Central Sikhote-Alin

The governance structure of nature reserves in Russia provides few opportunities for stakeholder involvement; Sikhote-Alin Nature Reserve, however, has an active education programme (see below) and is making attempts to better involve the small local population in management. For instance, ecological tourism, although limited, is increasing. The new Sustainable Tourism Development Strategy for the Sikhote-Alin Nature Reserve and surrounding area proposes ways to develop cooperation between the reserve and the local community in the field of tourism development (State Party of Russian Federation, 2024). Also, local people now have strictly managed access to parts of the Reserve for fishing and summer bathing. There is some local involvement in management e.g. local provision of information about possible or already happened violations (e.g. poaching). Sikhote-Alin Nature Reserve is an important employer in the town. Staff are known and the HQ and staff well integrated into the local community – and thus feedback into management activities is common. In the Bikin National Park, 674,184 hectares (58.1%) of territory is explicitly designated for exclusive traditional natural resource use by Indigenous People, who are living in adjacent settlements. Therefore, direct involvement of local people in management and the decision-making process is crucial for Bikin National Park. Resource use and cultural rights are acknowledged in both the establishment of a decree and regulations of the National Park, as well as a Council for Indigenous Minorities, with 15 elected members. Co-management principles have been introduced where the chair of the Committee for Indigenous Minorities serves as one of several Deputy Directors of the National Park, responsible for traditional nature resource use in the territory of the National Park. The National Park is also a major local employer. Bikin National Park is the first national park in Russia that fully takes into account the interests of the indigenous minorities of the North, Siberia and the Far East of the Russian Federation (hereinafter referred to as IM) living here. One of the main tasks set for the national park is the preservation of traditional IM economic activities on the territory of the national park. Today this is the only such specially protected natural reservation (State Party of Russian Federation, 2024). All problems and issues related to the traditional IM crafts: hunting, fishing, tourism or the social sphere of settlements located in close proximity to protected areas, are discussed at the Council of Indigenous Minorities, which was created and operates under the administration of the Bikin National Park, and then brought to the general meeting of hunters.

While the legal framework for protecting individual protected areas, particularly strict nature reserves and National Parks at the Federal level, is strong, the Russian Federation lacks a framework law to define the unified management of World Heritage sites, which often consist of several protected areas of various designations. This is also the case for the Central Sikhote-Alin Natural Heritage Site, where an effective overall management framework for all component parts is lacking. Most of the conservation activities, research and data tend to focus on the activities at Sikhote-Alin Nature Reserve and Bikin National Park, which currently makes up the majority of the site. At the same time, the Goralij Zoological Preserve component, which is a regional Protected Area, is suffering from a lack of coherent management and is not even mentioned in the state of conservation report (State Party of Russian Federation, 2020, 2022, 2024).
The buffer zone of the Sikhote-Alinsky State Nature Biosphere Reserve was established by Decree of the Governor of Primorsky Krai No. 93 dated March 5, 1997.
According to the decree, mining is allowed in part of the territory, which allows the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment to coordinate geological exploration in the protected area of the reserve (IUCN Consultation, 2025).

Both Sikhote-Alin State Nature Reserve and Bikin National Park are federal-level Protected areas under the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources. At the same time, the Goralii biological (zoological) Sanctuary is a regional Protected area managed by the Directorate for the Protection of Wildlife and Protected Areas of Primorsky Krai. The Coordination Council, created in 2019, aims to improve the efficiency of the integrated management of all property components. The Coordination Council consists of representatives from both Sikote-Alin State Nature and Bikin National Park is operational (State Party of Russian Federation, 2024) but no representative from Goralii Zoological Sanctuary. The Committee repeatedly asked the State Party to ensure that representatives from all component parts are represented on the Council (World Heritage Committee, 2021 and 2023) .

Sikhote-Alin Nature Reserve is surrounded on three sides by State Forest Lands (GosLesFund) that are legislatively mandated to be managed as forests, and hence, by definition, they provide suitable corridors and linkage to the newly extended property component Bikin National Park and further to the greater Sikhote-Alin Mountain Ecosystem. However, large-scale logging activities going on in the wider Sikhote-Alin range is an issue for connectivity (IUCN, 2018) and better planning and regulations are needed to ensure long-term protection of the site’s values. There is wide collaboration with stakeholders around the protected areas. The northern boundary of Bikin National Park coincides with the border between the Primorsky and Khabaravsky Krays regions. Therefore, coordination and cooperation across sub-national administrative levels is important, including in terms of buffer zones and broader connectivity considerations. It has also been recommended that consideration be given to strategies ensuring connectivity of Amur Tiger habitat at the landscape level, including adding further areas to the property (IUCN, 2018). The newly adopted Amur Tiger Conservation Strategy (State Party, 2024) might play an important role in ensuring connectivity between the components of the property at the landscape level.

