The Ilmen Mountains natural site (the territory is located within the borders of the Ilmensky State Reserve named after V.Lenin of the Ural Branch of RAS) is proposed as a potential mix (natural and cultural) World Heritage property meeting criteria vi, vii and viii. The nomination has been prepared by the Ilmensky State Reserve with consultancy assistance of the Natural Heritage Protection Fund and is approved by the Administration of the Chelyabinsk Region, the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources and the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The 32nd session of the UNESCO's World Heritage Committee took place on July 02-10, in Quebec (Canada). 27 new sites in 25 countries were inscribed on the World Heritage List. UNESCO's World Heritage List now numbers a total of 878 sites, 679 cultural and 174 natural sites and 25 mixed in 145 countries.

On June 9-11, 2008 an international scientific and practical seminar called The Green Belt of Fennoscandia: current situation and future prospects took place in Petrozavodsk (RF). The seminar was organized by RAS Karelian Scientific Center, the Ministry of Agriculture, Fish Industry and Ecology of the Republic of Karelia and the Kostomukshsky State Nature Reserve with the participation of the Finnish Ministry of Environment and the Finnish-Russian Working Group on Nature Conservation. More than 80 experts from Russia and Finland attended the workshop.

The Natural Heritage Protection Fund is starting a new project Enhancing biodiversity conservation and speeding up the local social and economic development through effective use of the UNESCO World Heritage status. The Virgin Komi Forests, which is the first Russian natural property obtained World Heritage status, is chosen as a model site to realize the project. The site consists of two federal specially protected areas (SPA): the Pechero-Ilychsky State Nature Reserve and the Ugyd Va National Park. The project is supported by Matra/KNIP program (Small Nature Management Projects) and is meant for the term of 1 year.

In pursuance of a decision of the XXXI Session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee a UNESCO/IUCN expert mission was held in Russia on April 18-25. The mission's task was to evaluate the current state of conservation of the Western Caucasus World Heritage site, its management situation, and those of the development projects in the areas neighbouring the World Heritage site, which are connected to the pre-Olympic building activities in the Krasnodarsky Krai and the construction of a motor road in the territory of the Republic of Adygeya.