This year the Curonian Spit National Park celebrates the 34th anniversary of its foundation!
The Curonian Spit is a long (98 km) and narrow (0.35 - 3.8 km) sandy peninsula stretching from the southwest to the northeast from Zelenogradsk to the Lithuanian city of Klaipeda and separating the freshwater Curonian Lagoon from the Baltic Sea. This is the world's longest sandbank. 20 years ago, the Curonian Spit, as a single Russian-Lithuanian site, was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List. Today, two legal organizations located on the both sides of the Lithuanian-Russian border and representing one national park, are functioning and successfully interacting, preserving the unique nature and historical and cultural heritage of the Curonian Spit for descendants.
The author of the photo: Doctor of Geological Sciences, Doctor of Economics (France), prof. Department of Social and Cultural Service and Tourism of the IKBFU Elena Gennadievna Kropinova The National Park "Curonian Spit", located on the Russian territory, and IKBFU is connected by a long history of cooperation in the scientific, educational and educational spheres. On August 18, 2020, the rector of IKBFU Alexander Fedorov and the director of the Curonian Spit National Park Anatoly Kalina signed a cooperation agreement. Common interests and strong partnerships have led to the implementation of a number of joint international projects, such as: “Crossroads - Lagoons as the cultural and historical crossroads of peoples in the South-Eastern Baltic area"(was implemented in the period from 2007 to 2009, https://old.kantiana.ru/crossroads/) and “CROSSROADS 2.0 – Lagoons as crossroads for tourism and interaction of peoples of South-East Baltic: from the history to present” (https://old.kantiana.ru/crossroads2/), which continued the first project. The most significant achievement of the projects was the construction of the Viking Age open-air museum "Ancient Sambia" on the territory of the Curonian Spit National Park in Russia, which attracts hundreds of tourists every year. Currently, within the framework of the Russia-Lithuania Cross-Border Cooperation Program 2014-2020, together with other partners, the projects “Сommon Heritage of Curonian lagoon: from Extraordinary to Familiar - CROSS-HERITAGE” (http://special.kantiana.ru/heritage-lt-ru) and “Ecotourism as a tool for preservation natural and cultural heritage”(http://special.kantiana.ru/ecotour-lt-ru), within the framework of which new educational programs are being developed, new tourist routes are being created, and complex scientific and technical problems are being solved. IKBFU project team congratulates the Curonian Spit National Park on its anniversary, wishes success and hopes for further fruitful cooperation! The project is being implemented under the Cross-Border Cooperation Programme Lithuania-Russia 2014-2020. The budget of the project is 299 823,04 EUR, out of which 224 741,04 EUR will be financed by the EU and 45 099,69 EUR will be financed by the RF , the duration – 24 months. This project is funded by the European Union and the Russian Federation. This publication has been produced with the assistance of the European Union and the Russian Federation. The contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the European Union and the Russian Federation.