“Nature Conservation in the Countries of Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia – Lessons learned from the transformation process and challenges for the future”

Saiga Range Countries and Experts Convene in Tashkent Following Saiga Mass Mortality Event

Tashkent / Bonn, 26 October 2015 – The Third Meeting of the Signatories to the Memorandum of Understanding concerning Conservation, Restoration and Sustainable Use of the Saiga Antelope (Saiga MOU) and Technical Workshop for saiga antelope experts is taking place this week from 26 to 29 October 2015 in Tashkent, Uzbekistan with representatives of governments, UN agencies, NGOs and academia in attendance.

Representatives of governments, industry, development banks, UN agencies, NGOs and scientists met in Ulaanbaatar from 24 to 28 August to find solutions to ensure that steppe animals are able to cross roads, railways and fences. The growing exploitation of the natural resources in the Gobi-Steppe ecosystem has led to a dramatic increase of transportation networks, required to meet increasing consumer demand for minerals. The existing roads and railroads have proven to be a significant barrier for wildlife migrations.

The Mongolian parliament has passed a national law implementing the CMS Guidelines on mitigating the impact of linear infrastructure and related disturbance on mammals in Central Asia just six months after they were adopted at COP11.

Around 40 percent of the critically endangered Saiga antelope have died in Kazakhstan in the last couple of months.