The Russian Natural Resources and Environment Ministry has approved the establishment of the Synsko-Voikarsky State Nature Reserve in the Shuryshkarsky District of the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Area, according to a post on the official website of the autonomous area's administration. The reserve will cover 292,000 hectares in the Synya and Tanyu river basins.

Specialists at the Department of Nature and Resources Regulation, Forestry Relations and Development of the Oil and Gas Complex of the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Area say that protection of the ecosystems of the Urals spawning rivers should be the nature area's primary objective. The Synya and Tanyu rivers, which play a significant role in the process of natural reproduction of water biological resources, have been challenged by poaching activities during the period of spawning of valuable species of whitefish: peled, broad whitefish and humpback whitefish.

The draft regulatory legal act on establishing the reserve is currently being discussed by the autonomous area's government. The special protection regime will be imposed at the regional Synsko-Voikarsky Reserve as soon as the regulatory act is adopted. From then on, economic activities will be restricted there.

The Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Area is home to 13 specially protected  areas. There are two state biosphere reserves — Verkhne-Tazovsky and Gydansky; nine state regional reserves — Verkhnepoluisky, Messo-Yakhinsky, Poluisky, Pyakolsky, Sobty-Yugansky, Yamalsky, Nadymsky, Nizhne-Obsky and Kunovatsky; the Polyarno-Uralsky Nature Park; and the Kharbeisky nature complex.