Bokey Orda State Nature Reserve and Ashiozek State Nature Sanctuary (Kazakhstan)

Photo credit: Rob Field / Royal Society for the Protection of Birds

In 2021, the Wyss Foundation provided a grant to the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds to support activities within the Altyn Dala Conservation Initiative in western Kazakhstan. The grant helped the Society and its longstanding in-country partner, the Association for the Conservation of Biodiversity of Kazakhstan, provide the Government of Kazakhstan with technical assistance; this effort resulted in the designation of the new Bokey Orda State Nature Reserve and Ashiozek State Nature Sanctuary on July 1, 2022. The new protected area covers more than 1.6 million acres.

Kazakhstan, in the heart of Central Asia, is home to more than ninety-seven percent of the world’s population of saiga antelope and some of the largest and most intact steppe grassland habitats in the world. The Bokey Orda State Nature Reserve and Ashiozek State Nature Sanctuary is home to the largest calving site globally of saiga antelope, who arrive each Spring in huge herds to give birth. The saiga antelope is a Critically Endangered ungulate, which had historically migrated across the Eurasian steppes by the millions. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds co-founded the Altyn Dala Conservation Initiative alongside Association for the Conservation of Biodiversity of Kazakhstan, the Government of Kazakhstan, and other international partners to help conserve and enhance the grassland landscapes of Kazakhstan and restore the abundance of its iconic wildlife.

After responding to a dramatic crash in the population in 2015 – when only 84,000 antelope were observed across all Kazakhstan – there is great news to report. The 2022 census found there were more than 1.3 million saiga living in the country, and more than 800,000 in the West Kazakhstan region where the new protected area is situated. With more of its most important habitat now protected permanently, the future of saiga antelope, and the hundreds of other species dependent on Central Asia’s steppe grasslands and wetlands, is looking more promising.