 Igor Karyakin; ACBK
Aktau cliff faces, Mangistau region, Kazakhstan. This IBA comprises a canyon-like formation with chalky cliff escarpments, which are home to Egyptian Vulture and Saker Falcon
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Putting Central Asia on the IBA map
09-03-2009
Landlocked and remote, Central Asia has long been a land of mystery. This is now changing as a series of Important Bird Area directories are highlighting the wealth and diversity of this region's habitats.
One of the last and largest gaps on the world’s Important Bird Areas (IBAs) map is being filled. The newly-published IBA directories for Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan describe sites of global importance for tens of millions of migratory birds, and the strongholds of some of the world’s most threatened species. The 219 sites cover over 20 million hectares of steppe, semidesert, desert, mountain and wetland, an area almost equal to the land surface of the UK.
The project, supported by the RSPB (BirdLife in the UK) and the UK Government’s Darwin Initiative, focused on Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan because of their shared habitat structure and biodiversity. BirdLife’s German Partner, NABU, is leading IBA work in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. Ultimately, information on all five countries will be incorporated into a fully comprehensive IBA inventory for the whole Central Asia region.
Central Asia holds at least 530 bird species, of which 20 are globally threatened and 14 Near Threatened. More than 90% of the global population of Critically Endangered Sociable Lapwings Vanellus gregarius, 40% of Endangered Saker Falcons Falco cherrug and 20% of Vulnerable Lesser Kestrels Falco naumanni breed in Kazakhstan, along with up to 70% of the global population of the Asian subspecies of Houbara Bustard Chlamydotis undulata macqueenii (Vulnerable). Around half of all Endangered White-headed Duck Oxyura leucocephala gather on the Central Kazakhstan wetlands after breeding, and similar numbers have been recorded in Uzbekistan.
Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan stand at the crossroads of several migration routes (the Black Sea-Mediterranean, West Asian-East African, and Central Asian-South Asian flyways). The steppe which covers large parts of the northern half of Kazakhstan represents important remnants of the world’s least protected habitat. Other ecosystems of global value include the deserts of Uzbekistan, the river gallery (“tugay”) forests, and the vast wetlands of the lower reaches of the Ural river.
But conservation of this internationally important naturalheritage has been undermined by the economic situation in the region. Before the IBA project began, lack of resources and field equipment had led to the almost complete cessation of the research and monitoring work that was carried out during the Soviet era. Many experienced researchers and conservationists were forced to emigrate in search of employment.
The IBA project was conceived in 2004 with a regional planning workshop in Almaty, Kazkhstan, involving representatives from all five Central Asian countries. Following the successful application for funding to the Darwin Initiative, and a longterm commitment of funding and technical support from the RSPB, the project began in November 2005.
 Maxim Koshkin; ACBK
White-winged Lark is found on the steppes and plains of Central Asia. Although still common its population has declined, most likely as a result of habitat destruction.
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“The IBA project was a driving force behind Turkmenistan’s signing of the Ramsar Convention on wetlands in 2008” —Eldar Rustamov, Turkmenistan IBA coordinator
“It wasn’t just a question of putting together existing data, as in Europe”, explains Michael Brombacher of the RSPB (BirdLife in the UK), the coordinator of the project. “Most sites had not been surveyed for 20 to 50 years. We had to extend the period of fieldwork over three years.”
Immediately funding was agreed, the project signed agreements with the three governments, and began cooperating with their various conservation agencies. The biggest problem was the lack of qualified fieldworkers. “There were less than a handful of qualified ornithologists, not enough either for the fieldwork or for IBA monitoring and conservation beyond the inventory.
“So from the very beginning, we had to invest in capacity building, by training university students. We copied the model of student birdwatching clubs from Turkey. In the three project countries we have now established 14 clubs, which regularly involve 200 students in monitoring activity. They operate as local groups of the national organizations.”
