TAJIK NATIONAL PARK (MOUNTAINS OF THE PAMIRS)

TAJIK NATIONAL PARK (MOUNTAINS OF THE PAMIRS)

TAJIKISTAN

The Pamir range at the remote heart of the great mountain chains of Central Asia is called the Roof of the World. It is a rugged glaciated and deeply dissected mountain massif of great beauty which rises 1,500-1,800 meters from a 5,000-metre high arid plateau. It has the world's longest glacier outside the polar regions, the highest salt lake, highest natural dam and as the upper watershed of the Amu Darya River is known as the Watertower of Central Asia.

COUNTRY

Tajikstan

NAME

Tajik National Park (Mountains of the Pamirs)

NATURAL WORLD HERITAGE SITE

2013: Inscribed on the World Heritage List under natural criteria (vii) and (viii).

STATEMENT OF OUTSTANDING UNIVERSAL VALUE

The UNESCO World Heritage Committee adopted the following provisional Statement of Outstanding Universal Value at the time of inscription:

Brief Synthesis

Tajik National Park (2,611,674 ha in area) encompasses almost the entire Pamir Mountains, the third highest mountain ecosystem in the world after the Himalaya and Karakorum Mountains. The Pamir Mountains lie at the centre of the ‘Pamir Knot’, the term used by geographers to describe the tangle of the highest mountain ranges on the Eurasian continent. Huge tectonic forces stemming from the collision of the Indian-Australian plate with the Eurasian Plate have progressively thrown up the Himalaya, Karakoram, Hindu Kush, Kunlun and Tien Shan – all radiating from the Pamir Mountains. Along with the Karakoram Mountains, the Pamir region is one of the most tectonically-active locations in the world.

Tajik National Park stands out as a very large protected area, with a stark treeless landscape of exceptional natural beauty. The outstanding scenic values are enhanced by the juxtaposition of heavily-glaciated high peaks and high plateaux with an alpine desert character. The property contains a number of superlative natural phenomena, including Fedchenko Glacier (the longest glacier in the world outside of the Polar Regions); Lake Sarez (a very high, deep lake impounded just over a century ago by a severe earthquake which generated a huge landslide forming the Uzoi Dam, the highest natural dam in the world); and Karakul Lake, likely to be the world’s highest large lake of meteoric origin.

Criterion (vii)

Tajik National Park is one of the largest high mountain protected areas in the Palearctic Realm. The Fedchenko Glacier, the largest valley glacier of the Eurasian Continent and the world’s longest outside of the Polar Regions, is unique and a spectacular example at the global level. The visual combination of some of the deepest gorges in the world, surrounded by rugged glaciated peaks, as well as the alpine desert and lakes of the Pamir high plateaus adds up to an alpine wilderness of exceptional natural beauty. Lake Sarez and Lake Karakul are superlative natural phenomena. Lake Sarez, impounded behind the highest natural dam in the world, is of great geomorphic interest. Lake Karakul is likely to be the highest large lake of meteoric origin.

Criterion (viii)

The Pamir Mountains are a major centre of glaciation on the Eurasian continent and Tajik National Park illustrates within one protected area an outstanding juxtaposition of many high mountains, valley glaciers, and deep river gorges alongside the cold continental desert environment of the high Pamir Plateau landforms. An outstanding landform feature of the property’s geologically dynamic terrain is Lake Sarez. It was created by an earthquake-generated landslide of an estimated six billion tones of material and is possibly the youngest deep water alpine lake in the world. It is of international scientific and geomorphological hazard significance because of the on-going geological processes influencing its stability, and the sort of lacustrine ecosystem which will develop over time. Tajik National Park furthermore offers a unique opportunity for the study of plate tectonics and continental subduction phenomena thereby contributing to our fundamental understanding of earth building processes.

Integrity

The property comprises the entire area of the Tajik National Park and, because of its large size, mountainous and alpine desert character, and remoteness from human settlements, the property is considered to have an outstandingly high level of physical integrity. Consequently there is no need for a formal buffer zone. The defined core zone of TNP makes up nearly 78% of the property, with the other three sustainable ‘limited use’ zones ranged around the periphery of the park. Tajik National Park is owned by the State and, as a national park, it has the highest legal protection status in Tajikistan.

