Reserves Set Apart for Science and Wildlife, From a Sable Refuge in 1916 to Hawaiian Atolls in 2006

Established in 1916 to protect the Barguzin sable, this reserve on the eastern shore of Lake Baikal is generally regarded as the oldest strict nature reserve in Russia, and access is limited to scientific research rather than public visits.

Founded in 1919 on the islands and wetlands of the Volga Delta, it protects reed marsh and willow floodplain used by waterbirds, and its waters hold roughly fifty documented fish species, including the beluga sturgeon.

Created by a 1920 decree of Vladimir Lenin in the southern Urals, this was a mineralogical reserve, one of the earliest anywhere set up to protect geology rather than living things.

Madagascar's needle-sharp limestone pinnacles, established in 1927 as a strict reserve; its southern part became a national park in 1997 while the northern section kept strict status, and UNESCO listed the whole site in 1990.

Formally established in 1934 on Kamchatka and tracing its roots to an older sable reserve, it protects active volcanoes and the Valley of Geysers, part of which was reshaped by a major landslide in 2007.

Founded in 1935 to protect the sable, it grew into the core refuge of the Siberian tiger and of old-growth Manchurian forest, and its central portion was inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 2001.

Established in 1979 on the Taimyr Peninsula to protect the breeding grounds of the red-breasted goose and the summer calving grounds of wild reindeer, and named a UNESCO Man and the Biosphere reserve in 1995.

Begun in 1992 as a Polish and Slovak transboundary designation, with Ukrainian territory added in 1998, it joins national parks and landscape parks in three countries under one biosphere reserve.

Designated in July 1996 under the Marine Parks Ordinance, this is Hong Kong's only marine reserve, kept apart from its marine parks to protect rocky shore and subtidal habitats, with research support from the Swire Institute of Marine Science.

Created on June 15, 2006 and expanded more than fourfold in 2016, this Northwestern Hawaiian Islands monument bans commercial fishing, shelters more than 7,000 marine species and is among the largest marine protected areas in the world.