The boundaries appear generally adequate, although Gorali Zoological Sanctuary occupies a very narrow coastal strip and may be subject to strong edge effects. In 2018, the World Heritage Site was extended to include Bikin National Park, established in 2015. The boundary of the newly established Bikin National Park is adequately determined and land tenure rights fully transferred to the National Park in September 2018 by a Government Decree of the Russian Federation (WWF Russia, 2019). The process of establishing a buffer zone of the Bikin National Park is now at the final stage (State Party of Russian Federation, 2024) but the adequacy drafted Buffer zone of the National Park in terms of size and functionality is still questionable due to lack of information (Natural Heritage Committee, 2023). The size and configuration of the buffer zone of Sikhote-Alin State Nature Reserve are sufficient to protect the territory from large-scale logging operations. Logging operations outside the buffer zone are carried out following forest regulations (the State Party of Russian Federation, 2024). However, within the buffer zone, an exploration license for gold was issued in August 2022 for five years (the State Party of the Russian Federation, 2024). This activity might raise specific concerns once exploitation starts.

The Sikhote-Alin State Nature Reserve is a biosphere reserve and in this part the heritage site overlaps with the biosphere reserve programme.

There is some evidence that scientific research from the Biosphere Reserve programme is being utilised in the management of the World Heritage site (State Party of Russian Federation, 2024).

The extension of the Central Sikhote-Alin World Heritage site to include Bikin National Park in 2018 was based on recommendations of the World Heritage Committee (2001). In the the decision of the inscription, the Committee strongly recommended the State Party a) to complete the process of configuration and designation of the property's buffer zone and b) finalize the preparation of the Integrated Management Plan for the extension, to provide a single and cohesive framework for the management of Bikin National Park and the existing World Heritage property Central Sikhote-Alin as a whole (World Heritage Committee, 2018). The process of configuring a buffer zone for Bikin National Park is in the final stages, along with proposals for the expansion of the boundaries of Sikhote-Alin Nature Reserve and an integrated management plan for all component parts has been developed, although this will need to be updated as the current plan period was 2019-2023. To further improve management of the property, a Coordinating Council was created in 2019. The Committee further encouraged the State Party to i) strengthen the involvement of local indigenous people in governance, planning and management; and, ii) develop and adopt a long-term vision in order to ensure connectivity of Amur Tiger habitat at the landscape level, as well as considering extending the property in the future (World Heritage Committee, 2018; 2023). While the former has been addressed, as stated above, regarding the latter, in 2024, the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources approved a new edition of the Amur Tiger Conservation Strategy in the Russian Federation until 2034, which responds to modern challenges and threats to the population of the rare predator (State Party of the Russian Federation, 2024). The strategy can play an important role in the development of ensuring connectivity between two components of the property, namely Sikhote-Alin state Nature Reserve and Bikin National Park. Additionally a new Amur Tiger Center was created whose task is to coordinate the actions of numerous government bodies, research and other structures related to the protection and use of wildlife, public organizations and associations, for the conservation of the Amur tiger (State Party of Russian Federation, 2024).

As data analysis conducted by scientists from the reserve’s scientific department has shown, there is a direct relationship between the number of fires that occurred due to natural causes and climate change, which has been observed over the past 30 years (analysis of data from weather stations in Terney and Melnichny). The frequency and severity of tropical megastorms have increased significantly over the past 50 years and may increase further in the future due to global climate change.
The frequency of tropical cyclones in temperate and boreal monsoon forests has increased over the past 100 years. The main negative impact of the typhoon is associated with its consequences in the form of floods and windfalls. The most catastrophic impact on the forest ecosystems of the reserve was caused by Typhoon Lionrock, which passed through the territory on August 31, 2016 and caused extensive wind phenomena, the area of which in the reserve was about 30 thousand hectares. One of the main consequences of these windfalls is a significant increase in the highest level of fire hazard class in the forest (State Party of the Russian Federation, 2024). Considering these developments, an effective climate adaptation and mitigation approach is necessary at the site level, however there is no information regarding how the management authorities are addressing climate change currently, although research and monitoring activities are being carried out.

