Amur affairs: how the hunting lobby manipulates the Red Book for profit
The population of Amur tigers in the Lazovsky Nature Reserve and the Call of the Tiger National Park in Primorsky Krai has almost halved in recent years, researchers at the protected area told Izvestia. They consider one of the reasons for this to be the intensification of trophy hunting for spotted deer, which is the basis of the tigers' food supply. It became possible after the exclusion of the deer from the Red Book. Tatiana Aramileva, the current director of the Hunting Department of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, participated in making this decision. And quotas for organizing deer, bear and other valuable animals hunting are eventually awarded to the organization established by it. At the same time, the total volume of the trophy hunting market in Primorsky Krai alone and only for the most popular animals among hunters may exceed 1.6 billion rubles per year, Izvestia estimated. How the activities of trophy hunting lobbyists could lead to a decrease in the Amur tiger population in at least two protected areas is in our investigation.
Amur tiger population decline
Scientists have recorded an almost twofold decrease in the number of Amur tigers in some protected areas of Primorsky Krai, Izvestia found out. According to the latest photo surveys in 2024, there are only five adults left in the Call of the Tiger National Park, compared to ten in 2015. And in the neighboring Lazovsky reserve — nine instead of sixteen. This information was confirmed to Izvestia by Galina Salkina, a researcher at the joint directorate of the Lazovsky Reserve and the Call of the Tiger.
"Both in the Lazovsky Nature Reserve and in the Call of the Tiger National Park, the number of tigers is decreasing both according to photomonitoring data and according to their tracking in winter," she stated.
View of the valley of the Milogradovka River in the Call of the Tiger National Park
In her opinion, in addition to poaching, one of the main reasons for the serious decline in the population is the scale of legal hunting near protected areas. And first of all, the spotted deer, which occupies up to 70% of the tiger's diet.
Despite this, the authorities of Primorsky Krai have increased the quota for shooting spotted deer by 10% this year, to 4,461 individuals. The initiators of this decision do not believe that it will affect the tiger's food supply.
— We are increasing quotas because scientific data tells us this. We do this based on the population. And to issue permits for deer and bears to those who help establish the number of populations by footprints," Andrei Andreichenko, chairman of the Committee on Food Policy and Environmental Management of the Primorsky Territory Legislative Assembly, told Izvestia.
Spotted deer in the valley of the Milogradovka River in the Call of the Tiger National Park
Izvestia also sent a request to the regional administration.
But animal population monitoring data may be distorted, two Izvestia interlocutors familiar with the situation noted. Moreover, they did not rule out the existence of a scheme where certain species of animals that are interesting from the point of view of trophy hunting are deliberately excluded from the Red Book or not included in it. And this may be related to the business interests of specific people, both in the Ministry of Natural Resources and in the management of specially protected natural areas.
Facts about the Amur tiger:
— The Amur tiger is the only subspecies of tiger that can live in conditions of low temperatures and in places where snow lies for a long time.
— For a comfortable life, he needs huge territories — from 500 to 1 thousand square kilometers. per individual.
— In the twentieth century, mass hunting, active deforestation and reduction of the tiger's food supply brought it to the brink of survival. At one point, there were only about 50 individuals left on the planet.
— In 2010, in order to preserve this species, 13 countries held a special Tiger Forum in St. Petersburg, which adopted a global program to restore its numbers.
— Currently, the vast majority of tigers live in the Russian Far East and China, with isolated individuals in 11 other Southeast Asian countries. The Russian population is about 750-780 individuals.
How the spotted deer was excluded from the Red Book
Up to a certain point, hunting for spotted deer was prohibited — it was included in the Red Book of Russia. But in 2021, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment's commission on rare and endangered animals removed the protected status from this species. Another high—profile decision of the commission was the refusal to include the Himalayan bear, a valuable trophy hunting object, in the book. Some scientists attribute this to the strong lobby that representatives of hunting farms have created in the commission.
—[Before the vote], scientists were gradually removed from the commission and replaced by hunters who voted as they should,— Galina Salkina said.
Himalayan bear
As a result, many of the scientists' arguments were ignored, and decisions were made based on questionable statistics, Sergei Kolchin, a researcher at the Institute of Water and Environmental Problems of the Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, told Izvestia. For example, at that time there was a high mortality rate in the Himalayan bear population, but the official number, on the contrary, increased by almost 50% over the year, the scientist recalled.
— This contradicted even the biological properties of the bear population, which cannot grow by more than 25% even in the most favorable conditions. That is, such numbers were simply drawn, probably to defend this species among the hunting ones," the scientist believes.
Among others, the commission at that time included Tatiana Armileva, at that time the head of one of the largest associations of hunters, Rosokhotrybolovsoyuz. She had a reputation for significantly reducing the Red List, which, in her opinion, had grown too large and "reached 5 kilograms." She personally sent a letter to the members of the commission (Izvestia has it), claiming that "the number of the white-breasted bear is stable and has a tendency to grow," and insisting that "the wrong time, the wrong species and the wrong state of the population is based on the emotions of people who do not live side by side with this beast, change [his] status."
