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TAJIKISTAN COUNTRY PROFILE
Basic data
Tajikistan has been an independent republic since 1991. Situated in Central Asia, the country covers 143,000 km2. It borders with China in the east, Kyrgyzstan in the north, Uzbekistan in the north and west and Afghanistan in the south. The population numbers 6,187,800 (as of January 1999), some 600,000 of whom live in the country's capital, Dushanbe. Over 85% of the population live in deep valleys amidst high mountains: these depressions make up 35% of the Republic's surface area. In the 90s, 65% of all inhabitants lived in the country, 35% in the towns. The majority of the population are Tajiks (70%); the minorities comprise Uzbeks, Russians, Tartars, Ukrainians and others. In the high mountains of Badakhshan there live a few members of several Pamir nations, often called Mountain Tajiks. The population density in general is 43.2 inh./km2. The official language is Tajik (similar to Persian but written using the Russian alphabet) but Uzbek and Russian are also widely used.
Natural features and
resources
Tajikistan is a distinctly mountainous country, with altitudes ranging from 300 to 7,495m a. s. I. Mountains comprise 93% of the country's surface and almost half its territory lies over 3,000m a. s. I. Geographically, those mountains belong to the highest Central Asian mountain systems of Tyan-Shan and Pamir.
The country is rich in mineral resources: iron, zinc, antimony, copper, mercury, gold, lead, wolfram, boron, common salt, carbonates, fluorides, coal, oil, natural gas, precious and semi-precious stones.
Tajikistan possesses local huge water resources used for electricity generation. Their total potential is estimated at 300 billion kWh which means 2,100,000 kWh/km2 or 4,180 million kWh/km3 of stream flow. The total volume of the water resources for hydroelectric use is sufficient to meet the needs of the national economy. However, the unequal geographical distribution of the water resources causes deficiencies in certain areas, especially in the basins of Amudarya and Syrdarya Rivers. The total water deficit in the entire country amounts to 560 million cubic metres. Based on the above resources, Tajikistan has a developed industrial base, including mining, metallurgy and hydroelectricity generation. Textile and clothing manufacturing uses local cotton and silk. Other agricultural products of the country are fruit, vegetables, grain and tobacco.
The climate is continental, characterized by intense seasonal and even daily oscillations. With the exception of Pamir, cold winters turn into rainy springs which soon change into dry summers. The country falls into two climatic regions: the Proper-Asian and the Central Asian. The first one is divided into five climatic zones.
Tajik flora contains over 5,000 plant species. Botanists distinguish three main vegetation types: 1. Broad-leaved and small-leaved growths of trees and shrubs; 2. cushionlike or/and spiny shrub and dwarf-shrub growths; 3. grasslands and herbaceous stands of different kinds. The fauna is very rich and diverse due to the broken topography and variety of climatic zones and landscapes. Six faunistic regions converge here: Europe-Siberian, East Asian, Indo-Malayan, Ethiopian, West Mediterranean and East Mediterranean. The territory has for ages been a refuge for relict species, genera and ecosystems. In 1974 the fauna of Tajikistan comprised 81 species of mammals, 365 of birds, 49 of reptiles and 7 or even 9 thousand insect species.
Main environmental problems
The most important problem is the absolute inefficacy of their legislation -not only in the field of nature conservation. The situation is worsening due to the conflict between the President of the Republic and the opposition. The functioning of the legislation is moreover further impeded by the rules of international legal instruments which Central Asian countries are endorsing and even elevating above their national laws, without being able to obey them. In spite of a decline in production, environmental pollution by industrial, often poisonous and even radioactive waste still continues. Protected areas are suffering from depletion by poaching and deterioration due to commercial human activities. For example, the world famous Tigrovaya Balka (Tiger Valley) Nature Reserve has been stricken by damage to its plant and animal life estimated by experts at over 800,000 US dollars. In the Romit Nature Reserve, the last specimens of the Bactrian Deer (Cervus elaphus bactrianus) - an IUCN Red Data Book taxon - were killed during the civil war.
Land degradation continues as a consequence of drought and land abandonment: it is particularly dangerous in areas exposed to water and wind erosion. At the beginning of 1998, about 98% of the country's agricultural lands had been impacted by erosion and deflation. The situation is made worse by the continuing clearance of steep mountain slopes for arable land and by unsystematic utilization of pastures. Cutting of trees and shrubs has reached such an extent that there is a distinct danger that, after 15-20 years, Tajikistan will have absolutely no forest resources left.
In many districts of the country the development patterns are unsustainable as a result of complicated interrelations of physical, biological, political, social, cultural and economic factors.
Brief outline of the history of nature conservation in Tajikistan
From the distant past, biodiversity has been depleted by uncontrolled logging and the hunting of wild animals. Protection of nature was carried out - if at all - in an elementary way. Traditionally, trees were planted along irrigation channels, at roadsides, forests were planted and old mighty trees protected. Fishing was forbidden in sacred fountains, and several bird species and their nests defended from harm. Government promoted a special concern for nature protection. In the Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic the first Nature Reserve (zapovednik) Tigrovaya Balka (Tiger Valley) was established.
