Formation of the flora and fauna of Uzbekistan with its geography and a great diversity of natural conditions had a complex evolution. At present, the territory of Uzbekistan is represented by a wide variety of natural landscapes and ecosystems of the plains, deserts, semi-deserts and steppes to the mountain and foothill areas, enabling the existence of a very rich biodiversity in the region.
The Republic of Uzbekistan is located on an area of about 447,400 km2 in the middle of the Central Asian region - CAR (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan). Natural landscapes of Uzbekistan are differently exposed to human activity and the area of land make up 82% of the country. The population of Uzbekistan for its long history, has managed to transform the landscape into arable land, settlements, industry and industrial enterprises, which account for about 18% of the total area of natural landscapes.
Recently, significant loading is increasing towards the nature from the growing population. Naturally, with increasing population needs also grow, growing and expanding its activities. We wrote about it on one of the articles in our last issue of the newsletter. And often these activities are very detrimental to the human environment. Known fact degassed growth areas of land for various purposes and use. A truly healthy nature can be seen only in remote (wild) places and such places often have the opportunity to remain in mountain areas. But people are even getting here with their business activities.
Today in Uzbekistan and other Central Asian countries, there are three main problems of preservation of unique landscapes and biodiversity:
Poaching
Illegal grazing
Felling of trees
The rich biodiversity of mountain zone of Uzbekistan attracts poachers, who use every opportunity to shoot wild animals even though many species are in the Red Book of Uzbekistan and hunting them is prohibited. It does not stop the poachers that continue to destroy animals and devastate its environment and its unique biodiversity.
Mountain landscape offers extensive grounds with vegetation, which is of great forage value. Due to the fact that such areas as protected, vegetation is preserved. Many regions of the country are experiencing a shortage of land for fodder crops and pastures. Any area with the existing vegetation people use for grazing. For example, in some areas where all the pastures are already stamped on the territory of Ugam Chatkal National Park are loading large trucks with cattle, which then release for grazing in the protected area.
Protected areas are extensive, complete security and control of these unique landscapes is extremely difficult because of the limited staff. There are not enough people for permanent patrols and containment of pressure.
Such situation exists in all protected areas - state inspection can not contain the increasing pressure from poachers. In addition to state protection, additional models of protection of natural objects are needed.
In the village Yangiobod, in Tashkent region there is a working model of conservation of natural biodiversity on the example of mountainous terrain, where an economic entity independently provides protection. This natural area is a part of the National Park and is a recreational area.
After the establishment of the regime of protection for the entrance to the gorge in several years herbal, woody vegetation on the slopes of the gorge was recovered. They began to appear and multiply mountain goats, roe deer, which are now down below. Cutting unique forests of Zarafshan was stopped.
One promising model of protection of such areas is the introduction of new technical mean of protection - CCTV. At present, the GEF SGP in conjunction with the community neighboring the protected area and its employees are working on a project in which the model will be tested for protection of territories with technical solutions of video monitoring hard to reach zones and entrance to the gorge with the aim of detecting intrusion and disturbance.
This project in the first time in Uzbekistan will try to demonstrate the effectiveness of wind / solar power stations to video equipment. This solution will then be offered for implementation in other protected areas of the country.
We suggest to familiarize with the project document and the expected budget of the project and give your comments (in Russian):