By October 2006, 50 students were part of a regular training programme, and 20 of them had already taken part in professional fieldwork. Teams from Russia, and volunteers from the UK and Germany assisted with the survey work. “We also worked with local Protected Area staff, hunters and fisherman. Some were able to provide important data. We introduced fieldworkers to the IBA guidelines, so that data was in the right format to be entered into BirdLife’s database.”
Brombacher says the biggest tasks over the next three years were collecting, writing up and validating the data, and digitizing the IBA boundaries. The work was initially prepared in Russian, which is important politically in the region, but the books are also published in English, as the region is popular with birding tourists.
The number of IBAs under some form of protection varies from country to country. Of Kazakhstan’s 121 IBAs, 23 are fully protected, and 15 have partial protection. Only three of Uzbekistan’s 48 IBAs are fully protected as Strict Nature Reserves, and a further 14 have partial protections.
In all three project countries, IBAs are acknowledged by governmental conservation authorities as a tool to improve the current system of Protected Areas, and senior government representatives have taken part in IBA inauguration ceremonies. “The IBA project was a driving force behind Turkmenistan’s signing of the Ramsar Convention on wetlands in 2008”, said Turkmenistan IBA coordinator Eldar Rustamov, who has been nominated head of the national Ramsar working group.
 Maxim Koshkin; ACBK
Whilst globally considered of Least Concern, Steppe Eagle only breeds at selected sites in Kazakhstan, such as the Ustyurt Plateau.
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“We need to take a transboundary ecosystem approach, linking beyond the boundaries of IBAs” —Sergev Sklyarenko, ACBK National IBA co-ordinator
A successful partnership between the Kazakh project partner ACBK, the RSPB, WWF International and the Frankfurt Zoological Society (Germany) has put a territory of 490,000 hectares on Kazakhstan’s Protected Areas Development Plan, and it is likely that by the end of 2009 it will be legally designated. Part of the area is an IBA. This is the first step in a large scale steppe biodiversity conservation initiative (Altyn Dala, or “Golden Steppe”) for Central Kazakhstan, which uses IBAs as components to establish a network of protected areas in the region. “We need to take a transboundary ecosystem approach, linking beyond the boundaries of IBAs”, says Sergev Sklyarenko, ACBK’s National IBA co-ordinator. “The project involves reintroduction of the Saiga Antelope; without it, we cannot restore the habitat.”
A major goal of the IBA project was to build the capacity of local organizations. In Kazakhstan, ACBK has grown into a stable, professionally managed conservation organization, capable of managing large scale projects. In 2007, ACBK applied to become a BirdLife Partner.
“The Uzbekistan Society for the Protection of Birds (UzSPB) emerged from the IBA project team in 2007, and with the help of the RSPB is being developed into a membership organization”, says UzSPB’s IBA co-ordinator Roman Kashkarov. The foundation of UzSPB was a milestone not only for nature conservation, but also for civil society development in Uzbekistan. By September 2008, UzSPB had more than 100 members, five local groups, and five student bird clubs. UzSPB has also applied for BirdLife Partnership. UzSPB is working with UNDP to assist with the management of a Protected Area in the Aral Sea region. The Turkmenistan IBA project, undertaken jointly with the RSPB and the Ministry of Nature Protection, has successfully developed a funding application to a new GEF/UNDP Programme which funds the implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity’s Programme of Work on Protected Areas.
Compiling the IBA books brought together the isolated ornithologists and fledgling NGOs which were scattered across the three countries, with no previous focus for their activities and expertise. A generation of committed and enthusiastic university students has been trained in surveying and monitoring techniques. Protected Area staff, hunters and fisherman, and others with an interest in the sustainable management of the sites and their biodiversity, are being formed into national networks of IBA caretakers.
Geoff Welch, International Management Plans Adviser at the RSPB concludes, “The IBA publications, the information and lobbying work that has been done around it, and the regular training and support of more than 200 students and conservation volunteers in the three project countries has opened a major window of opportunity for conservation."
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