The nature reserve fund of the steppe regions of southwestern Russia: history of formation and prospects for development

The article briefly describes some historical aspects of nature conservation in four regions of the Russian Federation located in the south-western part of the steppe zone: Kherson and Zaporozh’e regions and the Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics. The foundations for the national nature protection system were laid here in the basins of the lower reaches of the Dnieper and Severskiy Donets at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. First attempts of V.V Dokuchaev in creating virgin steppe protected areas - scientific stations on the experimental fields in Derkul and Veliko-Anadol forestries on the territory of present LPR and DPR, as well as F.E. Falz-Fein’s first private nature reserve, were the starting point to the future system of protected areas in the USSR and today’s Russia. It was these experiments in the Donbass and the Azov regions that were highly appreciated by the Permanent Nature Conservation Commission of the Imperial Russian Geographical Society, established in 1912, and included in the first plan for the geographical network of nature reserves in Russia presented by V.P. Semenov-Tian-Shansky in 1917.Currently, there is an active process of integrating the territories of the natural reserve fund from four subjects of the Russian Federation into the state system of protected areas. Summarizing long-term experience in the reserves of Novorossia and Donbass will allow us to develop optimal conservation measures for steppe ecosystems. This article discusses the prospects for optimizing and expanding natural reserves.