Protection and Management Requirements

The legislative framework and management arrangements for the property are comprehensive and clear, and all activities that could threaten the integrity of the property, including mining, are legally prohibited.

There is a medium-term management plan approved by the Government and the State Agency of Natural Protected Areas is responsible for coordination of all activities in the park. The implementation of the management plan involves the participation of local communities and their traditional rights over the use of natural resources are respected. The zoning of the property accommodates both traditional and biodiversity conservation needs. The financing for the park comes largely from national sources with a minor contribution from donor funded projects.

Inscription on the World Heritage list presents an increased opportunity to the State Party to develop ecotourism. Therefore, long-term protection and management requirements for the property include the need to prevent negative impacts from tourism whilst accommodating increased visitation to the property through the provision of quality visitor services.

There is a need for secured and adequate financing for the park to fully implement the management plan and carry out law enforcement measures. Since Government sources are limited, alternative sources of funding need to be investigated. In this respect, the concept of trophy hunting management needs to be developed, as trophy hunting could be an important supplementary income source for the management of the park. However, it should encompass all necessary elements of a science-based approach to game and habitat management, involve independent and external experts, and have a tight regulatory framework.

The property requires an effective long-term monitoring programme, including defined key indicators of the conservation and habitat health of the property.

INTERNATIONAL DESIGNATION

2001: Karakul Lake designated a Wetland of International Importance under the Ramsar Convention (36,400 ha).

IUCN MANAGEMENT CATEGORY

VI: Managed Resource Protected Area.

BIOGEOGRAPHICAL PROVINCE

Pamir-Tianshan Highlands (2.36.12)

GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION

Located in the centre of eastern Tajikistan in Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Province, and parts of Tavildara and Jirgatal districts to the west. Located between E 73°31′00” x N 39°200” to E 72°45'20” x N 37°33′45” and E 71°02′00” x N 38°45′00” to E 73°35′30”x N 39°03′30.

DATES AND HISTORY OF ESTABLISHMENT

1992: The Tajik National Park established by Government Decision No.267;

1993: The Nature Protection Law No.905 of the Republic of Tajikistan passed;

2001: Final area designated by Order of the Government No.253;

2005: Park status confirmed by the Order of State Directorate of Natural Protected Areas No.147 as a State Republican Natural Park;

2013: Inscribed on the World Heritage List.

LAND TENURE

State owned. The property includes the whole of the Tajik National Park.

AREAS

Total area: 2,611,674 ha. Core zone: 1,685,411 ha. Limited use zones: 926,262 ha.

ALTITUDE

2,000m (Pandj gorge) to 7,436m (Peak Somoni)

PHYSICAL FEATURES

In Farsi, Pamir means 'Roof of the World'. The Pamir Mountains lie at the centre of the Pamir Knot, the great highland area of Central Asia from which four of the highest mountain ranges in Asia radiate: the Hindu Kush in Afghanistan to the southwest, the Karakoram in Pakistan to the southeast, the Kunlun Shan in China to the east, and the Alai range of the Tian Shan on the Kyrgyzstan border to the north. They were formed by the massive continental subduction of the Indo-Australian plate under the Eurasian plate, which also uplifted the Himalayas and Tibet. The site itself, in the east of Tajikistan, is very large, comprising about 18% of the country's land area.

The World Heritage Site is half a large cold-winter undulating desert plateau in the east and half high mountain ranges scored by deep ravines in the west, which rise some 1,500-1,800m above the plateau itself, 4,000-5,000m above sea level. The westernmost ridges are more rounded in outline, between wide flat-bottomed valleys with clear meandering rivers. At its furthest west, in the canyon of the Pandj River on the border with Afghanistan, the park descends to temperate valleys at almost 2000m a.s.l. The glaciated land in the centre is jaggedly mountainous, capped by snowfields and glaciers, with deep, narrow ravines, or valleys flanked with huge talus slopes containing turbulent rivers loaded with glacial silt, prone to flooding during the summer thaw: the Kokuibel gorge is 2600m deep and the Bartang River gorge 3,300m deep. The remote rugged and sparsely-inhabited eastern mountains form a natural buffer to the Taklamakan desert of western China, which lies in their rain shadow. There are three peaks above 7,000m and 40 above 6,000m. The highest peak in the property, Peak Somoni (7,495m), stands between the two halves of the site.

