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Conservationists trying to save one of the world's most endangered antelopes are to start a public awareness campaign in one of its key ranges following a series of setbacks in the past year. The strange-looking, trunk-nosed saiga, which once shared the steppe plains of Central Asia with mammoths and woolly rhinos, has suffered an estimated 95 per cent decline in numbers since 1995, largely due to uncontrolled poaching. There are only five wild populations in the world, and a number of recent events have conspired to increase the pressure on the species. The Russian population was hit by the very hard winter (and possibly increased poaching), while one population in Kazakhstan declined by…
The Altyn Dala Conservation Initiative (Altyn Dala) is a new large-scale initiative from the Government of Kazakhstan that has brought together a partnership of national and international organisations. Altyn Dala will conserve globally important biodiversity, flagship species, and steppe and semi-desert habitats in an integrated and representative network of large protected areas in Central Kazakhstan covering between 3 and 4 million hectares.
"I strain my eyes over the flat, endless plain of Russia's southern Republic of Kalmykia, blinking as the horizon melts into a delusional mirage. There is not so much as a tree, bush, or hill as far as I can see. Wait ... something. A cloud or red dust several hundred yards away. Through my binoculars, I see a brown ribbon of, perhaps, a hundred saiga antelope reeling away. The herd flows like water across the parched terrain, once the bed of a shrunken Caspian Sea. In an instant the animals drift out of sight. Only the red dust lingers ......"
This project is funded by the UK Government's Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, through its Darwin Initiative fund. The Darwin Initiative was set up in 1993 as part of the UK's contribution to the Convention on Biological Diversity. The Darwin Initiative assists countries rich in biodiversity but poor in resources with the conservation of biological diversity and the implementation of the Biodiversity Convention. Projects funded under the Initiative are collaborative, involving either local institutions or communities in the host country. More details about the Darwin Initiative can be found at http://www.darwin.gov.uk/
The project has four main strands: