The Virgin Komi Forests ( kv, Комилӧн вӧрзьӧдлытӧм вӧръяс, russian: Де́вственные леса́ Ко́ми) is a natural

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...

World Heritage Site A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...

in the Northern

Ural Mountains The Ural Mountains ( ; rus, Ура́льские го́ры, r=Uralskiye gory, p=ʊˈralʲskʲɪjə ˈɡorɨ; ba, Урал тауҙары) or simply the Urals, are a mountain range that runs approximately from north to south through western ...

of the

Komi Republic The Komi Republic (russian: Республика Коми; kv, Коми Республика), sometimes simply referred to as Komi, is a republic of Russia located in Eastern Europe. Its capital is the city of Syktyvkar. The population of th ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

. At 32,800 km² it is the largest

virgin forest ''Virgin Forest'' is a 1985 Filipino period film directed by Peque Gallaga. A self-described B-movie, it stars Sarsi Emmanuel, who plays a barrio lass of Chinese ancestry; Miguel Rodriguez, as a Filipino-Spanish illustrado; and, Abel Jurado, wh ...

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

Geography

The Virgin Komi Forests belong to the

taiga Taiga (; rus, тайга́, p=tɐjˈɡa; relates to Mongolic and Turkic languages), generally referred to in North America as a boreal forest or snow forest, is a biome characterized by coniferous forests consisting mostly of pines, spruc ...

ecoregion An ecoregion (ecological region) or ecozone (ecological zone) is an ecologically and geographically defined area that is smaller than a bioregion, which in turn is smaller than a biogeographic realm. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of ...

. Dominant tree species include

Siberian Spruce ''Picea obovata'', the Siberian spruce, is a spruce native to Siberia, from the Ural Mountains east to Magadan Oblast, and from the Arctic tree line south to the Altay Mountains in northwestern Mongolia. Description and uses It is a medium-size ...

Siberian Fir ''Abies sibirica'', the Siberian fir, is a coniferous evergreen tree native to the taiga east of the Volga River and south of 67°40' North latitude in Siberia through Turkestan, northeast Xinjiang, Mongolia and Heilongjiang. Distribution The ...

and

Siberian Larch ''Larix sibirica'', the Siberian larch or Russian larch, is a frost-hardy tree native to western Russia, from close to the Finnish border east to the Yenisei valley in central Siberia, where it hybridises with the Dahurian larch ''L. gmelinii' ...

, while the most prominent mammals are the

reindeer Reindeer (in North American English, known as caribou if wild and ''reindeer'' if domesticated) are deer in the genus ''Rangifer''. For the last few decades, reindeer were assigned to one species, ''Rangifer tarandus'', with about 10 sub ...

, the sable, the mink and the hare. The site corresponds to Russia's

Pechora-Ilych Nature Reserve Pechora-Ilych Nature Reserve (russian: Печоро-Илычский заповедник, ''Pechoro-Ilychsky zapovednik'') is a Russian 'zapovednik' (strict nature reserve) in the Komi Republic, Russia. It currently occupies 7,213 square kilometer ...

and

Yugyd Va National Park Yugyd Va National Park ( Komi, russian: Югыд ва) is a national park in the Komi Republic, a constituent republic of the Russian Federation. It is Europe's largest national park (ahead of Vatnajökull National Park in Iceland) and it was ...

. Its

status was recognised in 1995, making it the first natural World Heritage Site in the country. This recognition brought the site additional funding from abroad and saved it from imminent logging by a French company ( HUET Holding). However, conservation threats remain,

illegal logging Illegal logging is the harvest, transportation, purchase or sale of timber in violation of laws. The harvesting procedure itself may be illegal, including using corruption, corrupt means to gain access to forests; extraction without permission, o ...

and gold-mining in particular. Deposits of

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile me ...

in the northern part of the Yugyd-Va National Park were to be mined prior to 1995.

Threats

Despite the area's recognition as a World Heritage site, attempts at extracting gold are being actively lobbied by the Head of the Republic and Komi's Ministry of Nature.

Gallery

File:Virgin Komi Forests-119480.jpg,

Sosnogorsk Sosnogorsk (russian: Сосного́рск; kv, Сӧснагорт, ''Sösnagort'') is a town in the Komi Republic, Russia, located on the Izhma River. Population: History The settlement was first established in 1939 as a railway station. It w ...

, Komi Republic File:Entrance to Pechora-Ilych Biosphere Reserve.jpg, alt=, Pechora-Ilych Biosphere Reserve

External links

Virgin Komi Forests
(at the UNESCO World Heritage Site)

a
Natural Heritage Protection Fund
{{World Heritage Sites in Russia, state=uncollapsed Geography of the Komi Republic Ural Mountains Forests of Russia Old-growth forests Tourist attractions in the Komi Republic World Heritage Sites in Russia