The basement of the plateau is of Precambrian gneisses and schists with limestone and granite, overlaid by shale and limestone laid down in a later warm climate sea until the area emerged 35 million years ago. The first powerful folding occurred 1.64mya followed by glaciation. The mountain soils are barren; the plateaus are infertile gravels and stony sands where the micro-relief is created by permafrost. As an area of subduction, the region, with the Karakoram, is one of the most tectonically active in the world, to which hot springs in the south of the Park attest, with some of the most earthquake-prone faults in central Asia.

The glaciers of the Pamir Mountains total more than 8,000 ha in area, 80% being within the park, and possess a wide range of glacial landforms such as U-shaped valleys, coombs and moraines. There are 1,085 recorded glaciers, with more than 1,000 more than 1.5 km in length and a dozen exceeding 20 km. Most are found in the central mountains, including the longest valley glacier outside polar regions, the Fedchenko Glacier, which is 77 km long, 1,000m deep, and has retreated far less than the other long glaciers of the Pamirs. The Park contains 170 named rivers and more than 400 small lakes. Nearly all the rivers flow into the Vakhsha and Pandj Rivers that join to form the Amu Darya River which flows to the Aral Sea: the area is called the Watertower of Central Asia. The largest lakes in the Park are Lakes Karakul, Sarez and Yashikul. Lake Sarez, with the highest natural dam in the world, the 567m Uzoi dam across the Murgab River, formed by an earthquake-launched landslide, is the largest freshwater lake in the Pamirs and south central Asia. It is 8,800 ha in area, 505m deep, 17sq km3 in volume and vulnerable to further earthquakes with potentially disastrous effects on the towns on the Amu Darya downstream. Karakul Lake, at an elevation of almost 4,000m and 36,400 ha in area, is the largest in the Pamirs. It lies within a 52 km circular crater formed by a large meteorite impact around 25 million years ago, and having no outlet, it is of the highest salt lakes in the world.

CLIMATE

The climate of the Pamir Mountains is markedly continental with high seasonal variations of temperature between extremes of -63°C to +31°C. The average annual temperature is below zero, with an average diurnal variation of 30°C and a frost-free period of only 40-80 days. Temperatures range between 10°C and 13°C in midsummer and between -16°C and -25°C in midwinter. The high ranges surrounding the park shield it from humid air from the west and south, making the plateau and these mountains particularly arid compared with most of the Tibetan Plateau and other high central and south Asian ranges. Three-quarters of the precipitation falls in winter and spring. In the eastern Pamir, the mean annual precipitation varies between 63mm-117mm; in the west, it is considerably higher: 1,200mm-1,800mm on windward slopes and 300mm-500mm on leeward slopes. Although the meteorological conditions vary considerably with altitude, snow may fall even in summer above 3,000m. There are constant strong winds. Due to intense solar radiation, the dry climate, low temperatures and limited precipitation, the plateau is a semi-arid steppe where the micro-relief is the result of permafrost, and the western half is an alpine desert of glaciated rock.

VEGETATION

The flora of the whole massif of mountains is a mix of Siberian, Indo-Himalayan and Iranian elements listed by Conservation International as a conservation hotspot having more than 5,500 known species of vascular plants, some 1,500 of which are endemic. The nomination cites 2,100 plant species for the Park (though this may be for Gorno Badakhshan province as a whole). Two major floristic regions of Asia meet in the site: the Southwestern Asian region, which includes the western Pamir, and the vegetation of the eastern Pamir, typical of Central Asia.

The dominant character of the Tajik National Park is cold-winter desert. It has 639 plant species in 57 families and 248 genera, but in the west is also part of the Middle Asian Montane Woodlands and Steppe ecoregion, with a great variety of fruit tree and berried plant species. The main families of plants are Poaceae (32 genera, 92 species), Asteraceae (118 species) and Brassicaceae (34 genera, 64 species). Six different vegetation types occur in the property: local areas of valley forest and riverine meadows, steppe, sub-alpine semi-desert, alpine desert and tundra. It grows in three altitudinal zones: the subalpine zone below 4,200m, a steppe dominated by the very hardy shrub teresken Erotia cerratoides, wormwoods Artemisia spp., with feather-grass Stipa glareosa at the foot of slopes; the Alpine zone between 4,200 and 4,800m which is dominated by semi-shrub Tanacetum species with talus and rock outcrop plants; and the nival zone above 4,800m with only cushion or snow-patch plants or tundra with almost no vegetation.