Tatiana Aramileva
It was after the commission's decision of 2021 that sika deer hunting became possible. This has significantly expanded the profitable business of organizing VIP hunting tours. Moreover, among those who began to receive quotas for the shooting of animals was the public organization Institute for Sustainable Environmental Management, founded by Tatiana Aramileva and her ex-husband Vladimir Aramilev.
How much does trophy hunting business bring in?
In the case of trophy hunting on the territory of Primorsky Krai alone, we are talking about a billion-dollar business, Izvestia estimates.
Formally, a deer shooting license costs 20 thousand, and a bear — 80 thousand. However, a full package of bear hunting costs 250-300 thousand for one hunter, groups usually consist of 3 people, according to ads on specialized websites.
And deer hunting in Primorsky Krai will cost from 50 to 250 thousand, Sergey Lavrinenko, owner and director of the Slavyansky Trofey hunting club, told Izvestia.
Thus, even based on average values, the volume of the trophy hunting market in Primorsky Krai alone and only for the four most popular animals (spotted deer, raisins, brown and Himalayan bears) can be estimated at 1.6 billion rubles per year.
Including hunting for spotted deer can bring the organizers 446 million rubles (4.4 thousand quotas with an average cost of 100 thousand per person); for Himalayan and brown bears — 845 million rubles (1.4 thousand quotas for the sale of tours to an average of two hunters per license for 250 thousand. rubles) and raisins — 368 million (3.68 thousand quotas with an average cost of hunting 100 thousand).
Part of this money goes to specialized travel agencies offering similar tours. However, the vast majority of the money goes to hunting farms on whose territory hunting is conducted. Fans of this type of recreation do not purchase a full-fledged voucher, but negotiate individual services directly with hunting farms, states Sergey Lavrinenko. .
— Even if the client contacts the tour operator, this is a one-time interaction. After the first trip, the next time lovers of this type of recreation turn directly to the hunting farm that owns the hunting grounds. How formally they formalize such transactions is anyone's guess," Sergey Lavrinenko said.
How much can the Aramilevs earn from trophy hunting?
In 2024, the Institute for Sustainable Nature Management received a quota from the state for 130 deer, 50 raisins, 5 brown and 5 Himalayan bears. This year, quotas for deer have increased to 157, while others have remained the same.
Thus, the organization could earn 4.4 million solely on the sale of licenses, and potentially, taking into account the income from organizing full–fledged tours for hunters, up to 31.5 million. At the same time, the organization's financial statements for 2024 reflect revenue from all activities of 5.4 million and a loss of 124 thousand.
Tatiana and Vladimir Aramilev were listed among the founders of the organization until December 2021. Then the information about the founders of the organization was hidden from public access.
Vladimir Aramilev
Moreover, in 2015, Vladimir Aramilev became the head of the joint directorate of the Lazovsky Nature Reserve and the Call of the Tiger National Park. And his current wife, Anna Aramileva, became the chairman of the Board of Directors of the Institute of Sustainable Environmental Management. In May 2025, Tatyana Aramileva was appointed head of the Department of State Policy and Regulation in the Field of Protection, Use of Wildlife and Development of the Hunting Industry of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment of Russia.
A month after she took office, the media reported that the agency had transferred work with the Red Book to her department, including decisions on the entry and exclusion of species from it.
Thus, a situation has developed that can be regarded as a conflict of interest, lawyers believe: the organization, whose ultimate beneficiaries may still be the Aramilevs, benefits from decisions made by the relevant department of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, headed by Tatyana Aramileva and the commission in which she is a member.
Izvestia sent a request to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment with a request to assess this possible conflict of interest.
Even if Aramileva withdrew from the founders of the Institute of Sustainable Environmental Management, she can be recognized as an affiliated person through her ex—husband and his current wife, lawyer Maxim Kalinov believes.
Maxim Kalinov believes that such a situation may well become the basis for the appointment of a pre-investigation check. Lawyer Pavel Korniako agrees with him.
— Based on these facts, there is a reason to send motivated inquiries to the Prosecutor General's Office and the Investigative Committee. I see here the grounds for conducting a pre-investigation check. The conclusions of the environmental and environmental expertise are needed. It is necessary to establish the existence of circumstances that hinder the further activities of the director of the department in his post, and to assess the presence of crimes or administrative offenses in the field of environmental management. This assessment should be given by the investigative authorities," Pavel Korniako said.
View of the valley of the Milogradovka River in the Call of the Tiger National Park
In his opinion, in addition to conflicts of interest, such actions may have signs of violating Articles 285 and 286 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (abuse and abuse of official authority).
— She could use her official position for selfish purposes and actually lobby for this decision, having authority, in order to make a profit. It is quite simple to check it. It is necessary to establish how many vouchers were sold, confirm the illegality of the exclusion of deer from the Red Book and assess the damage. If it is more than 500 thousand rubles, then it is considered a large amount," said lawyer Pavel Korniako.