The majority of the site's land areas are in the Sikhote-Alin Nature Reserve, established 1935 and Bikin National Park, established in 2015. Sikhote-Alin Nature Reserve has a range of five-year and annual plans, which direct management (and make up the ‘management system’ for the site). These include plans on forestry and science. Annual operational plans linked to budgets include protection and infrastructure. Three-year ‘rolling’ budget plans are approved by the ministry. There is discussion on the need to develop a plan for ecotourism, as well as an integrated management plan for all the components of the site (State Party of the Russian Federation, 2020). Bikin National Park is federally owned, but it is exceptional among Russian National Parks in terms of resource use. On 674,184 hectares (58.1%) of the National Park territory (State party of Russian Federation, 2017), local Indigenous People are permitted to use natural resources for traditional economic activities e.g. hunting, fishing and collecting non-timber products, in line with the Federal decree establishing the Bikin National Park. Accordingly, the regulations of the Bikin National Park legal management framework were approved by the Ministry of Natural resources and Environment in 2016. In January 2017 a management authority of the National Park was established, where a Council of Indigenous Minorities is active to ensure legal rights and to represent interests of the local people. Since the establishment of the Park administration, it has paid special attention to infrastructure development (e.g. establishing check points, increasing mobility, border signs, visitor center etc.), capacity building and communication outreach (State party of Russian Federation, 2020). The Integrated Management Plan for the World Heritage Property "Central Sikhote-Alin" was developed in 2019 and signed off by the Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment of the Russian Federation from 2019 through 2023. The implementation status is unknown due to an information deficit. The implementation of the management plan needs to be evaluated and updated.

Sikhote-Alin Nature Reserve has a three year ‘rolling’ plan, which includes a protection strategy. There are also plans for patrolling, infrastructure, firefighting, etc. A database is maintained on wildlife offences / crime, which is also used to analyze threats. The Protection Units carry out joint patrolling with the Police, Hunting Supervision (adjoining hunting concessions) and Frontier Guards and with a forestry team in logging areas. Threat levels appear to be low; in 2014 six illegal hunts were recorded (of ungulates) and 64 trespasses into the reserve area. This led to fines of 275,000 roubles in total. However, while the reason for a slow recovery of the tiger population after a crash in 2010 is unknown, one possibility is that persistent poaching is preventing growth of the population. Despite the lack of road infrastructure, the National Park is accessible by boat in summer time and by snowmobile in wintertime and potential threats come from neighbouring settlements. In 2019, the Park administration therefore established three checkpoints in the territory and further five checkpoints are being planned (State Party of Russian Federation, 2020). Poaching levels seem to be low inside the Park, but poaching is difficult to address in the headwater areas of the Bikin River due to its remoteness. However, many key areas of the reserve are now equipped with CCTV cameras. With the support of the Wild Animal Conservation Society ANO, the SMART program launched in 2012 continues to operate in the Sikhote-Alin Nature Reserve to increase the effectiveness of anti-poaching activities by monitoring of raids (duration, territory coverage) using the SMART program and adaptive management of raids based on the results of this monitoring. The increasing number of ungulates seems to show success of this approach (State Party of Russian Federation, 2024). Since 2014, there have been 2 operational groups in the reserve, which are equipped with vehicles and all the necessary equipment for self-sustained operation for a long time. As of December 31, 2023, 6 government inspectors worked in these groups. During the period of permitted navigation of small vessels, employees of the protection department regularly patrol the marine area of the reserve in order to identify and suppress violations of the reserve regime. Sea raids are carried out jointly with employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) and the Border Service of the Federal Security Service, the FSS Border Directorate. In Bikin NP the material and technical support for the activities of government inspectors has been significantly improved. Every year the number of raids to patrol the territory increases. As of December 31, 2023, there are five cordons operating on the territory of the national park (Ulma, Omorochka, Takhalo checkpoint, Khomyakovo checkpoint, Valinku scientific station), their arrangement is underway and it is planned to build two more cordons on the territory (State Party of Russian Federation, 2024).

Sikhote-Alin Nature Reserve has been able to increase its budget (thanks to effective management and involvement in high profile international processes such as CA|TS). No information about the funding of the Goraliy Zakaznik is available. The recent establishment of the Bikin National Park was accompanied by an encouraging investment permitting the rapid establishment of critical infrastructure. Over the years, the National Park has benefited from several NGO and bilateral projects (WWF, 2019).

