Protected areas (PA) are component parts of the national wealth
forming, together with rare and endangered plant and animal species of the
Red Data Book of the Russian Federation and Red Data Books of its republics, the reserved nature fund of the Russian Federation, and are provided with special protection by the state. The basic law governing PA's is the Federal Law about "Protected areas".
The new law defines territories with 7 statuses as protected areas: strict nature reserves (zapovedniks), nature reserves (zakazniks), national parks, nature parks, nature monuments, forest-parks, botanical gardens, therapeutic areas and health resorts
The law is however a framework document. Being a Federal law it does not take the specific features of the Leningrad region and the subjects of the Federation located in its territory into account.