On the new edition of the Red Data Book of the Russian Federation (Animals) and role of the Federal Scientific Center of the East Asia Terrestrial Biodiversity, FEB RAS in its preparation

Abstract

In December 2021, the electronic version of the second official edition of the Red Data Book of the Russian Federation, the main state document necessary for the protection of rare and endangered species (subspecies, populations) of animals was published. The issue includes information on 158 species of invertebrates, needed to be protected, 42 – cyclostomes and fish, 9 – amphibians, 39 – reptiles, 127 birds and 68 mammals.
The Federal Scientific Center for Biodiversity was involved in the Red Book writing along with 33 other organizations of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education, and Ministry of Natural Resources and Ecology. Seventeen scientists of the Center became the authors and co-authors of 49 out of 443 species essays, i.e. more than 11 % of their total number. Indirect participation in the form of consultations and cited sources was taken by the majority of the zoologists of FSC of Biodiversity. These facts illustrate the leading role of the Center in the study and conservation of the Russian fauna and the highest level of competence of scientific staff, as well as the prospects for further study biota in the south of the Far East, where the Russia’s largest center for the biodiversity of terrestrial ecosystems and the second center for freshwater biodiversity after Lake Baikal is located.
The need for organizing a specialized structural unit in the FSC of Biodiversity for studying the scientific foundations of biodiversity conservation and the use of bioresources of Primorsky Krai is discussed.