Yugyd Va

Yugyd Va National Park was established in 1994 in the Komi Republic, on the western slope of the Northern and Subpolar Urals, and at almost 19,000 km² is the largest national park in Russia. Its name means "clear water" in the Komi language, in allusion to the transparent rivers that descend from the mountains.

Together with the neighbouring Pechora-Ilych zapovednik it forms the natural property Virgin Komi Forests, inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1995 and the first Russian natural property to enter the List. It protects the largest expanse of virgin boreal taiga left in Europe: a forest of spruce, fir, larch and Siberian pine that has never been felled and that extends unbroken across plain, foothill and mountain.

The relief rises from the plain to the summits of the Subpolar Urals, the highest in the whole range, with glaciers, cirques and high lakes, mountain tundra and rocky ground. The fauna includes forest reindeer, elk, wolverine, sable, brown bear and a valuable fish fauna, with Atlantic salmon and grayling running up the rivers. The main conservation problem has been pressure from mining: the existence of gold deposits within the park's boundaries has prompted repeated attempts to excise land from the protected area, which UNESCO has flagged as a threat to the outstanding universal value of the property.