An original concept of developing a protected nature territories (PNT) system in taiga region has earlier been elaborated on the example of Karelia (Belousova et al., 1992; Sazonov, 1992; Sazonov, Kravchenko, 1995). Along with the commonly accepted nature protection principles the basic criteria of developing the PNT network included the necessity of maintaining biological resources regeneration in taiga ecosystems in the areas where the local inhabitants are engaged predominately in traditional crafts, recreational use possibilities for the protected territories. The following optimum combination of the shares in the protected nature fund structure has been suggested: strict nature reserves and national (nature) parks should occupy 5-6%, landscape (complex) reserves - 8%, specialized nature reserves and nature monuments - 1-2%, it being altogether about 15% of the region's area. Perspective PNT network has been designed for Karelia which considers the creation of 37 new protected objects of the class 'national (nature) park' and 'landscape reserve' which would make by 2005 their total area be 2,1 mln. ha or 11,5% of the republic's territory. Besides, 44 wetlands were singled out, 2 of them being of international and 5-6 - of federal importance.

We consider protected nature territories to be the main guarantee of preserving the region's biodiversity. For example, the existing NPT have 132 (64%) vascular plants species of the 205 included in the Red Data Book of Karelia (1995). However 92 species (45%) were found just on the one PNT of which 51 (25%) - only in the Paanayarvi national park. In this connection perspective network of small specialized botanical and zoological reserves and nature monuments including 65 objects selected by the unified principle - the presence of rare and vulnerable plant and animal species - was elaborated in 1994.