The government decided to create a national park “Volcanoes of Kamchatka”

The Russian government decided to create a national park in Kamchatka "Volcanoes of Kamchatka", follows from the document posted on the portal of the official publication of legal acts. The decree of October 9 was signed by Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin.

The park will be created on the basis of two natural parks of regional importance - "South Kamchatsky" and "Klyuchevsky". Its area will be about 887.7 thousand hectares. It will be located in four municipal districts of Kamchatka - Ust-Kamchatsky, Milkovsky, Ust-Bolsheretsky and Elizovsky.

Almost the entire territory of the new park falls on the lands of the forest fund. At the same time, about 142.9 thousand hectares of forest land leased or permanently used will be included in its composition without withdrawal from economic use.

The national park will be transferred to the Ministry of Natural Resources. The Ministry was instructed to provide special protection of natural complexes and facilities, as well as jointly with the government of the Kamchatka Territory to carry out the necessary measures for its creation.

Within six months from the date of entry into force of the resolution, the Ministry of Natural Resources must approve the regulation on the park. The document should include the possibility of amateur and sports hunting in accordance with Russian legislation.

Until June 1, 2027, the department will have to send to Rosreestr documents for entering the boundaries of the park in the Unified State Register of Real Estate. Until December 1, 2029, it is planned to submit to the government a project to transfer forest lands to the category of specially protected areas.

The creation of the park will be financed within the funds provided by the Ministry of Natural Resources in the federal budget. The expenses are attributed to the federal project “Preservation of biological diversity and development of ecological tourism” of the national project “Environmental well-being”.

In September 2023, the UNESCO World Heritage Committee did not include the natural site “Volcanoes of Kamchatka” in the list of World Heritage under threat. Former Deputy Prime Minister Victoria Abramchenko said that the Ministry of Natural Resources is working on the creation of the national park of the same name from 2022. The World Heritage Site "Volcanoes of Kamchatka", included in the UNESCO list in 1996, covers about 4 million hectares and includes several protected areas.

The Governor of Kamchatka Vladimir Solodov in September 2023 told about the refusal of potential investments for 10-15 billion rubles for the sake of preserving the status of a World Heritage Site. According to him, the authorities implemented the recommendations of UNESCO. Among them were raising the protection status to federal and reducing gold mining projects that could harm nature.