100 YEARS OF STATE RESERVE IN ASKANIA-NOVA: ORIGINS, DEVELOPMENT, RESULTS

Abstract

The purpose is historical and natural protected analysis of consequences after announcing of acclimatization park and reserve steppe of F. Falz-Fein as People’s Reserve Park. Creation, development and getting the scientific and natural protected results at the Biosphere Reserve "Askania Nova" from the end of XIX to the beginning of XXI centuries were researched using the historical method, analysis of papers. During the development of Askanian protected objects for the first time some unique state legislative acts were developed and adopted; a number of hypotheses of the spontaneous development of steppe ecosystems, acclimatization, hybridization, methods of preservation of rare species, and the conducting of a modern conservation work in the steppe zone were verified. For 100 years the institution had gotten status of a biosphere reserve according to UNESCO Programme "The Man and Biosphere"; Animal Collection of Zoo was recognized as the National Scientific Heritage; the botanical garden has been given a status of the Dendrological Park "Askania Nova" with state significance, the protected site "Great Chapelskyi Depression" was certificated as Wetlands of International Importance, and the Reserve was included in the Pan-European Emerald Network. Announcement of the private acclimatization park and the protected steppe of F. Falz-Fein as the People′s Reserve Park had played a key role in the further conservation of zonal steppe ecosystems, the zoo with semi-free keeping of animals and dendropark with irrigation by artesian waters, and the recognition of the reserve "Askania-Nova" as a conservation center for biodiversity at the international level.