematic stakeholder analysis has been documented. In the past there have been conflicts between local people and authorities about the allocation procedure for hunting licenses (UNESCO/IUCN, 2007) and about the exclusive use rights of indigenous fishing grounds (Indigenous Portal, 2010). Stakeholder involvement is currently in place but mainly regarding the implementation of buffer zones, according to official documents (State Party of the Russian Federation, 2022). The RMM 2019 was able to meet stakeholders in official meetings, but no systematic involvement of stakeholders could be identified.

In 2009, State budgetary institution "Kamchatka Nature Park" was established to manage four nature parks of regional importance. The legal protection status of the parts of the site that are designated as Nature Parks is insufficient for a long-term protection of the site’s values (UNESCO, 2012). The two components Kronotsky strict nature reserve and Southern Kamchatka wildlife reserve are managed under the MNRE. Neither a joint management plan for the entire World Heritage site nor guidelines for harmonization of individual management plans is available. Competences and jurisdiction are split between federal and local/regional authorities (UNESCO/IUCN, 2019). The Kamchatka territory law No. 375 of 27.09.2019 "On amendments to the law of the Kamchatka territory "On specially protected natural areas of Kamchatka Territory"" http://docs.cntd.ru/document/561554836) was adopted on 27.09.2019. The adopted law allows changing the boundaries of protected natural areas of regional significance, in particular excluding territories from them. The law creates a legal basis for the change of borders and reorganisation of protected areas of regional significance of Kamchatka territory, including those that constitute the World Heritage site. Based on this law, about 15,000 hectares were excluded from the Yuzhno-Kamchatsky Nature Park in 2020, including areas adjacent to Vilyuchinskaya and Zhirovaya Bays. These decisions were subsequently changed several times. However, these territories still do not have legal protection status.
It has to be recalled that in the original nomination, the State Party had stated that the four regional nature parks would become federal protected areas with the status of national parks (IUCN category II) (UNESCO and IUCN, 2007). In 2025, the creation of a national park is foreseen within the boundaries of two existing natural parks (Kliuchevskoi and South Kamchatka). This will facilitate the allocation of additional funds for their management. This measure will allow to carry out the necessary activities to assess the impact on natural objects, as well as contribute to their more effective management (State Party of the Russian Federation, 2025).

Four components of the property are under regional administration and two under federal law. With the proposed designation of a new national park, comprising Kluchevskoy and Southern Kamchatka nature parks, two additional components will come under federal administration with added human resources and higher budgets for these two sites. Nevertheless, the split responsibility and a weak harmonisation between state and province will continue. No plans have been reported on the remaining nature parks.

Limited information is available. Previous plans to build two power stations inside Kronotsky Strict Nature Reserve or the Kronotsky channel (both now suspended) indicate that the safeguarding of the integrity of this site is not well recognized in regional planning. More alarming was the „Three Volcano Park“ project inside (now outside) the property (UNESCO and IUCN, 2019; State Party of the Russian Federation, 2024, 2025). But even outside it might impact the OUV due to an increasing number of tourists and extended technical infrastructure and should be the subject of an EIA. The lack of information provided on the project is concerning.

Volcanoes of Kamchatka is a serial site consisting of six components, which increases the border/area ratio and poses additional management challenges. Boundaries and boundary modifications are discussed since the beginning. The 2007 monitoring mission already recommended to clarify and communicate the site’s boundaries as geographical coordinates as some inconsistencies were noticed (UNESCO, 2012).
However, since only boundaries of one component (Southern Kamchatka Nature Park) have been recently clarified through the Retrospective Inventory process, the boundaries of all other components of the site remained somewhat uncertain.
In order to verify the boundaries and areas of the Object's components, systematic work has been carried out to enter information on the boundaries of natural parks into the Unified State Real Estate Register, and the boundaries of individual components of the Object have been clarified (State Party of the Russian Federation, 2024).
Verification of boundaries should enable an appropriate level of legal protection to ensure the conservation of the property's OUV (State Party of the Russian Federation, 2022). The creation of buffer zones to secure the property is also being considered.
So far, none of the six components within the Volcanoes of Kamchatka World Heritage site have a formal buffer zone. However, the Kronotsky Biosphere reserve is surrounded by a so-called cooperation zone, and it is proposed to designate a 840,285 hectare buffer zone for the Kronotsky Reserve, aiming to conserve the wild Northern reindeer and bighorn sheep populations (UNESCO/IUCN, 2019). Concerns are also noted around the new zoning of different components of the site which greatly diminished the area of the site under strict protection regime (UNESCO/IUCN, 2019), therefore posing threats to the values of the site.
The boundaries of the South Kamchatka Nature Park were already changed at national level when an area was excluded from the territory of the northern cluster for the implementation of the “Three Volcano Park” project (State Party of the Russian Federation, 2020; World Heritage Committee, 2021). In 2020, a minor modification proposal was submitted by the State Party to the World Heritage Committee to reflect this. The 2019 mission report (UNESCO/IUCN, 2019) states that the Three Volcano Park, would establish a huge tourist resort at the edge of the property, with installations within it and serious impacts on this component of the property and the property’s OUV'. Meanwhile the Three Volcano Park project has been revised and recent statements from the MNRE say that the Zhirovaya and Vilyuchinskaya bays will be included in the boundaries of the buffer zone of the new national park after its implementation (State Party of the Russian Federation, 2022 and 2024). At present, the area excluded from the boundaries of the South Kamchatka Nature Park continues to be without special protection status.

