Parks & Reserves: Beringia National Park

"Beringia National Park is the easternmost protected area in Russia. It is located at the meeting point of two continents, Eurasia and North America, and two oceans, the Pacific Ocean and the Arctic Ocean . . . The national park is significant because of its surprisingly rich Arctic biodiversity and wide variety of landscapes . . . It features boundless tundra, high mountain ranges intercepted by fjords, unique sites of ancient maritime hunters, and the vibrant living culture of Chukotka Indigenous peoples . . . Beringia National Park was established on January 17, 2013, but its history goes back several decades earlier. Beginning in the 1960s, different specialists and representatives of environmental agencies of the Soviet Union and the United States of America started discussing the idea of a specially protected territory in the Bering Strait region for the preservation of the rich natural and cultural heritage of ancient Beringia, which is both globally significant and crucial for Indigenous people on both sides of the strait . . . In 1990, the Presidents of the Soviet Union (Russia) and the United States signed two different memoranda confirming the countries’ interest in creating an International Park . . . However, this vision of trans-boundary protected territory was not realized in part because of land management issues . . . In 1993, the Russian Government designated a part of the Chukotka Peninsula as a specially protected natural territory of regional importance, a Beringia ethno-natural park . . . In the early 2000s, the Russian Government changed the park’s status to federal protected area, renaming it Beringia National Park, as intended in the original project . . . The creation of the national park was not the end, but rather the beginning of a long road to preserve this unique territory."