The region is an important storehouse of genetic diversity. The park lies within the Central Asian Vavilov Centre, one of eleven such centers, and is an important locus of wild forms of cultivated cereals, walnut-fruit forests and legumes. The plant varieties of particular agricultural importance are Triticum wheat in the Bartang Valley in the southeast, and the walnut-apple-cherry woodlands of the Tavildara in the west of the park, with such species as wild apple Malus seiversii (VU), wild walnut Juglans regia, cherry Cerasus verrucosa and plum Prunus domestica.

FAUNA

Because of the harsh environment the park's fauna is relatively poor, though it has a moderately high degree of endemism. The park has 33 mammal species, 162 birds, 4 fish, 3 reptiles and one amphibian with several subspecies. The most notable mammals are the endemic Marco Polo argali sheep Ovis ammon polii, with some 5,400 individuals recorded in 2010, mainly in the high plateaus of the east, snow leopards Uncia uncia (EN, with 120 estimated individuals) and 4,200 Siberian ibex Capra sibirica. There are five species of rodent: the endemic Pamir vole Microtus juldaschi, grey hamster Cricetulus migratorius coereulescens, long-tailed marmot Marmota caudata, big-eared pika Ochotona macrotis and silvery vole Alticola argentatus. It also hosts the endemic tolai hare Lepus tolai pamirensis, Tibetan wolf Canis lupus laniges, fox Vulpes vulpes ferganensis, Asiatic wild dog Cuon alpinus (EN), Himalayan brown bear Ursus arctos isabellinus, alpine weasel Mustella altaica, least weasel Mustella nivalis pallida, stone marten Martes foina intermedia, Asian badger Meles leucurus, Eurasian otter Lutra lutra, Turkestan lynx Lynx lynx and wild boar Sus scrofa davidi.

A total of 162 bird species is recorded, with 25 year-round residents, and 30 visiting to breed. Nationally rare birds include mountain goose Anser anser, Himalayan griffon vulture Gyps himalayensis, bearded vulture Gypaetus barbatus, golden eagle Aquila chrysaetos, Central Asian saker falcon Falco cherrug coatsi (EN), and Tibetan snow cock Tetraogallus tibetanus. The Pallas’ sand grouse Syrrhaptes tibetanus, endemic Pamir sand plover Charadrius mongolus pamirensis, brown-headed gull Larus brunnicephalus, snow pigeon Columba leuconota and four endemic passerines are also found.

The few fish are relict species with high endemism due to isolation in separate lakes and lack of disturbance, well adapted with resistance to low temperatures and a short breeding season. The false osman Schizopygopsis stoliczkai, a reliable breeder, is found only in the Pamirs. The Karakul stone loach Nemachilus stoliczkai lacusnigri is an endemic subspecies found around Lake Karakul. Reptiles and amphibians live only in the border areas, and include the snake-eyed skink Ablepharus alaicus, Himalayan agama Laudakia himalayana, water snake Natrix tesselata, and green toad, Bufo viridis sspp.

CONSERVATION VALUE

Few cold-winter deserts have featured in the World Heritage List. The Tajik National Park is an area of continental subduction. It has high beautiful mountains with many glaciers, one the longest outside the polar regions, unusual earthquake-generated and high-level salt lakes, the latter a Ramsar wetland. It also lies within a Conservation International hotspot, is part of a WWF Global 200 ecoregion, has two Important Bird Areas, highly specialized endemism, and is in a Vavilov centre of genetic diversity.

CULTURAL HERITAGE

There are several petroglyph sites and evidence of very early inhabitants, also of mining since the 11th century. Ismoil Somoni, the highest mountain in Tajikistan, is named for Ismail Samani, the greatest ruler of the Persian Samanids, who ruled from the Pamirs to the Caspian and Indian Ocean in the 9th and 10th centuries. The population is Muslim.

