Strict Nature Reserve (Zapovednik)Patrimonio Mundial UNESCOReserva de la BiosferaRed internacional de conservación

Baikal (Baikalsky Nature Reserve)

Russia · East Asia (Siberia)

East Asia (Siberia)Declared in 19691,657 km²

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It protects part of the oldest, deepest and largest lake on the planet, over 25 million years old

Area

1,657 km²

Protection category

UICN Ia

Reserva natural estricta — what the IUCN categories mean

Declared in

1969

Region

East Asia (Siberia)

Climate

Tropical, Templado, Polar / frío

Freshwater World Heritage Biosphere Reserve

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Area: 1,657 km²

Highlight

It protects part of the oldest, deepest and largest lake on the planet, over 25 million years old

Made a zapovednik (a strict nature reserve with very restricted access, the highest category of Soviet and Russian protection) in 1969, it protects the south-eastern shore of Lake Baikal, the oldest lake in the world at 25 million years, the deepest at 1,642 m and the largest by volume of fresh water — it holds around 20% of the Earth's unfrozen liquid fresh water. Inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996, it is the sole habitat of the nerpa or Baikal seal, the only exclusively freshwater seal in the world, and quite how a seal came to be in a lake thousands of kilometres from any ocean is still a matter of scientific study.