Project Profile: The World Heritage Programme in Russia
Implementation of the World Heritage Convention: The World Heritage Programme of the Russian Federation:
Nomination and management of World Heritage sites
Background:
Lake Baikal World Natural Heritage Site, Russian Federation (photo: BfN)
Russia has a huge variety of unique natural landscapes, from desert and natural coastlines to fascinating mountain ranges and vast peatlands. Under the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, outstanding and unique natural landscapes like these must be conserved as part of the heritage of all mankind and to support the livelihoods of people who live in and around such natural treasures.
By ratifying and implementing the World Heritage Convention, the Russian Federation has documented its interest and responsibility regarding conservation of the World Heritage sites in its territory.
Eight natural heritage sites are currently included in the World Heritage List for Russia. One of these is Lake Baikal, which is not only the world’s largest freshwater reservoir containing 20 percent of global fresh water reserves, but is also the deepest and oldest lake in the world.
The project:
Curonian Spit World Cultural Heritage Site (photo: B. Engels)
Since 1994, the German Environment Ministry (BMU) working through the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN) has supported the preparation of nomination dossiers for World Natural Heritage sites in the Russian Federation. Up to 1997, this cooperation mostly took place on a non-governmental basis between the German Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union (NABU) and Greenpeace Russia. Cooperation on world heritage is now enshrined in the programme of a Permanent Working Group on Nature Conservation and Biological Diversity set up under a German-Russian bilateral environment agreement.
Besides nine Russian natural heritage sites recognised by UNESCO (see 
list), the Curonian Spit has been added to the World Heritage List as a cultural heritage site in cooperation with Lithuania.
Further nominations have been prepared and further sites have already been included in the Russian proposal list for future World Heritage nominations.
Alongside support in preparing nomination dossiers for future World Heritage sites, another focus of activity is on managing existing sites. Training events provide those in charge of existing World Heritage sites with support in their management work. Topics include preparing management plans, reporting requirements under the World Heritage Convention, sustainable development of tourism, and land use options.
Conference: Ten Years of German-Russian Cooperation
Conference logo
‘World Natural Heritage in Russia: 10 Years of Russian-German Cooperation’ was held with the support of BfN and BMU at Irkutsk near Lake Baikal from 19 to 21 August 2006.
The conference was organised jointly by the Institute of Geography of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the IUCN Moscow Office and the Russian Natural Heritage Protection Fund. Its purpose was to review the achievements of ten years of German-Russian cooperation under the UNESCO World Heritage Convention and to draw up a medium-term action plan for the Convention’s implementation in the Russian Federation.
German-Russian cooperation has contributed substantially in the last ten years to the ongoing development of the system of Russian World Natural Heritage sites, producing successful outcomes at many levels. These include the use of landscape planning and development of a zonation scheme for the Lake Baikal World Natural Heritage Site, plus numerous training seminars for managers of Russian World Natural Heritage Sites.
The preceding ten years of German-Russian cooperation were commemorated at the time of the conference in a Russian-English brochure, ‘World Natural Heritage in Russia: 10 Years of Russian-German Cooperation’. Russian Conservation News, a periodical, also dedicated an anniversary issue to World Natural Heritage in Russia, including an article on German-Russian cooperation.
Selected World Natural Heritage Sites in the Russian Federation
Western Caucasus World Natural Heritage Site, Russian Federation (photo: BfN)
The Western Caucasus World Heritage Site is located on the Black Sea at the south-western corner of the Russian Federation. The Western Caucasus comprises a range of nature reserves and natural monuments. The Kavkazkiy Nature Reserve alone covers 275,000 ha and Sochi National Park a further 57,000 ha. The area is notable for not having experienced any human impact in recent years. It is also home to 80 percent of the ecosystem types occurring in the Caucasus. The prevailing climate is subtropical at the Black Sea coast; glaciers are found in the alpine zone. A third of the vascular plants recorded in the entire Caucasus occur in this region.
The Uvs Nuur Basin is of special international and scientific importance due to its climatic and hydrological regimes. The steppe has been used by nomads for thousands of years and is home to various threatened animal species and a key staging post for migrating birds. The World Heritage Site covers over 1 million ha; it includes the most northerly of Central Asia’s lake systems. Its mountains are important retreats for snow leopards and agali. The region has been recognised by UNESCO as a cross-border World Heritage Site shared by the Russian Federation and Mongolia.
The nomination dossier for the Putorama Plateau site is complete, but UNESCO has not yet considered its recognition. Rivers have carved out deep gorges and lakes with depths of up to 400 m in a basalt massif up to 1,500 m high south of the Taimir Peninsula in Siberia. The area is known for migrations of huge herds of reindeer. .
World Natural Heritage Sites in the Russian Federation (including year added to the UNESCO World Heritage List):
- Virgin Komi Forests (1995)
- Lake Baikal (1996)
- Volcanoes of Kamchatka (1996, 2001)
- Golden Mountains of Altai (1998)
- Western Caucasus (1999)
- Central Sikhote-Alin (2001)
- Uvs Nuur Basin (2003)
- Natural System of Wrangel Island Reserve (2004)
- Curonian Spit (cultural landscape) (2000)
- Putorana Plateau (2010)
Project information:
Duration: Started 1994
Programme: ‘International’ budget heading, German Federal Ministry of the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety
Region: Russian Federation
Project partners: Russian Ministry of Natural Resources, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Natural Heritage Protection Fund, Greenpeace Russia, WWF Russia, University of Dresden and NABU
Project management at BfN:
Section I 2.3, International Nature Conservation
Contact: Heinrich Schmauder (
heinrich.schmauder@bfn.de)
or Barbara Engels ( barbara.engels@bfn.de)
