Moscow and Washington have launched a joint environmental megaproject, the first in the history of our bilateral relations. It is an international nature reserve "Beringiya" on the territories of Eastern Chukotka and Alaska.

Mikhail Gorbachev and George Bush Senior agreed to organize a national park named "Bering's Heritage" in June 1990. And now our two current Presidents decided to revive the 20-year-old idea. Bringing the project back to life demonstrates good relations between today's Russia and the USA, says Vladimir Batiuk from the Institute of the USA and Canada of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

"This is evidence that the Russian-American cooperation in the Arctic is developing successfully. The two sides consider that the relations should be based on a dialogue for more efficient solution of all problems."Now the project of creating the park is going through the procedure of interdepartmental endorsement in Russia and the USA, which will, probably, be completed by the end of the year. Meanwhile, public organizations approve of the idea of a mutual nature reserve on the territories of Chukotka and Alaska.

Joint Russian-American programs of monitoring changes in the environment will be able to start there. The project will assist preservation of the unique environmental system of the region, in particular, the sea mammals, bears and rare species of colony birds, says Vladimir Krever, the coordinator of the program of biological variety of the Russian branch of the World Wildlife Fund.

"Back in 1988, the General Assembley of the international environmental protection union recognized a special status of the region of the Bering Straits as a treasury of world significance. Unfortunately, the present day territory of the park and its status do not provide sufficient protection from future economic development. For this reason, a decision to prepare a project of creating a national park was taken in 2001."

Creating this park is one of the conditions of a large Russian-American project. Today the nature reserve "Beringiya" in Chukotka has a regional status.Russia has already created three mutual parks with bordering countries. They are a Russian-Chinese reserve on Lake Khanka where we try to preserve the unique water and swamp plants and animals; the "Daiuria" Russian-Chinese-Mongolian reserve mostly meant to preserve birds' nests; and the Russian-Finnish reserve "Friendship" protecting rare species of trees.

This story is posted on Alaska Dispatch as part of Eye on the Arctic, a collaborative partnership between public and private circumpolar media organizations.