On October 14, Nature Reserve Workers Day is celebrated throughout Russia. The holiday was established in 1999. This decision was made at an all-Russian seminar, which took place in Vladivostok. Since then, every year workers of nature reserves, supervision services, natural and national parks, and public organizations celebrate their professional holiday.
It is difficult to overestimate the contribution of these people to the common cause. They face a difficult task - maintaining and enhancing the natural diversity of Russia. Unfortunately, the holiday never became official. In 2000, the department in which it was planned to introduce this initiative for discussion was abolished.
Darwin's theory of the evolution of species became a reflection of the merciless law of nature - those living organisms that cannot adapt to changing environmental conditions sooner or later die out. From century to century this mechanism worked without failure. Genetic diversity allowed nature to select the strongest and weed out the weak, but one species decided to go the furthest.
Over time, he began to call himself the master of the planet, who managed to subjugate nature itself. She, in turn, obediently allowed herself to be subjugated, occasionally reminding her that not a single living creature could resist her power and strength. And the mechanism, which had worked flawlessly for thousands of years, began to produce errors one after another. The strong and fit began to die out because a mysterious anthropogenic factor began to interfere with their lives. It destroyed forests and fertile lands, polluted water, littered the entire planet with garbage, killed animals that were of particular value, and, ultimately, even changed the climate - weather patterns that, since the beginning of time, were subject only to nature.
Man is a creature that stubbornly cuts down the branch on which it sits. He recklessly uses the free gifts of nature, as if there will be no future generations for whom it would be worth leaving even crumbs of these riches. However, not all people live only for today. When we realized that nature will not always be so flexible, and technological progress carries the seeds of chaos, protected areas began to appear. In them, life goes on as usual, as if the anthropogenic factor had never interfered with the course of evolution. Today in Russia there are already 13,000 specially protected natural areas.
The very first national parks of our country were Sochi and Losiny Ostrov. They were created only in 1983, and the history of the reserves began much earlier. In 1917, the Barguzinsky Nature Reserve was opened, which is located on the territory of the North Baikal region. In 1920, the Ilmensky Nature Reserve was opened in the Chelyabinsk region. However, the idea of conservation has existed for a long time. In the second half of the 19th century, the Russian Empire experienced a sharp surge in economic development. Forests began to be actively cut down for arable land, rivers became shallower, animals and plants became extinct.
Even then, the country's intellectual elite perfectly understood the importance of environmental policy. V.V. Dokuchaev, G.A. Kozhevnikov, G.F. Morozov, I.P. Borodin - it was these outstanding natural scientists who laid the foundation for the conservation of Russia, on which their followers built the continuation of this idea, which survived wars, revolutions, coups and economic upheavals.
Today, the nature reserve business in Russia is alive and developing. Experts managed to save hundreds of rare species of animals and plants that were on the verge of extinction. Thanks to the system of specially protected natural areas, they were able to preserve natural landscapes and unique natural objects in their pristine beauty, which amazes the imagination of people exhausted by urbanization. Preserving biodiversity is just one of many tasks facing specialists from nature reserves, national parks, and ecologists who celebrate their professional holiday on October 14.