No information on Goraliy Zoological Preserve is available. However, staffing numbers and training are adequate in Sikhote-Alin Nature Reserve and Bikin National Park and gaps in capacity and training are being effectively mitigated. As of December 31, 2023, the number of employees of the Bikin National Park was 86 people. In Sikhote-Alin, the number of employees as of December 2023 is 58 people (State Party of Russian Federation, 2024).

Both Bikin National Park and Sikhote-Alin Nature Reserve prioritise environmental education and interpretation programmes.

Employees of the Sikhote-Alin Nature Reserve scientific department work closely with school forestries of the region: “Taiga Brotherhood of Dym Dymych” (Terney village) and “Potapych” (Plastun village), preparing children for meetings, competitions, teaching the basics of forestry and geoinformation programs “QGIS” for creation, visualization and analysis of geospatial information. The cooperation between the reserve’s scientists and young nature researchers from the Uragus ecological and local history club has been going on for 53 years. The reserve's research staff conduct thematic lectures, practical classes, excursions into the wild for children, organize field research, educational field camps, expeditions, and have become scientific consultants and managers of research works and socially significant projects carried out by schoolchildren. An educational program for children on “Safe Conduct” aims to improve understanding of how to co-exist with tigers (Mukhacheva et al., 2015). The Bikin National Park has an active education programme targeting hunters, children and local residents through regular events such as the "Va: kchay ni" in March, dedicated to the closure of the hunting season; the "Bikin Day" in August, dedicated to the International Day of Indigenous People of the World; and the "Va: kchay ni" in October, dedicated to the opening of the hunting season and celebrating the establishment of the Bikin National Park. The children's club "Friends of Bikin National Park" is very active in engaging children through different activities (State Party of Russian Federation, 2020). Nature guides (employees of the ecological education department) lead environmental tours within the Reserve and provide educational information and booklets for visitors. The Sikhote-Alin Nature Reserve widely covers its environmental activities on its official website and social networks. In 2022, the reserve began publishing its own printed edition, “The Law of the Trail,” with a frequency of 4 issues per year, with a total circulation of 1,200 copies. Overall, in 2022−2023 alone, the reserve released various information products in an amount of more than 15,000 copies (State Party of Russian Federation, 2024). Other important aspects include the reserve's visitor centre with the exhibition of the Museum of Nature, photo and art exhibitions. Through travelling photo exhibitions on the basis of local history museums and other venues, more than 102 thousand people in 2022−2023 alone, could be sensitised for nature conservation in the Primorsky Territory (State Party of Russian Federation, 2024).

In February 2018, the Government of Russia approved a Complex programme for tourism development in Bikin National Park (WWF Russia, 2017) and the tourism strategy "Main strategic directions for the development of eco-tourism in the Sikhota-Alin Nature Reserve for 2024-2030" has been developed (State Party of the Russian Federation, 2024) forming the framework for ecotourism development.
The reserve actively cooperates with 10 travel companies to receive tourist groups. Based on the results of systematic work to provide high-quality tourism products, the Sikhote-Alin Nature Reserve has been highly praised and over the past few years has been the winner of the regional award “In 2022, the Sikhote-Alin Nature Reserve, together with the Tourist Information Center of the Primorsky Territory ANO, held a strategic session with the participation of tour operators of the region, local residents and administration, during which the strengths and weaknesses of the region in the tourism market were identified. In 2023, a comprehensive sociological study among visitors was conducted on the territory of the Sikhote-Alin Nature Reserve, collecting feedback from guests about the quality of the reserve’s tourism products and evaluating the environmental effect of eco-tourism. This is the first study of the kind in the Russian nature reserve system. Today, the reserve has 7 approved walking ecological routes ranging from 4.1 to 95 km (by car) and 1 water route. In 2022, a new tourist route “Trail of Tigers” was improved and opened, the task of which is not only to introduce tourists to the cedar-broad-leaved taiga zone but also to relieve the tourist flow from the coastal tourist cluster of the reserve (State Party of Russian Federation, 2024). Tourist numbers have fluctuated between about 2700 and 4000 visitors per year (State Party of the Russian Federation, 2020). In The administration of the Bikin National Park, together with the Council of Indigenous Minorities, is working to create an integrated network of tourist routes passing through the territory of the Bikin National Park and stopping places for visitors, which are located in areas of the IM traditional way of life. Also, in order to improve the professional competence of IM guides and residents of nearby villages, training sessions are held (State Party of Russian Federation, 2024). Currently, there are 17 tourist routes and 38 stopping areas for visitors on the territory of the Bikin National Park. The number of visitors to this World Heritage Site cluster during 2023 was 1,750.