Government order for your own
The Primorsky Krai Prosecutor's Office has already drawn attention to the activities of the Institute for Sustainable Environmental Management and its connection with Tatiana Armileva.
In 2009, Aramileva headed the Department for the Protection, Control and Regulation of the Use of Wildlife in Primorsky Krai and signed a state contract with the Institute for Sustainable Nature Management (of which she was the founder) to assess the quality and efficiency of reproduction of the spotted deer population.
The deputy prosecutor of Primorsky Krai filed a lawsuit with the Arbitration Court and obtained the cancellation of the state contract. The court confirmed that Tatiana Aramileva, on the one hand, approved the tender documentation for the competition, supervised its progress, concluded a state contract, and at the same time was the founder of the organization that won this competition on an uncontested basis. The court found this to be a violation of Part 4 of Article 7 of Federal Law No. 94-FZ on Public Procurement.
— In the court's decision, the affiliation of the person who made decisions on the state order is indicated directly. If I were the prosecutor's office, I would not just limit myself to a formal lawsuit and the cancellation of the decision. There were also criminal charges to be considered here — abuse and abuse of official authority, violation of competition policy when placing government orders. At that stage, the official was not stopped. As a result, she went on a promotion and continued her activities," Pavel Korniako believes.
Dismissal of scientists
Tatiana Aramileva and Vladimir Aramilev did not respond to Izvestia's calls to available phone numbers or official inquiries. From open sources, it can be understood that Vladimir Aramilev does not consider the number of tigers in the Lazovsky Nature Reserve and the Call of the Tiger National Park, which he directs, to be a problem, as well as active deer hunting.
In his interviews, he calls the grouping of tigers stable, and their food supply sufficient. "The Amur tiger population in the Lazovsky Reserve has been fairly stable for the last 10 years. Every year, employees record 10-12 tigers and 3-5 tiger cubs," he said in an interview.
According to Aramilev, the Lazovsky district has been characterized by a high density of tiger habitat in recent years — 10,000 hectares per individual, which is several times less than, for example, in the Sikhote-Alinsky Reserve.
— For many years, the Lazovsky Nature Reserve has been such a maternity hospital for tigers. One year there is one brood, and in another year there are two or three at the same time," says Vladimir Aramilev.
However, Galina Salkina interprets these data in a completely different way. According to her, due to hunting on the borders of protected areas, tigers, bears and deer cannot fully disperse from the reserve and the park. Therefore, they are losing their importance as reserves and maternity homes for animals.
— Aramilev reports that broods are celebrated every year, there are a lot of cubs. But in fact, this suggests that the mortality rate of tiger cubs is high, they do not live to the age at which they begin to live independently and move out of the park. The fact is that tiger cubs begin independent life at about two years old. That is, if in the first winter of their life the female has small tiger cubs, then in the second winter of their life they still live in the territories of the female mother. And if the female's brood disappears, then in the second winter small tiger cubs appear again," said the researcher.
According to the scientist, it was her assessment of the impact of hunting on the tiger population that was the reason for the recent attempt to dismiss her. This story itself caused a resonance in the scientific community.
In February of this year, the Joint Directorate of the Lazovsky Nature Reserve and the Call of the Tiger National Park abolished the scientific department and created a "monitoring department" instead.
Scientists with extensive work experience and hundreds of scientific articles, Galina Salkina, Inna Voloshina and Alexander Myslenkov, were offered the positions of cleaners and locksmiths or dismissal. They refused the offered positions and temporarily lost their jobs. Experts are sure that the real reason for this is their active efforts to protect the tiger and combat hunters.
Our research shows that hunting in the territories adjacent to the reserve threatens the tiger population. Hunters and poachers scare the animals away. They are becoming more cautious. It's getting even harder for tigers to hunt. Hunters not only undermine the number of deer, but also negatively affect their sex and age composition. In most cases, predators take individuals from the younger and older age classes, and humans mostly take adults," says Galina Salkina.
The scientists challenged the dismissal and won the case — the court ordered the management of the reserve to reinstate the scientific staff.
The specialists returned to work. However, on September 11, Alexander Maslenkov was fired again, allegedly for absenteeism. According to him, one day he was actually absent from his office that day, as he was in the forest and choosing places to install camera traps. Galina Salkina does not rule out that she may also be fired again on far-fetched pretexts.
The Amur Tiger is included in the Red Book of the Russian Federation. This species has been threatened with extinction mainly due to anthropogenic impact.
Since 1997, the federal target program "Conservation of the Amur Tiger" has been operating in Russia. In 2024, its third edition was adopted, which is valid until 2034.
By 2024, it was possible to stabilize the number of the species at the level of 750-780 individuals and expand its range.
The main threats to the predator in the state program are habitat reduction, poaching, as well as an inefficient vision of the hunting industry. And one of the crucial conditions for maintaining the viability of a predator's population is the achievement of an optimal number of ungulates and other prey items.
The Lazovsky Nature Reserve and the Call of the Tiger National Park are included in the list of protected areas for the implementation of the strategy.
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