Text 7: Reserves and National Parks

Kazakhstan has nine natural reserves and four national parks, all of which charge entry fees and are partly open to tourism. Nature reserves (zapovedniki) are large protected areas, mainly designated as closed reserves that can only be entered with permission and are under constant scientific observation. Kazakhstan's nature reserves are:

• Naurzuni: Dry wormwood-, salt- and pasture steppe with scattered, ancient fir-tree vegetation in the north of the Torgay Depression, with numerous fresh- and saltwater lakes.

• Korgalzhin Lakes and Tengiz: A salt steppe landscape to the southwest of Astana, with large salt lakes and dense reed vegetation, a rich variety of waterfowl, birds of prey, wading birds and salt steppe plants.

• West Altai: A forest-covered, medium-high mountain range on the Russian border with a dark and black coniferous forest taiga.

• Barsakelmes: A partially reed-covered peninsula, formerly an island, in the Aral Sea with typical salt desert vegetation and a population of kulan, saiga and dzheyran.

• Ustyurt: A vast, untouched desert plateau east of the Caspian Sea, stretching into the Turan Lowland. Special protection is granted to the endemic Ustyurt moufflon, as well as saiga, dzheyran and reportedly some cheetah.

• Aksu-Zhabagly: High mountain landscape with juniper forests between Shymkent and Taraz, together with the adjacent Karatau mountain range; one of the areas with the largest biodiversity.

• Almaty Reserve: Varied landscapes of low steppe foothills reaching to the high mountain slopes of Zailiyskiy Alatau; significant biodiversity.

• Markakol: An almost untouched, large mountain lake situated in the far eastern tip of Kazakhstan, surrounded by fir, spruce and larch forests; great wealth in plant, bird and mammal life.

• Alakol: A chain of lakes not far from the Chinese border, consisting of two large salt lakes and a giant reed-covered moist biotope in the Tentek delta on the freshwater lake Sasykkol.

• Bayanaul: An area between Pavlodar and Karaganda; as with Kokshetau Park, it is an azonal (not divided into zones) region of fir and birch forests on the granite massif in the dry steppe, requiring careful preservation.

• Altyn Emel: Steppe and semi-desert area with rich wildlife, wandering dunes, Scythian barrows/tumuli and rock carvings, located on the north bank of the Kapshagay Reservoir and bordered to the north by the Altyn Emel highlands. Established for the protection of kulan, dzheyran and arkhar.

• Ili-Alatau: The most northerly chain of the Tien Shan, between the southern outskirts of Almaty and the border with Kyrgyzstan. In this region more than any other, the compatibility between enjoyment of nature through leisure activities and careful protection of the environment has to be proven. Here, as in the Altyn Emel National Park, limited, strictly controlled hunting is permitted.

K azakhstan's state national parks are: Kokshetau: Forest-covered, medium-high mountain "island" with many lakes in the middle of the steppe between Astana and Kokshetau, best known for its health resort of Burabay (Borovoye).