If we think of the Sikhote-Alin region as globally unique, Southwest Primorye is even more so. In addition to the high biodiversity of the Sikhote-Alin, the low mountains and elongated plateaus of Southwest Primorye (the eastern fringe of the Changbai Mountain Range) are ideal habitat for Amur leopards. While Amur leopards used to live in the southern Sikhote-Alin, by the 1970s they were only found in Southwest Primorye. The Vladivostok-Ussuriisk corridor, an area representing the highest human population density in all the Russian Far East, acts as a barrier for movement between Southwest Primorye and the Sikhote-Alin. This is evidenced by the fact that the Amur tigers of Southwest Primorye are genetically-distinct from the tigers of the Sikhote-Alin. Much of Southwest Primorye remains wild, but the region faces unique conservation challenges. Centuries of logging and anthropogenic fire have reduced vast tracts of this once densely-forested region to grassland, and poaching of tigers, leopards, their prey, and salmon are serious problems.Add Content...