Ministry of Natural Resources and Ecology have been submitted the "Bikin River Valley" Tentative List Submission Format to the Commission of the Russian Federation for UNESCO for the purpose of its further submission to the World Heritage Centre. Due to the two protected areas located in the upper and middle stream of the Bikin River, it is in plan to extend already existing "Central Sikhote-Alin" World Heritage property.

Ministry of Natural Resources and Ecology have been submitted the "Magadansky Reserve" World Heritage nomination dossier to the Commission of the Russian Federation for UNESCO for the purpose of its further submission to the World Heritage Centre. Preparation of the nomination dossier for the only protected natural area within the Magadansky Region was supported by the Governor, Dudov N. N., in February 2005 "Magadansky Reserve" was inscribed on the Tentative List of the Russian Federation.

Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO, yesterday presented UNESCO's climate change initiative at a press briefing held during the 15th Conference of the Parties (COP 15) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

Sites of outstanding universal value inscribed on the World Heritage List - the Palace of Versailles in France, the historic centre of Prague in the Czech Republic and the old town of Cбceres in Spain, for example - can now be explored online by internet users around the world, thanks to an alliance signed by UNESCO and the international corporation Google.

Booklets "The Virgin Komi Forests" - Russia's first Natural World Heritage Property" and "Golden Mountains of Altai - the World Heritage Property" have been published by the Natural Heritage Protection Fund in consort with the Institute of Geography of the RAS, Pechoro-Ilichsky and Katun Reserves, Yugyd Va National Park.

A workshop meeting "Serial natural World Heritage sites: challenges for nomination and management" took place at the International Academy for Nature Conservation on the isle of Vilm in Germany between 7 and 11 of November.

Twelve new members were elected to the World Heritage Committee during the 17th General Assembly of States Parties to the World Heritage Convention, held at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, France from 23 to 28 October. The new members of the Committee are Cambodia, Estonia, Ethiopia, France, Iraq, Mali, Mexico, Russian Federation, South Africa, Switzerland, Thailand and United Arab Emirates. Each country will serve a mandate of four years.

The annual international conference on "Environmental cooperation of the Trans-Baikal region (Russia), the Autonomous Region of Inner Mongolia (China) and the Eastern aimak (Mongolia) in the transboundary ecological regions" held in Chita on the 21-23 of October. Within the conference a workshop "The preparation of the transnational nomination "Daurian Steppes" as a World Natural Heritage site" took place.

During the period from the 25th of September to the 5th of October the IUCN expert mission in Dushanbe, Khorog, Murghab and the Tajik National Park came about for the decision-making over the inclusion a natural site "Tajik national park (Mountains of the Pamir)" on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Second Sub-Regional Meeting on the nomination of the Western Tien-Shan as a transnational serial World Natural Heritage Property attended by specialists from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan was held with the support of the UNESCO on September 22-23, in Tashkent.