Authors: Vladimir Kertiyev, Okhotzooprom (Kazakhstan); Askar Abdrakhmanov, Committee for Forestry and Wildlife of the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources (Kazakhstan)

Bonn, 30 January 2023 - In Kazakhstan, the state census, inventory and monitoring of wild animals are conducted in order to effectively manage their conservation, reproduction and sustainable use as well as to conserve biodiversity and habitats. This data allows to enhance the strategy for the protection of wild animals, to redistribute the surveillance efforts to the regions with the largest populations of animals, and at the same time, to pay close attention to the places with the smallest populations with a purpose to restore their numbers as soon as possible.

The recent census and monitoring of the Ural, Ustyurt and Betpakdala saiga populations in Kazakhstan was commissioned by the Okhotzooprom Republican State Enterprise, which refers to the Committee for Forestry and Wildlife (CFW) and responsible for the saiga protection, and conducted with the support of the Association for the Conservation of Biodiversity of Kazakhstan (ACBK) from 14 April to 1 May 2022. The total duration of the flights, including intra-population ones, summed up to 200 flight hours. The survey routes were planned in advance and adjusted daily in the aircraft's flight navigator depending on operational data provided by nature protection authorities.

These results showed that over the last three years – thanks to the wildlife protection measures taken – the trend in the Ural, Ustyurt and Betpakdala saiga populations has remained steadily positive. Saiga numbers have increased from 21,000 individuals in 2003 to 1,318,000 in 2022 (Table 1), which exceeds the maximum number of 1,200,000 saiga recorded during the Kazakh SSR period.

However, it is worth noting that the significant increase in saiga numbers has led to increased competition with livestock for pastures and water sources. In addition, the high saiga density increases the risk of another pasteurellosis epidemic as in 2015, when over 150,000 animals of the Betpakdala population (80% of the total population) died.

In this regard, the government has initiated comprehensive saiga research on the following issues:

• Predicting the development of saiga populations through mathematical modeling;
• Defining the saiga range and migratory routes;
• Studying the saiga forage base and developing measures to reduce the competition with agriculture;
• Conducting diagnostic research of biological materials for highly dangerous and dangerous infectious and invasive diseases in saigas of the Ural and Betpakdala populations;
• Developing possible ways for the sustainable use of saiga;
• Determining the future of saiga captive breeding and rearing.

To address the serious issue of agricultural damage caused by saiga, Kazakhstan is meeting with international experts from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS), to implement paragraph 12.7 of the Medium-Term International Work Programme for the Saiga Antelope (2021-2025), which calls for "[d]evelop[ing] a human-wildlife conflict mitigation scheme to make peaceful cohabitation of people with their livestock and saiga possible".

The CITES Secretariat is being consulted on the possibility of restarting international trade in saiga antelope derivatives for commercial purposes. The issue is scheduled to be brought to the next CITES COP in 2025. A labelling mechanism of saiga derivatives is being developed to ensure the control of their trade. Depending on the CITES decision, options for the use of saiga derivatives will be proposed.

Kazakhstan is committed to implementing its international obligations on saiga conservation, reproduction and sustainable use, and will continue to take all necessary measures to ensure its successful coexistence with many generations on the Earth.

Aerial census of the Ustyurt saiga population 2022 © ACBK

Aerial census of the Ural saiga population 2022 © ACBK

Aerial census of the Betpakdala saiga population 2022. © ACBK