LOCAL HUMAN POPULATIONS

Traditional activities on the plateau are haymaking, sheep herding and fuel wood gathering. Although the park is state-owned, Kyrgyz communities retain many of their traditional grazing rights and unlike other communities outside the park do not pay land use taxes. Most grazing occurs in the traditional use and limited economic use zones in the east of the park, though some seasonal grazing, perhaps to be phased out, occurs in the core zone. 2,000 people live in the upper Bartang valley in the Traditional Use zone, 400 beside Lake Yashikul in the south and 14,000 along the borders of the Limited Economic Use zone. Until 1990, local people received subsidized coal under the Soviet regime; now, the over-collection of teresken and other shrubs for fuel has badly degraded the land for 70 km around the eastern town of Murgab. There is subsistence wheat and fruit farming in the western valleys.

VISITORS AND VISITOR FACILITIES

Visitors first arrived in 1928, but not in numbers until the 1960s. After the recent war, the first visitor groups came in 1998. Numbers totaled 237 in 2004 and now total about 1,200 or more a year. They are mainly mountaineers travelling with tourist companies. 4WD-touring, riding, hiking, mountaineering, rock climbing, skiing and hot-spring treatment are available, and trophy hunting could be developed in the Recreation zone in the northeast. The present development of tourism is hampered by the severe weather conditions, poor roads, and by inadequate publicity, tourist information and standards of service. A UNESCO program trains guides, souvenir craft making and home-stay operation. There is an airport at Khorog, southwest of the park.

SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH AND FACILITIES

Geological studies are made of the earthquake-formed Lake Sarez and how best to stabilize it. The lake is also a natural laboratory for the study of the evolution and development of lacustrine ecosystems and geological phenomena, unique on a global scale. Geological studies are also made of continental subduction of a tectonic plate and how it compares with oceanic subduction. Other work includes establishing baseline data for monitoring wildlife populations and the impact on natural resources in the traditional and economic use zones, as well as the feasibility of trophy hunting in the park.

MANAGEMENT

The property includes the entire area of the Tajik National Park which was established in 1992. In 1993, the Nature Protection Law of the Republic of Tajikistan was passed; in 2001, the final area was declared by Order of Government; and in 2005, the park was confirmed by the Order of State Directorate of Natural Protected Areas as a State Republican Natural Park, the country's highest level of protection. Its main purpose is to preserve outstanding natural landscapes and biodiversity, particularly rare and endangered species, to protect cultural and historical monuments; to conduct education and research, and to promote sustainable use of natural resources. The site’s large size, remoteness, harsh climate and rugged terrain give it high natural protection, so there is no buffer zone. The State Department of Environmental Protection manages the park from the three regional offices of Gorno-Badakhshan province and the Tavildara and Djirgatal districts.

The current management plan for 2012-2016 has been approved by the Chairman of the Committee for Environmental Protection. It proposes action on law enforcement, wildlife management, recreation, scientific research and monitoring, environmental education and the participation of local communities. Management, staff capacity-building, biodiversity conservation and wildlife monitoring have also been supported by international organizations. The national park has been divided into four zones according to grade of protection and permitted activities. These are a Core zone (77.7% of the park), Traditional Use zone (10.3%), Limited Economic Use zone (9.8%) and a Recreation zone (2.2%). Effective law enforcement is carried out by a team of 19 park rangers, all recruited from local communities, who also work as volunteer rangers. The park also cooperates in enforcing the law with the guard-inspectors from the district and regional offices. Because most of the park is a remote and highly inaccessible wilderness which is under snow for much of the year, the small local populations have little impact on the core area. Since the government in 2007 confiscated firearms to combat poaching, illegal hunting has decreased, though still may be done periodically by military personnel. Monitoring is done with the help of local and national academic institutions to establish baseline data for monitoring wildlife populations, and to gauge the impact on natural resources in the traditional and economic use zones.

The Law on Natural Protected Areas prohibits any mining and construction activities, cutting woody plants, ecologically harmful activities, changes of the hydrological regime, construction of roads, pipelines, transmission and other communication lines that are not related to park management, also the introduction of living organisms. There are land parcels traditionally used by Kyrgyz communities near Karakul Lake, but the herders know the park boundaries and the importance of maintaining ecologically sustainable levels of grazing and so are respected by the park administration. There is written agreement between the park administration and the heads of three rural councils of the Vanj and Murghab Districts to receive support from the local communities to protect rare and endangered species within the park and allow communities to use natural resources as the zoning permits. Community representatives were satisfied to be consulted during the preparation of both the nomination document and management plan. Community-based trophy hunting could be an effective conservation management tool and a source of revenue for both park management and local communities. However, the park needs a business development plan based on a science-based approach to game and habitat management plus tight regulation.

