The main objective of the Red Book of the Rostov Region is the preservation and restoration of rare and endangered species of plants and animals of the Don region. The first edition of the regional Red Book was published in 2004 and, according to the regulations, is subject to reprinting every 10 years. Today, the third edition of the Red Book, which was published at the end of 2024, was presented to the public. The updated edition contains information on 254 species of animals and 261 species of plants and fungi.
Over the past 10 years, scientists of the Don region (botanists, zoologists) have been painstakingly working - monitoring the condition and population size of rare and endangered species of animals, plants and fungi. The staff of the Azov-Black Sea branch of the State Research Center of the Russian Federation “All-Russian Research Institute of Fisheries and Oceanography” (VNIRO) contributed to the work on the Red Book. The head of the center of aquatic biological resources of the branch, PhD Valery Luzhnyak acted as the compiler of a number of species essays on representatives of aquatic biological resources (sterlet, Russian sturgeon, stellate sturgeon, beluga, white-eye, golden or common crucian carp and other fish species).
78 species of animals and plants were added to the new edition of the Red Book, and 53 taxa, on the contrary, were excluded from the list of protected objects. The representatives of the latter include the migratory form of the Azov-Black Sea shemaya of the Don River basin, which was excluded from the list of endangered animals due to the increase in numbers and expansion of its habitat. Its exclusion became possible thanks to the biological technology of artificial reproduction of this fish species developed by scientists of the Azov-Black Sea branch of VNIRO. As a result of the development of the technology and its practical application, it was possible to restore the population of the migratory form of the Azov-Black Sea shemaya of the Don River basin to a high level with the status of a biological species with a recovering population confirmed by scientific research.
The importance of the work carried out by scientists of the Azov-Black Sea branch of VNIRO in the process of restoring the population of the migratory form of the Azov-Black Sea shemaya was also emphasized at the presentation by the Minister of Natural Resources and Ecology of the Rostov Region Mikhail Fishkin.
Press service of VNIRO
