OREANDA-NEWS  Twenty-four specially protected areas will be created within the framework of the national project in Russia by 2024. This information was said on Thursday by the first Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Ecology of the Russian Federation Denis Khramov at a conference in Sochi.

"At least 24 new protected areas should be created before the years 2024: eight reserves, 13 national parks, three reserves, the total area of not less than 5 million hectares should be added to the protected system of the country. Now their total number will be 243 protected areas, including 235-run by the Ministry of natural resources", - said Temples at the all-Russian conference on the development of specially protected natural areas in Sochi.

He added that new specially protected natural areas are already being created this year in Dagestan, Altai, Chelyabinsk and the Komi Republic. Protected areas, which will be created within the framework of the national project, were included in the concept of development of specially protected areas 2020. "These are long-established plans, now is the right time for their implementation. The Federal budget allocates up to 2024 about 6.3 billion rubles with an additional allocation of more than a billion annually for their [SPNA] maintenance," he added.

Director of the Department of state policy and regulation in the development of protected areas and the Baikal natural area Alexei Titovsky added that the implementation of the national project involves the need to create a new regulatory framework. "Given the fact that we have 24 new territories will be created, we need a procedure for the creation and expansion of new protected areas, while we do not have such a document," he said.