MANAGEMENT CONSTRAINTS

The traditional collection of the slow-growing teresken plant for household fuel may have little effect on the core area of the park, but around the town of Murghab, home to half of the plateau’s population, a crisis has developed since the withdrawal of coal supplies after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1990. An already treeless area of 70-80 km around the town has been almost completely denuded. The exploitation of teresken is the main threat to the fragile semi-desert environment and it is essential to stop trucks driving into the core zone to increase the harvest. Otherwise, the area is heading towards desertification. A long-term strategy is needed for the provision of alternative fuel resources and control the destruction of combustible vegetation both by shrub-cutting and overgrazing. The Government is therefore subsidizing local people to buy coal and build small to medium scale hydropower plants in the Murghab region. A unique hazard, the catastrophic release of the waters of Lake Sarez, is to be met by an Emergency Department rather than by the park administration. A complex network of electronic sensors is in place to signal any failure of the Uzoi Dam to a centre coordinating broadcast warnings to populations downstream.

COMPARISON WITH SIMILAR SITES

This property encompasses one of the world’s highest mountain ranges and concentrates and protects the full range of Central Asian landscapes, from the highest peaks and plains to the deciduous forests of deep river valleys. Comparable sites should be very large, very high and very mountainous, with extremely rugged glaciated topography of great beauty juxtaposed with a cold winter desert plateau which forms almost half the site, and unusual geomorphologic features. The park is the largest single high mountain protected area of the Eurasian continent and among the largest protected areas in Central Asia.

The comparably high plateau of Tibet is the largest in the world, but is relatively featureless compared with the 2,000-3,000m deep canyons, braided rivers, long glaciers and alpine plateaus together in one protected area, though its vast Chang Tang Nature Reserve has a richer fauna. The Tajik park includes three mountains over 7,000m and over 40 over 6,000m. The only comparable Central Asian peaks and glaciers lie 800km to the north-east in the western Tian Shan on the border of China and Kyrgyzstan, where the high peaks have 670 glaciers. The only two higher peaks in World Heritage sites are Sagarmatha in Nepal and Nanda Devi in India. Comparable nearby peaks are Tirich Mir (7,690m) in the Hindu Kush 300 km south and Kongur Tagh (7,649m) and Mustagh Ata (7,546m) in the western Kunlun Shan 300 km east in an equally active tectonic zone with a similar alpine desert character. The Karakoram Mountains 500 km southeast have 17 peaks higher than Peak Ismoil Somoni and are the most heavily glaciated mountains outside the polar regions, though none of the glaciers is as long as the Fedchenko glacier. These sites are also all in different biogeographic regions.

Although in a major hotspot, the park covers only 3% of the area and many other comparable sites have higher levels of species richness and threatened fauna such as the snow leopard. Many existing World Heritage properties - the Golden Mountains of the Altai, Nanda Devi and Valley of Flowers National Parks, Sagarmatha National Park, Uvs Nuur Basin, and the Xinjiang Tianshan - also contain these. Some of its character is shared with two other properties, China’s Xinjiang Tianshan and Karakorum-Pamir, but they also differ in lacking some of the particular landform diversity of the park, and in being much less arid. The biodiversity of several comparable properties certainly is higher. For instance, the Three Parallel Rivers of Yunnan, and the Golden Mountains of the Altai, in Russia, the Altyn-Emel State National Natural Park, in Kazakhstan, the Chatkal State Biosphere Reserve in Uzbekistan, and the Tianshan mountains of Xinjiang, in China, contain a more diverse range of ecosystems, bioclimatic conditions and altitudinal variation than the property.

However, Tajik National Park stands out as a very large protected area covering almost all of one of the world’s highest mountain ranges, with an outstanding juxtaposition of heavily-glaciated high peaks and high plateaus with an alpine desert plateau. It also has the unusual geologic features of continental subduction, a potentially important site for scientific research, the highest large salt lake, Karakul Lake, which is at 3,923m far higher than the World Heritage sites of Uvs Nuur at 759m in Mongolia and Lake Tengiz at c.120m in northern Kazakhstan, or the largest mountain lake in Central Asia, the freshwater Issyk Kul in Kyrgyzstan, which is also lower at 1,606m.