This concerns Kronotsky State Natural Biosphere Reserve only. Its management plan includes the South Kamchatka Federal Wildlife Sanctuary. The Kronotsky Reserve management plan covers both federal components but does not fully meet the requirements of WH properties (UNESCO and IUCN, 2019). Nevertheless, the extent to which the overlapping designations are coordinated in their management is unclear.

The site has been subject to numerous decisions and recommendations of the World Heritage Committee, as well as reactive monitoring missions (2007, 2019) by the UNESCO World Heritage Centre and IUCN. In 2015, the State Party gave a response “with regard to Resolution No. 37COM 7B.21 adopted by the World Heritage Committee” in Phnom Penh 2013. With the “Report On the State of Conservation of the UNESCO World Heritage Property Volcanoes of Kamchatka (Russian Federation, Nr. 765bis) in 2015” from January 29, 2016 the State Party also gave a response to the Decision 37 COM 7B.21 (World Heritage Committee, 2013), recalled by Decision 39 COM 7B.20 (World Heritage Committee, 2015). A joint UNESCO World Heritage Centre/IUCN RRM to the World Heritage property “Volcanoes of Kamchatka“ was conducted in August 2019 and a number of recommendations have been noted in the 2019 mission report, which relate specifically to previous recommendations and decisions, but have not diminished substantially (UNESCO/IUCN, 2019). recommendations have been noted in the 2019 mission report (UNESCO/IUCN. 2019).
In 2022, the State Party delivered an updated Report on the State of Conservation of the UNESCO World Heritage Property Volcanoes of Kamchatka (State Party of the Russian Federation, 2022), including a timeline for delivering reports or for actions. Updated reports on the state of conservation of the UNESCO World Heritage Site “Volcanoes of Kamchatka” (Russian Federation, No. 765bis) were provided in 2023, 2024 and 2025 in accordance with World Heritage Committee Decisions 45 COM 7B.27 and 46 COM 7B.53. Some of 2019 mission recommendations have not yet been implemented, notably the creation of a Master Plan for Tourism Development in the property. In its decisions of 2021, 2023, 2024, the Committee requested that the protected status of areas excluded from the Yuzhno-Kamchatsky Nature Park be restored, but these decisions have not been implemented.

No specific climate action or initiatives have been reported. In the period of 2010-2018 a research study was carried out for Kronotsky Federal Nature Biosphere Reserve and South Kamchatka Federal Sanctuary on:
Distant and stationary observations of the condition of glaciers and firn fields. Relevance for the management: collected data contributes into the global climate change monitoring.
Executors: FSI Kronotsky Reserve in collaboration with FSI “Denezhkin kamen” Reserve
Status: in 2019 still ongoing, no further information available.

A general management plan (MP) for the site has been missing since the inscription of the Volcanoes of Kamchatka in the WH list, although regularly and urgently required by the WHC (UNESCO/IUCN 2007, 2019; WH decisions). A general MP should provide direction for all relevant topics of the management of the property and has to be approved by the WHC. Individual MPs for the various components do not meet the standards for WH properties MPs and are partly just copied (UNESCO and IUCN, 2019). Some of their validity period has passed and have not been renewed.

No specific assessment of enforcement capacity is available; however, given overall low human and financial resources and given the large size of the site, enforcement capacity is probably limited. A case in point is the threat of poaching noted in the report on the State of Conservation of the Volcanoes of Kamchatka, which recommended that the State Party supports the efforts to address poaching through increased staffing and budgets (UNESCO, 2018). To give an example: In 2023 26 cases were identified by the security personnel in the federal administered components (State Party of the Russian Federation, 2025), which is relatively low compared to the size of the relevant components. No figures are available for the regional nature parks.

