A Kazakh Story of Conservation Success
Kazakhstan’s sprawling steppe holds important carbon stocks and supports a wide diversity of resident and migratory species, including 95 percent of the global population of the Saiga antelope. In many parts of the world, grasslands are under threat from climate change, chronic overgrazing and expanding farms. Kazakhstan is engaged in a long-term effort to conserve and restore its steppe, semi-desert and desert ecosystems across the historical range of the Saiga antelope, an area which spans 750,000 km². That has created a refuge for the once-endangered Saiga. In 2022, the population of these animals increased to more than 1.3 million of the animals, up from just 50,000 in 2005.
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