STAFF

There are 54 staff in the park management team under the Director, including 2 management staff, 3 regional office heads, 12 specialists, 19 rangers and 17 administrative and technical support. Most, especially rangers, come from local communities. Fifteen of the staff have tertiary qualifications and a fairly good level of technical capacity exists through on-the-job training. There are six district heads with eight ranger posts reporting to the headquarters in Khorog. Three 4WD and a horse are used but the current number of staff is insufficient due to the vast size of the site and is to be increased annually between 2012 and 2016; 10 ranger positions were approved for 2013.

BUDGET

The total budget of the park for 2012 was only US\$183,200, mainly from the state, but is to be increased. It includes tourist revenues and a fund administered by the Committee for Environmental Protection which recently revised the law on Natural Protected Areas to provide for the financial sustainability of the park. Staff capacity building, biodiversity conservation, wildlife monitoring and the development of a management plan have been supported by a UNDP/GEF project, by Flora and Fauna International and the secretariat of the Bonn Convention on Migratory Species. A 2013 study into community-based trophy hunting will be conducted through a German International Aid (GIZ) regional program.

LOCAL ADDRESSES

Head of Tajik National Park Administration, 96/4, Karamshoev Street, Khorog, Republic of Tajikistan.

Head of State Agency of Natural Protected Areas, 62, Druzhba Narodov Street, Dushanbe, Republic of Tajikistan.

Director, Committee for Environmental Protection, 5/1, Shamsi Street, Dushanbe, Tajikistan, 734024.

REFERENCES

The principal sources for the above information were the original World Heritage nomination, the IUCN site evaluation report and Decision 36 COM 8B.8 of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee.

Appleton, M. et al. (2012). Biodiversity: Delivering results in Europe and the CIS. UNDP, Bratislava, Slovakia.

BirdLife International (2012a). Important Bird Areas Factsheet: Bulunkul and Yashilkul Lakes and Mountains. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 19/11/2012.

----------------- (2012b). Important Bird Areas Factsheet: Karakul Lake and Mountains. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 19/11/2012.

Breu, T. & Hurni, H. (2003). The Tajik Pamirs: Challenges and Sustainable Development in an Isolated Mountain Region. Centre for Development and Environment, University of Berne, Switzerland.

Conservation International (2012). Mountains of Central Asia. Hotspot description. http://www.conservation.org/where/priority_areas/hotspots/europe_central_asia/Mountains-of-Central-Asia/Pages/default.aspxOnline.

Fisher R. (1995). Earth’s Mystical Canyons. Sunracer Publications Tucson. 152 p.

Gubski, P.(1967). Snow cover in the Pamirs. In Vegetation and Plant Growing of the Pamirs. Dushanbe.

Haslinger, A. (2004).The Challenges of Nature Conservation in the Tajik National Park – Objectives versus Realities. Diploma Thesis, University of Berne. 264 pp.

IUCN (2009). IUCN Technical Evaluation: Tajik National Park (Mountains of the Pamirs) (Tajikistan).

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Kistyakovski, A. (1950). Zoogeography of the Pamirs. Sci. Not..,Kiev. Vol.9.

Leonteva, R. (1968). Soils Atlas of Tajik SSR. Dushanbe-Moscow. pp.93-95.

Magin, C. (2005). World Heritage Thematic Study for Central Asia – A Regional Overview. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland.

Middleton, R. & Thomas, H. (2008) Tajikistan and the High Pamirs. Odyssey Books & Guides.

Tajik State Agency of Natural Protected Areas (2012). Nomination. Tajik National Park (Mountains of The Pamirs). (Republic of Tajikistan) for Inscription to UNESCO World Cultural and Natural Heritage List. Dushanbe.190pp.+ maps.

Thorsell, J. & Hamilton, L. (2002). A Global Overview of Mountain Protected Areas on the World Heritage List. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland.

UNEP-WCMC (2009). Tajik National Park (Mountains of the Pamirs) Comparative Analysis. (1st draft revised).

Vadim, A. & Veber, C. (2004). Guide to the Principal Archaeological Sites of the Eastern Pamirs. (Tajikistan). UNESCO project Development of Cultural and Ecotourism in the Mountainous Regions of South and Central Asia. Paris. 27 pp.

WWF (2012). Ecoregion descriptions. Online: http://worldwildlife.org/biomes.

DATE

November 2013.