Between 2014 and 2019, the budget of the federal protected areas was raised significantly whereas the budget for the regional nature parks also increased, but to a lesser extent (UNESCO and IUCN, 2019). In 2021, an additional budget of 19.5 Mio rubles was granted for scientific research and work to support conservation for the regional nature parks (State Party of the Russian Federation, 2022). The current level of financing and the sufficiency for management is unclear.

The staffing levels of the Volcanoes of Kamchatka Nature Park are considered dramatically insufficient in relation to its size. Between 2014 and 2019, the number of staff in the federal reserves was raised by 170 % (and again by 10 % to 183 in 2024), whereas the staff number in the regional nature parks remained at the same level (UNESCO and IUCN, 2019; State Party of the Russian Federation, 2025). Compared to the size of the property, the number of inspectors is not sufficient.

There is no harmonised education and interpretation programme at the level of the entire site but at least one of the federal components has such a programme (Kronotskiy Strict Nature Reserve, 2012b; UNESCO and IUCN 2019).
The State Party of the Russian Federation (2016) also indicates several educational events in 2015, e.g. a training seminar “Preparation of guides for specially protected areas of Kamchatka Region”, jointly organized by the Kronotsky Reserve together with the administration of Volcanoes of Kamchatka Nature Park, and supported by the regional non-commercial organization “Association of Specially Protected Areas of Kamchatka Region”.

An overall tourism strategy, including a functional ecotourism system and an educational approach, is urgently needed and has been required by various missions and the WHC. The poorly conceived “Three Volcano Park” project is a perfect example of how the lack of tourism concepts can lead to impacts on the property's OUV. Although several tourist routes exist, the main means of transport is the helicopter flight to distant destinations like the Valley of the Geysers in Kronotsky Strict Nature Reserve and Kurilskoe lake in South Kamchatka Wildlife Sanctuary. A growing interest in nature tourism and the increasing number of tourists require a sophisticated strategy to safeguard the integrity of the property against overtourism. This could include limitations in the number of tourists or the number of flights or thresholds for the carrying capacities (UNESCO/IUCN 2019).

While the Strict Nature Reserves and State Sanctuary exclude most types of resource use, management of sustainable use in Kamchatka Nature Park is only partly within its jurisdiction. Sustainable reindeer grazing is practiced at the Bystrinskiy part of Kamchatka Nature Park. Hunting and fishing are partly forbidden, but poorly controlled.

There is no regular monitoring programme for the site as a whole. This goes hand in hand with the absence of a general management plan, which should also include scientific and monitoring strategies. Further a visitors' monitoring could help to better channel the visitors' flow. In 2022, the MNRE reported the implementation of an environmental monitoring system in all components and across all key elements of the property's OUV (State Party of the Russian Federation, 2022). The most recent available data on key species are from 2020/2021 and show a stable population of brown bear in South Kamchatka wildlife reserve. Concerning the Sockeye salmon population in the Kuril Lake area, further studies are needed. The wild reindeer and the snow sheep populations are partly recovering (State Party of the Russian Federation, 2022, p. 15), but an overall monitoring in the property as a whole was not conducted.

In the period 2010-2018 several research and monitoring studies were carried out for Kronotsky Federal Nature Biosphere Reserve and South Kamchatka Federal Sanctuary (see list in UNESCO and IUCN, 2019, Annex V) but no research study was reported from the nature parks. Most of the research and monitoring studies were ongoing at that time. Since then, several research studies have been initiated. More than 2000 reports were published on the federal components, mainly related to nature conservation. In 2021, an additional budget of 19,5 Mio rubles for research and conservation measures in the regional nature parks was announced, but it is unclear whether this was just a one-time grant. Nevertheless, there is no consistent research programme, which should be part of a general management plan, including all components.

No study on management effectiveness has been conducted, however the concerns raised above regarding the legal framework and integration into local, national and regional planning systems raise concerns for the ability of the existing framework to prevent negative impacts from threats beyond the site boundaries.

No study on management effectiveness has been conducted. In spite of progress in administration structure, and some further success in the field of ecological education, ecotourism development and research in some component sites, low staff numbers, lack of equipment and financial resources are hindering the management capacity to safeguard effectively the values of this large and geographically complex site.