A new national park, ‘Koigorodski’, has been established in the Republic of Komi with an area of 56,700 hectares. The national park is the largest protected intact forest landscape in the southern taiga zone of Russia. Forests are mostly old spruce stands that have been completely out of use. There are almost one hundred rare or endangered plant species and more than 20 protected animal species. The connection with the Tulashor nature reserve in the Kirov region increases the importance of the national park.
The initiative to establish the protected area was made in the late 1990s. Forests have previously been included in the lease areas of the Mondi Syktyvkar mill, but have been excluded from commercial use in accordance with FSC certification principles. Currently, about one million hectares of intact forest landscapes are voluntarily protected by Russian FSC-certified companies. In addition, restrictions to wood harvesting have been placed for 8.5 million hectares of high conservation value forests.
Sources: government.ru, ru.fsc.org