Preservation of Ecosystems of the Steppe and Forest-Steppe Interflives of the Dnepr and Don

After the ratification in 2022 of the treaties on the entry of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions into the Russian Federation, the most important problem becomes the integration of new territories into the legal, economic, social, scientific and environmental field of our country, including the territorial nature conservation. It cannot be said that over the 30 years during which these regions developed separately from Russia, this direction of environmental activity has changed radically. Moreover, before the separation of Ukraine from Russia in 1991, it was here that the formation of the domestic nature reserve business took place for more than 100 years and its scientific foundations were laid. Through the works of V.V. Dokuchaev, G.N. Tanfilyev, A.N. Krasnov, I.K. Pachosky, E.M. Lavrenko and other naturalists, the Russian school of studying and preserving veldt was being formed, and the practical application of this knowledge for rational agriculture, forestry and water management in the veldt zone was held. In 2022, it will be 130 years since Professor V.V. Dokuchaev and corresponding member, Lieutenant General A.A. Tillo organized in 1892–1898 a special expedition to test and take into account various methods and techniques of forestry and water management in the Russian veldt, which resulted in the development of protective afforestation, the widespread construction of ponds in the veldt regions, the formation of veldt reserves, the experimental station “Kamennaya Steppe” and a network of weather stations. The main arena for the implementation of these plans at the end of the 19th century this is exactly what the current “new territories” have become. The authors of the article are interested in the problems of integration into Russian reality of the network of specially protected natural areas (SPNA) that has developed in the interfluve of the Dnepr and Don for more than 120 years. At the First All-Russian Dokuchaev Conference on the rehabilitation of lands in the region affected by military operations, held on November 9–10, 2023 in Rostov-on-Don, a decision was made to create a “White Book” of environmental crimes, many of which were committed against federal and regional protected areas.