Kamchatka’s biodiversity is of global status
Biodiversity
The 1,500 km long and 472,000 km² Kamchatka Peninsula is situated between the Okhotsk Sea on the west and the Bering Sea on the east. Due to its previous isolation on account of its strategic military significance, low population density, few roads, small and dispersed settlements, and little large-scale development, most of the peninsula has remained in a largely intact condition and, thus, still possesses globally important biodiversity.
The significance of Kamchatka’s biological diversity is not measured so much by the number of different species, but more by the presence of numerous rare and unique species, species assemblages and ecosystem processes, including volcanic and geothermal ones. Also, a great number of endemic species and subspecies of plants and animals inhabit the peninsula. For example, 10% of Kamchatka’s 1,168 plants are endemic. As a result of its island-like environment, there is a continuing process of diversification among the peninsula’s endemic species and subspecies.
Approximately 10,300 Kamchatkan brown bear (Ursus arctos), the second largest subspecies in the world, are found in pockets throughout the peninsula. The peninsula is also the center of distribution for the largest eagle in the world, the rare Steller Sea Eagle (Haliaeetus pelagicus). Sixty percent of these eagles (some 4,500) make their home on the peninsula. Approximately 1,800 endangered northern sea lions (Eumetopias jubatus) live along the coast, as does the only population of sea otters in the Eastern Pacific. Walrus and the five species of seal found in the North Pacific, along with numerous seabird colonies, can also be found in abundance along the peninsula’s coastline and on surrounding islands. Fifty percent of the global population of Aleutian Tern nest on the peninsula. The diversity described above is supported in large part by the richness and abundance of ichthyofauna in the peninsula’s streams and coastal waters. The peninsula possesses some of the world’s greatest diversity of salmon, trout, and char. All species of Pacific salmon (an estimated one third of the Pacific population) spawn in Kamchatkan rivers.
The Kamchatka Oblast’s network of protected areas (PA’s) currently consists of: 2 Strict Nature Reserves (federal zapovedniks), 17 special purpose reserves or refuges (zakazniks) of either federal or Oblast significance, 4 Nature Parks (Oblast level), 1 Nature Park (local level), and 83 Nature Monuments and other sites designated for their unique features. These PA’s, selected on the basis of various ecological characteristics, biodiversity values and their uniqueness, comprise 27.4% of Kamchatka’s territory.
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Biodiversity Conservation
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