Preserving the Future for 100 years

On June 4^th Darwin Museum opens a photo exhibition to mark a 100^th anniversary of Astrakhan region flora and fauna preservation. About 50 photos will tell a century-old history of the biosphere nature reserve depicting places where no man has travelled before, as well as portraits of unique inhabitants of the largest river delta in Europe – The Volga Delta.

Astrakhan Nature Reserve is taking part in the festival “Meet the Nature Reserves!”, promoting preservation of biodiversity and protection of rare flora and fauna species, eco-tourism and volunteers help movement in nature reserves.

In 2019 Astrakhan Biosphere Nature Reserve is celebrating 100^th anniversary. During the century of its existence the population of semi aquatic and aquatic birds has almost completely been restored since the beginning of the 20^th century, when they were at danger to become extinct. Moreover, natural living conditions of numerous mammal species have been preserved to support the biodiversity of the region; gallery forests and reed thickets were saved to serve as a model of one-of-a-kind Volga Delta ecosystem. Today more than 300 species of birds, 60 species of fish and over 30 species of mammals inhabit the territory of the nature reserve.

Astrakhan Biosphere Nature Reserve is proud of having succeeded to preserve and increase the number of Nelumbo - a genus of aquatic plant also known as “Lotus”  – one of the most beautiful and ancient representatives of the World flora. A century of hard work made it possible to largely expand the area of Nelumbo growth as well as to greatly increase its number, so that tourists from all over the world would be able to enjoy its beauty.