The World Wide Fund for Nature reported this week that Russian PM – Vladamir Putin has recently signed a decree that will create a long campaigned for, protected area that wil be home for up to half of all remaining Far Eastern leopards.

Far-Eastern leopards are the only leopard species in the world which are capable of surviving the prolonged cold periods and harsh Russian winters. The leopards now number only about 30 in the wild, and are on the brink of extinction.

They face continual threats from unregulated tourism, forest fires and habitat loss from logging. They also face additional threats from poaching and from the problems associated with inbreeding due to their small population numbers.

The new reserve will join two small protected areas into one, called Leopardovy Zakaznik (Leopard nature sanctuary), and will be managed by the Ministry of Nature Resources of Russia. According to the decree, the ministry will also manage neighbouring Kedrovaya Pad nature reserve.

Before the decree, all three protected areas had been managed by different state agencies whose differing mandates meant that a unified Leopard conservation strategy was not in place. The transfer of jurisdiction to a single authoritiy will allow for a single strategy that places the restoration of the leopard population at the heart of its operations in the area.

WWF proposed this change as early as 1999, in its Strategy for conservation of the Far Eastern leopard in Russia. “We are happy that finally, after all these years, the government has addressed this issue”, says WWF-Russia CEO Igor Chestin. “We hope that the Ministry will immediately start improving management of the protected area to ensure effective leopard conservation. WWF is ready to provide help and advice to the new sanctuary”.

To ensure Far-Eastern leopard protection, WWF created anti-poaching groups in the region. WWF also cooperates with Chinese conservation agencies to create a trans-border system of protected areas that sought to save the leopards habitat from industrial pollution. Education programs to inform locals of the threats facing this extremely rare cat species were set up, while customs agents were trained to track poachers who illegally sell leopard parts to China.

In 2007, WWF built a visit centre for the future protected area, which now will finally be given to the Leopardovy zakaznik, and will hope to create revenue that can go towards making the sanctuary commercially viable.