Nature conservation legislation
A legal system of environmental and nature protection is being developed according to the Constitution of the Republic of Tajikistan of November 1994. The following environmental legal tools have been endorsed during the independence of the Republic: the Forest Code (in 1994), the Water Code (in 1993); the Air Protection Act (in 1996); the Mineral Resources Act (in 1994); the Animal Conservation and Use Act (in 1994); the State Sanitary Control Act (in 1994); the Specially Protected Natural Features Act (in 1996); and the Nature Conservation Act (in 1993). The last one is the principal law.
Authorities and organizations dealing with nature conservation
The central executive authority responsible for nature conservation is the Ministry of Nature Conservation of the Republic of Tajikistan and its local branches. Some other bodies are also involved, to a greater or a lesser degree, in the preservation and rational use of natural resources, depending on the extent of their competences: ministries (of health care, of agriculture, of emergency situation and civil defence, of foreign affairs, of finance) and other central authorities (the Main geological office, the State statistical agency, the forest management association) as well as the Academy of Sciences and the Universities (mainly their biological, geographical and geological faculties). In the Republic of Tajikistan there is a broad enough network of scientific research institutions working on nature conservation problems, in particular the institutes of the Academy of Sciences (Institute of Zoology and Parasitology, of Botany, of Soil Science, of Biochemistry and Plant Physiology, of Plant Genetics, of Forest and so on).
At present, there are about 30 environmental NGOs registered in Tajikistan. They are mainly concerned with environmental education and communication, spreading environmental information, scientific investigation of biodiversity, and the establishment of specially protected areas and their infrastructures. The most active and effective NGOs are those based in the big cities (Dushanbe, Khujant). Most environmental NGOs, however, are weak in their status and their cooperation with governmental structures, which is closely related to the political and economic instability in their field of operation.
The most efficient NGOs are those involved in environmental education and raising environmental awareness in local communities, for instance „Nature Conservation Union", „Zapovednik Programme", „Youth Ecological Centre of Dushanbe", „Forests and Wild Animals Association" and several others.
Protected areas
At present, there are three Nature Reserves - Zapovedniks - in the Republic of Tajikistan managed by an association for forest commercial management „Tajikles" (Tajik Forest). The fourth Nature Reserve, „Zorkul", was established in March 2000, on the territory of a former Zakaznik (Protected Landscape). Tajikistan also has two National Parks and 13 Zakazniks.
Zapovednik Tigrovaya Balka was established in 1938. It is situated in the country's southern dry subtropics. It covers an area of 49,900ha, 16,700 of which are forests. It is mainly a flood plain in the lower reaches of the Vakhsh River with unique riverine forest and some 10 pools hosting, during the winter, thousands of birds. Among the vertebrate fauna there are 35 reptile species and 34 mammal species. In 2000 the Nature Reserve was proposed to be listed as a World Heritage Natural Site.
Zapovednik Romit, established in 1959 with an area of 16,139ha, lies in the upper reaches of the Kofarnigan River in the altitude range 1,176-3,195m a. s. I. 80% of its surface is rocky and stony. One of its most interesting and valuable features are the juniper forests. Many plant and animal species growing and living in the Reserve are listed in the Red Data Book of Tajikistan: however, the ecosystem is being damaged by excessive cattle grazing.
Zapovednik Dashti-Dzhum, established in 1983 and covering 19,700ha has as its main objective the preservation of a native population of the threatened Bukhara Urial (Ovis orientalis bocha-rensis).
Zapovednik Zorkul („Goose Islands"), the first one in the Pamir Mountain range, was established in 2000 by enlarging the former Zakaznik of 1972 to its present size of 87,700ha. Its objective is the integrated protection of East-Pamir mountain ecosystems around the high mountain lake Zorkul situated at an altitude of over 4,000m a. s. I. Its other name is derived from a large nesting colony of the rare Mountain Goose (Eula-beia indica).
Tajik National Park was established in 1999 on a huge territory of 2,500,000 ha. It is an high mountain area with a rich biodiversity of international importance. Shirkent, established in 1991, on 31,929ha of the Gissar mountain range is a combined historical-natural park with 50 archaeological and several ethnographical monuments. Currently, preparatory works are underway to establish a new high-mountain Fanski Nature Park to protect valuable ecosystems, support sustainable use of natural resources and develop international tourism and alpinism.
International cooperation
Tajikistan is party to several international conventions including the Ramsar Convention (ratified in 2000) and the Bonn Convention (also ratified in 2000).
During the eight years following the Rio Earth Summit, the Republic of Tajikistan, guided by global international directives, has been striving for the launch of a sustainable development process in the country. This has been expressed in several government policy documents of 1996, 1997 and 1998.
Sergei Vorsin
EcoCentre Tajikistan
Firuza Abdurakhimova
Top Brigade for nature protection
