"Aslykul" Natural Park territory in Bashkortostan will be nominated for international Ramsar sites status

UFA, 20 January 2017. /Bashinform News Agency, Gulfiya Akulova/. In Bashkortostan "Aslykul" Natural Park area will be nominated for the status of international wetlands, or Ramsar sites. The director of the Ufa Institute of Biology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Doctor of Biological Sciences Vasily Martynenko shared with Bashinform News Agency.

The "Ramsar Convention" or "Convention on Wetlands" was signed in the Iranian city of Ramsar in 1971 to protect wetlands of international importance especially as waterfowl habitat. The territory selection is carried out basing on the complex system of criteria and the "Ramsar sites" status implies provision of a special protection and use procedures of natural resources. In Russia there are currently 35 wetlands of international importance.

The project is approved by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Ecology of Bashkortostan. A bidding dossier of the area as an international wetland will be transferred to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Ecology of the Russian Federation in the near future.

"In case of a positive decision, and inclusion of the object in the International Bureau for the Wetlands Conservation the "Aslykul" Natural Park territory will the first wetland of international importance in the Republic of Bashkortostan. This will clearly raise a status of our region and will make it possible to obtain funds for the monitoring and development of the territory from the United Nations Development Programme funds", said the scientist.