December 29, 2024 marked the 100th anniversary of the founding of Russia's largest cultural and educational environmental organization, the All-Russian Nature Conservation Society (ARNCS). The article discusses the main stages of the crea­tion, formation and development of ARNCS and its main achievements.

The conservation status of the Eastern Crane population and the compliance of the current state of this population with the criteria’s requirements for Category 2 of the Red Data Book of the Russian Federation assigned thereto are considered. Based on our analysis of the published data of the counts of this population number for 19 years during autumn migration in Russia and for 45 years at wintering grounds and the last few years at migration stops in China, it is proposed to consider returning this population to its former status, namely, Category 3 of the Red Data Book of the Russian Federation.

The prevalence of the ecological approach over the historical and partly natural-historical ones in the exposition and exhibition activities of museums may have negative consequences in the perception of the population. In domestic museums, the theme of the history of environmental protection, public environmental organizations, especially youth ones, is poorly represented. Among them are nature protection squads (NPS) and their whole movement, which was most active in the 1970–1980s. Most of their archives have been lost. Therefore, the exhibition at the Voronezh Regional Local History Museum “Youth on guard of nature”, dedicated to the 50^th anniversary of NPS in Voronezh State University, can be considered unique.

From March 24 to June 5, 2023, the Voronezh Regional Local History Museum for the first time among domestic museums demonstrated an exhibition dedicated to the activities of a student public environmental organization in the 1970s–1990s. The article substantiates the uniqueness of this exhibition and the relevance of such museum expositions. It tells about its multitasking and creative solution of a number of issues of the exposition. Questions are raised about the proportionality between the ecological and historical approaches (including the history of ecological aspects of culture) in museum expositions.

The fulfillment of the tasks set by the 1949-1965 State Plan for Nature Transformation became the work of the whole country. Its goal was the development of sustainable agriculture in the steppe and forest–steppe regions of the European part of the USSR. It is an example of a responsible state attitude to the use and preservation of our lands and soil fertility. The State Plan for nature transformation was bases on the integrated reclamation of agricultural landscapes using a scientific systematic approach to the objects of research and management. State authorities, Academy of Sciences of the USSR, scientists from dozens of universities and research institutes, ministries, 80 thousand collective farms, 2 thousand state farms, and 3 thousand machine tractor stations took an active part in the organization and large-scale implementation of protective afforestation and the development of a grass-field farming system. The plan provided for the creation of 8 large state forest strips with a total length of 5,320 km, located along floodplains and watersheds of the Volga, Dnieper, Don, Ural, Seversky Donets rivers etc.; protective forest plantations in the fields of collective farms and state farms; consolidation and afforestation of sands on an area of 322 thousand ha; the introduction and development of a system of field and fodder grass-field crop rotations; and the creation of over 44 thousand ponds and reservoirs. Over the 5 years of the plan's implementation, more than 2.3 million ha of forest plantations have been planted in the country; an ecological framework of agricultural landscapes has been created on agricultural lands; over 13 thousand ponds and reservoirs have been created. The prototype of the scientific basis of the State Plan for Nature Transformation was the works by V. V. Dokuchaev, V. R. Williams and V. I. Vernadsky on the conservation of land and soil fertility. The implementation of the plan stopped in 1953 and the development of virgin and fallow lands began. Currently, the state, scientists, society, regions and agricultural producers need combining their efforts in the rational usage of natural resources, the preservation of agricultural land and soil fertility for the present and future generations.

At the end of the 1960s a movement began for the preservation of Earth's biosphere — the common home for humanity and the receptacle of all life on Earth. This movement united the scientific communities of various countries for many years. 20 years later, at the International Symposium “Biosphere and Humanity. History and Modernity” the development and promotion of the ideas of Academician V.I. Vernadsky, the founder of the Earth’s Biosphere doctrine, were summed up.

The article presents a comparative analysis of the development of the system of protected natural areas (PNA) in China and our country. PNA in China began to form in the middle of the 20th century following the example of the USSR, that is, with the creation of nature reserves with a strict protection regime. In the late 1960s, China saw a suspension in the development of the PNA system and even its partial reorganization, which was also typical for our country a decade earlier. Since the end of the 20th century and to the present, both in Russia and China, the PNA system has been actively developing – the number of protected areas is increasing and they are being restructured in accordance with the categories of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

The exposition of the department "Natural Zones" in the Earth Science Museum of Moscow State University (25th floor, halls Nos 18–20) presents 15 full-scale exhibits of dry 3D fragments of biogeocenoses, namely: spotted tundra; forest tundra; swamps: flat-hummocky tundra, oligotrophic upland and mesotrophic lowland sedge; spruce-green grass; grass-grass and tipchak-grass steppes; subtropical mountain forest; alpine meadows; semi-deserts; deserts – clay, wormwood-solyanka and ilak belosaksaulnik on ridge sands; and savannas. These exhibits demonstrate the interaction of the main natural components characteristic of the respective climatic conditions (soils, flora, and fauna). The article gives a description of the animal species represented in the exposition based on a visual examination of zoological exhibits and a study of their nomenclature and taxonomic changes.

The article analyzes geotourism perspectives based on natural history museums. Significant trends for the integrated development of geotourism and natural history museums are formulated. These trends allow revealing prospective views on the tourist potential of the territory. In order to clarify the geotourism development potential at the place of the Earth’s geochronological key stages, several museums were analyzed in conjunction with the geotoponyms of geological systems in the world. A geoheritage interpretation model, correlating ex situ museums and in situ objects, is developed. It includes territorial aspects and substantive formats of interpretation, depending on the target audience and the format of interaction with geoheritage. Geoheritage evaluation includes three groups of criteria (scientific, educational and geotourism), each being estimated to summarize approaches for the museum representation. The criteria are ranged according to the comparison purpose of in situ and ex situ forms. The variety of geoheritage interpretation forms allows suggesting recommendations for geotourism development. One symbolically significant way is the museumification of in situ and ex situ objects to correlate the museum network and the network of protected areas as a complex tourist infrastructure. For the Perm Region as a historically significant place of the Permian geological system discovery, the priority is to develop a complex plan to integrate the possibilities of geoheritage representation through museum forms and in the natural environment. In view of the objective scientific data, the Perm Region has no GSSP of the Permian system; therefore the role of the “symbolic stratotype” should have the Permian Period Museum as the basic object of the geotourism infrastructure and the starting point of tourist routes. The supportive role in the Permian geoheritage preservation and representation belongs to the network of municipal and university museums.