No natural resource use is typically allowed in Strict Nature Reserves of the Russian Federation (such as the Sikhote-Alin Nature Reserve), and it appears that no natural resource use is allowed in Goralij Zoological Preserve (Bersenyev et al., 2006). However, Bikin National Park is especially designed to allow traditional natural resource use such as hunting and fishing in the Traditional Use Zone (674,184 hectare) by Indigenous People, who are living in adjacent settlements. The National Park has also a Recreational Zone (109,625 hectare) located along the Bikin River and parts of some of its main tributaries, where recreational activities including fishing tourism is allowed. Fishing tourism is controlled through an entrance point to the National Park. Indigenous resource use is granted in defined areas to individuals. It requires no permits and there are not quota system.

Sikhote-Alin State Reserve has monitoring records going back 80 years, all of which are available in the HQ office, and monitoring protocols are in place. Monitoring of tigers (through both track counts and camera trap monitoring) and ungulate population status is included in the long-term research plan. Habitats are mapped (in the 1980s a detailed map and report of all forests were made with details of species, age, etc.). Permanent monitoring of key habitats is carried out. The monitoring is carried out through permanent sample plots and ecological transects in different natural zones. There are 45 sample plots in primary and 22 in secondary ecosystems and six ecological transects exist. Water sources are mapped. Hydro-biological monitoring of water sources both in the core area and buffer zone is part of the Research program. SMART monitoring of law enforcement activities has existed since 2011 (CA|TS, 2015). Currently, the following monitoring activities are carried out annually inside of Bikin National Park: meteorological observation; monitoring of the main animal and bird species; and monitoring of the Tiger population through camera traps (State Party of Russian Federation, 2020).To monitor the degree of threats to the ecosystems of the reserve, employees of the scientific department of the reserve and specialists of the Russian Academy of Sciences conduct monitoring, on the territory of the reserve and the adjacent territory, for assessment of the state of forest ecosystems and the number of common animal species, including the Amur tiger (State Party of Russian Federation, 2024). Monitoring is highly effective but it is questionable how the findings are used for property management and linked to the state of conservation of OUV.

Sikhote-Alin Nature Reserve has been a center of scientific research activities for many decades, with several monographs and ca. 500 scientific articles published. Scientific work in the reserve is carried out in accordance with the Scientific Research Plan, which is approved annually at a meeting of the Scientific and Technical Council. Scientific research in the reserve is carried out both by staff members and third-party specialists on the basis of agreements on scientific and technical cooperation. The staff of the scientific department is 9 employees, 5 of whom have higher education and conduct independent scientific research (State Party of Russian Federation, 2024). International scientific cooperation exists, especially with the Wildlife Conservation Society (Bersenyev et al., 2006). Since establishing the Bikin National Park, the administration has been undertaking inventories of the Park's fauna and flora and studies of predatory vertebrates in the reference ecosystems of the Bikin River Basin (State Party of the Russian Federation, 2020).

An effective management system is ensuring threat levels are kept low. However, potential impacts from threats linked to illegal activities, disease (e.g. canine distemper, WCS, 2014) and climate change remain possible. Large-scale logging activities in the wider Sikhote-Alin range, and especially around the Sikhote-Alin Nature Reserve, are affecting the ungulate population, it increases the risk of forest fires and poaching for the wildlife trade and is also an issue for connectivity. Better development planning at the regional level, dialogue with the logging industry, and regulations are needed to ensure long-term protection of the site’s values.

Forest fires pose the most significant threat to the property, particularly within the Sikhote-Alin Nature Reserve. Each year, the reserve's administration developed a fire prevention and suppression plans tailored to fire hazard conditions, which are then approved by the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources. During 2022-2023, 320.5 km of trails, roads, and mineral firebreaks were cleared to mitigate the risk of fires. Early fire detection is ensured through regular patrols, satellite monitoring, and the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (State Party of the Russian Federation, 2024). In recent years the coordination of the overall property and the effectiveness of law enforcement, education and visitation has been significantly improved.