The Taimyr Peninsula

The preservation of biological diversity has a global character. However, each of the world's very largest biogeographical regions contains certain unique territories that are crucial in giving rise to and supporting the biodiversity and the viability of the area as a whole. In the Arctic, one of the regions that has such a global significance is the Putoran plateau.

The Putoran plateau is a region that boasts a unique natural environment. It is one of the largest mountainous regions of the Russian sub-Arctic, and is located almost completely located within the Arctic Circle. The huge size of the plateau, the vast distances to which it extends from North to South and East to West, as well as its high altitude, have given rise to a unique mixture of communities of wildlife that normally exist in tundra, semi-tundra, taiga and alpine environments.

 MMC Norilsk Nickel provides assistance to the Putoran state nature reserve and to the non-commercial partnership The Working Group on Waterfowl in Northern Eurasia for its "Birds of the Putoran Plateau" research and educational project. The purpose of the project is to establish the current numbers of rare birds on the Putoran plateau, to determine the condition of nesting areas, areas where the birds gather prior to migration, and deplumation. Specialists from the Working Group are conducting a programme of satellite monitoring of the populations of rare and disappearing species of birds on the Putoran plateau, and are carrying out research into migration routes by ringing individual birds during the spring and autumn migrating seasons.

It is particularly important to bring the issue of protecting rare and disappearing birds to the attention of the public at large. Ornithological experts are working on establishing the best methods for protecting each species of rare bird for the new edition of the Russian Red List of endangered species, and are working towards seeing these methods subsequently being adopted.