Sikhote-Alin

Infobox World Heritage Site
WHS = Central Sikhote-Alin


State Party =
Type = Natural
Criteria = x
ID = 766
Region = Europe and North America
Year = 2001
Session = 25th
Link = http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/766The Sikhote-Alin (Сихотэ-Алинь, also spelled "Sikhotae-Alin") is a mountain range in Primorsky and Khabarovsk Krais, Russia, extending about 900 km to the northeast of the Russian Pacific seaport of Vladivostok. The highest summits are Tordoki Yani (2,077 m), Ko Mountain (2,003 m) in Khabarovsk Krai and Anik Mountain (1,933 m) in Primorsky Krai.

Sikhote-Alin comprises one of the most extraordinary temperate zones in the world. Species typical of northern taiga (such as reindeer and the brown bear) coexist with tropical species, the Amur leopard, Siberian tiger, and the Himalayan bear. The region holds very few wolves, due to competition with tigers.cite web | url = http://www.savethetigerfund.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Search1&template=/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentFileID=559 |title = Tigers and Wolves in the Russian Far East: Competitive Exclusion, Functional Redundancy, and Conservation Implications | publisher = savethetigerfund.org | accessdate = 2008-07-09] The oldest tree in the region is a millennium-old Japanese yew. [http://adm.khv.ru/invest2.nsf/pages/ru/rehabcentre.htm]

In the 1910s and 1920s, Sikhote-Alin was extensively explored by Vladimir Arsenyev (1872–1930) who described his adventures in several books, notably "Dersu Uzala" (1923), which in 1975 was turned into an Oscar-winning film by Akira Kurosawa. The large Sikhote-Alin and Lazo wildlife refuges were set up in 1935 to preserve the region's unusual wildlife.

In 2001, UNESCO placed Sikhote-Alin onto the World Heritage List, citing its importance for "the survival of endangered species such as the Chinese Merganser, Blakiston's Fish Owl, and the Amur tiger". World Heritage Area has a total area of convert|16319|km2|acre, of which the terrestrial core zone of Sikhote-Alin Zapovednik comprises convert|3985|km2|acre. [cite web | url = http://www.unep-wcmc.org/sites/wh/sikhote.html | title = Natural site datasheet from WCMC] The core zone can only be explored in a company of rangers.

Related article

*Sikhote-Alin Meteorite

References

External links

* [http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/766 Sikhote-Alin as a World Heritage Site]
* [http://www.nhpfund.org/nominations/sikhote-alin.html Central Sikhote-Alin] at [http://www.nhpfund.org/ Natural Heritage Protection Fund]