On the water
One of the greatest ecological catastrophes of the 20th century occurred deep in the Kazakh steppe, on the border with Uzbekistan. In the 1960s, the Aral Sea, fed by the Syr Darya and Amu Darya rivers, covered just over 66,000 km2, almost as large as the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, making it the fourth largest expanse of continental salt water in the world. In the space of half a century, almost everything has disappeared. The cause: the irrigation canals dug by the Soviets to intensify cotton cultivation in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. In the 2010s, the sea split in two. The south-western part, in Uzbekistan, is no longer fed by any river and is doomed to disappear altogether in the short term; the north-eastern part, in Kazakhstan, is still fed by the Syr-Daria and, thanks to a dam built on the initiative of the mayor of Aralsk, has seen its level rise gradually since 2005. This has led to the return of many fish species that previously could not survive in water that had become too salty. Migratory birds, thousands of which stop over on the Aral Sea's many islands in spring, have also suffered greatly from this ecological disaster.
The situation in Kazakhstan's other sea, the Caspian, is just as worrying. Unlike the Aral Sea, its water level has tended to rise, causing problems for the many industries that once flourished on its shores. In fact, the Caspian Sea is as much an environmental asset as an economic one, thanks to the oil in its subsoil and the caviar, the black gold, produced by sturgeon, although the latter have also suffered greatly from overfishing.
On the steppe
Many animal species disappeared from Kazakhstan in the 1960s and 1970s, victims of hunting or the disappearance of their habitat areas. This is the case for the Caspian tiger, the Central Asian leopard and Przewalski's horse: three species that the Kazakh government has included in its Red Book.
While there is hope for Przewalski's horse, a small wild horse distinguished by its small size, powerful neck and stamina, it was already considered extinct when it was rediscovered in Central Asia by a Russian explorer. The remaining populations were largely hunted or captured to supply zoos, and a new extinction threatened the species in the late 1970s, when only 300 specimens remained, all in captivity. They were reintroduced into different habitats in Mongolia, France and the Chernobyl exclusion zone. Their survival is not certain, as most groups suffer from inbreeding problems. June 2024: 8 Przewalski's horses from the Prague and Berlin zoos were reintroduced to Kazakhstan. If they adapt well, another thirty or so individuals should follow in the next few years.
The Caspian tiger, hunted on a massive scale in the 1960s and whose last individual disappeared in 2003, will also be reintroduced, or at least a closely related specimen from the far east of Russia. A very close cousin in DNA terms, the Siberian tiger, also on the brink of extinction, will indeed be welcomed over the next few years into the Ile-Balkhach nature reserve near Lake Balkhach, specially created for it. This is a long-term project, since it will first be necessary to reintroduce the future prey: the Bukhara deer, also extinct and threatened with extinction, then a few tigers in enclosures in 2025, before finally releasing all these little creatures back into the wild after a few years.
As for the Central Asian leopard, which disappeared in the 1970s, its presence appears to be confirmed on the Ustyurt plateau, where a few specimens have been spotted between Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, although no scientific expedition has yet been able to confirm its presence or type.
The miraculous return of saiga antelopes
This antelope, recognizable by its large snout, once populated Europe and Asia in small herds of around 50 individuals each. It also suffered from hunting and poaching throughout the 20th century. In 2012 and again in 2015, just as antelope numbers seemed to be on the rise again, a mysterious epizootic decimated the species, reducing it to less than 150,000 specimens, still poached, in particular for the value of their horns on the Chinese market. Thanks to the government's protection policy, their numbers exceeded one million in 2022. The cause of the mysterious mortality in 2015 was established and attributed to a nasal bacterium that had developed due to the particularly hot temperatures. In the absence of antelope immunity, the species is not immune to a new epizootic.
A flora that lives again
6,000 plant species flourish in Kazakhstan, of which just over 500 are endemic. Many of these are concentrated in the Altai Mountains region, with numerous flower species, including the famous edelweiss, at higher altitudes, and juniper forests at lower altitudes. On the whole, the mountainous regions are more conducive to the blossoming of flora, as can be seen in the Almaty area with its wide variety of trees: apple trees, sycamores, walnut trees... Spring coincides with the flowering of the tulip, of which Kazakhstan is the birthplace. The country boasts no fewer than 65 species, many of which are protected. In the steppes, the flora is rarer, but you won't want to miss the saxauls, the typical Central Asian trees used by nomads to make their bows and arrows. It was widely used for heating, but also to power the steam trains built by the Soviets. It disappeared from the landscape at the end of the 20th century, but is now flourishing again throughout Central Asia, particularly on the Kazakh steppe. Another endangered species is the turanga, a particularly hardy poplar whose roots seek water at depths of over 20 m.
