The Krutogorova river in Kamchatka

• Kamchatka
  • Accomplishments
  • News & Program Updates
  • Protected & Priority Areas
• North America
  • Accomplishments
  • News & Program Updates
  • Salmon Strongholds
• Russian Far East
  • Accomplishments
  • News & Program Updates
  • Protected & Priority Areas
  • Sakhalin Salmon Initiative
• State of the Salmon

The United Nations Development Programme's Global Environment Facility (GEF) has approved a $13 million effort to protect wild salmon in four rivers on Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula, in the first-ever United Nations effort to conserve wild salmon and trout stocks.

The GEF project is being developed in partnership with the Russian State Fisheries Committee, the Kamchatka and Koryak Regional Administrations, Moscow State University and the Portland, Oregon-based Wild Salmon Center. The project will provide $3 million in GEF funds between 2003-2007 to support salmonid fish conservation in four watersheds in western Kamchatka. The GEF support will be matched by funds and in-kind support valued at $10 million from the project partners.

"This will be the first salmon-based program for the UNDP," states Elena Armand, Director of the UNDP-Russia Environmental Unit. "Healthy salmon stocks affect so many aspects of ecology and indigenous cultures. The UNDP believes a wild salmon protection program is a key element in promoting sustainable, traditional societies and ensuring complete, thriving ecosystems."

The Kamchatka Peninsula is one of the last major strongholds for native salmon. Its rivers produce up to one-fourth of the wild salmon in the Pacific Ocean. Wild salmon runs support dozens of species, including the densest concentration of brown bears on Earth and the world's largest remaining population of the endangered Steller's sea eagle, the biggest of the eagles. Kamchatka's salmon are under constant threat by the illegal harvest of caviar and the development of natural gas, gold and other non-renewable resources.

According to Academician Dmitri Pavlov, Chair of the Department of Ichthyology at Moscow State University, "Kamchatka is home to Russia's only population of sea-going rainbow trout [steelhead]. These fish are listed in Russia's red book of Endangered Species and are a protected species in Russia, but they are still being fished to dangerously low levels by poachers. This project will help save the wild Russian steelhead from extinction."

The importance of Kamchatka's salmon runs is reiterated by American participants. "In the United States billions of dollars are spent trying to bring back wild salmon runs," states Wild Salmon Center President, Guido Rahr. "In Kamchatka, a relatively small investment can help Russia avoid the same mistakes we made, and help protect this global treasure for future generations."

The Wild Salmon Center considers Kamchatka a global conservation priority because of its pristine habitat and its diversity and abundance of wild salmon. According to Rahr, "The rivers of Kamchatka contain the world's greatest number of species and stocks of Pacific salmon. The Wild Salmon Center will work over the next twelve months to seek funding from private foundations and individual donors to match the funds generated by the GEF to support this important project."