Türkmenmetbugat

"Ekologiýa medeniýeti we daşky gurşawy goramak" žurnaly

Founder: Ministry of Agriculture and Environment of Turkmenistan
Adress: Ashgabat, Bitarap Turkmenistan Avenue., 15
Telephones: 94-17-24

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Articles

Pistachio Grove on the Outskirts of the Capital

The afforested hills in Bikrova, approaching the southern outskirts of the capital, are low: only 200-300 metres above sea level. The earliest and mature forest plantations are concentrated on a vast area up to the Kopetdag ridge. The hills begin to “swell” and “dive” down behind the last row of cottages – the foothill start there. The botanical rarities lined up near the country road – mulberry trees, popularly called “han tut”, its fruits are juicy and full of “cherry-raspberry” juice, Ziziphus, pecan trees and Elaeagnus orientalis, and pistachio trees can be seen behind them. If you climb higher, you can see that there are many of them – a large grove, about 50 mature trees. The trees are in excellent condition and demonstrate their unpretentiousness to soils and lack of irrigation in a semi-wild landscape. Certainly, the seedlings were looked after, watered and kept nourished during their early years. When walking amongst the trees, the country’s oldest forester Akmurad Atamuradov, a specialist in pistachio cultivation, explained that the grove consists of female and male trees, the female trees bear large fruits, large clusters result

11 March 2022

Farab sphinx

in the nineteenth century, the German scientist A. Humboldt is known to have introduced the term “natural monument” into science. It means amazing natural spots or fragments. In the Lebap velayat, the most famous of them are located in the south, in the Koytendag etrap. These are, first of all, the world famous plateaus with dinosaur tracks left 150 million years ago and karst caves with their amazingly beautiful inleakage decoration. Depending on the scientific and aesthetic value and uniqueness, natural monuments differ in their importance in descending order and in other statuses: regional, national and local. Yes, such attractions do not have to compete with those that scientists and tourists and simply lovers of beauty know about in many countries. However, this does not mean that natural monuments of local importance are not of interest, this is evidenced by the unique corners of nature located in the Farab etrap.

25 February 2022

In the Feathered Kingdom

The relationship between humans and nature, which originates from the depths of centuries, has not lost its historical and educational significance until now. This is the centre of unremitting attention of President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov – a connoisseur and expert in the flora and fauna of our sunny country.

25 February 2022

At the expanses of the caspian region

The scientific “portfolio” of the National Institute of Deserts, Flora and Fauna has been updated, and the laboratories have chosen new scientific topics for the period 2021–2025. In the pre-winter period, the expedition trips of 2021, which scientists use to study nature seasonally, to collect material and to advance in research in their areas of study, ended. In the schedule of activities of scientists of the biodiversity laboratory of the Institute, the last trip was listed as “monitoring of the vegetation of the Caspian deserts and their economic importance”. Geo-botanical studies covered the Krasnovodsk plateau, the Oktumgum sands and the Turkmenbashi-Garabogaz seaside alluvial lowland. Berdymurad Yazhanov, a postgraduate student of the Institute of Applied and General Biology of the Oguzhan Engineering and Technology University, joined the group of researchers. For him it was the first field experience. The Karakum Desert is contrasting: at different time of the year it looks like either blooming or scorched wasteland; now against the background of a monotonous grey space on saline soils, there are red-orange “islands” due to the presence of annual juicy halophytes – Climacoptera, Suaeda and Salsola sclerantha, which continue vegetating due to the lack of frost. Of interest is the vegetation of the site adjacent to the southern coast of the

4 February 2022

Rare Animals in Camera Traps

To take a picture of a rare animal at close range is a great success even for nature inspectors who conduct regular inspections around the areas of the state nature reserves. Sometimes, black kites, vultures, steppe eagles or eagle owls are captured at the nesting site, and a fox searching for food is spotted. The workers of the Badhyz Nature Reserve were lucky to see a leopard tracking down its prey and leaving for a den with two cubs; ecologists admired the dizzying leaps of adult bezoar goats in the Kopetdag Mountains. From time to time, a wolf and a hyena get into the camera traps. In recent years, ecologists of the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment Protection have introduced automatic cameras, the so-called camera traps, into the practice of scientific natural history. These cameras help conduct observations of rare, “Red Data Book” animals in their natural habitats, which the staff of the nature reserves could see rarely when carrying out planned research activities and biodiversity inventory. This was partly due to the predominantly night or twilight schedule of wakefulness or great caution of these animals. This method has been used in the Koytendag Mountains since 2013, and it gave a brilliant result – a lynx with two kittens got into the camera trap. Scientists do not even have to dream about seeing such a scene; this animal is very sensitive to hum

28 January 2022

Camera trap captures a leopard in the Badkhyz Reserve

«7-24.tm», № 03 (86), 17.01.2022 A Persian leopard was spotted on the territory of the Badkhyz State Nature Reserve. A camera trap captured the predator. Camera traps are the special devices equipped with a motion sensor. They can take a photo or video of animals from a close distance without human intervention.

17 January 2022

The Land Where “the Wind Is Born”

Since ancient times, the lowlands of Badhyz have served as natural passages from the countries of Front Asia eastwards to Central Asia and Western China. Those places were famous for rich pastures and comfortable wintering sites. Caravan routes ran there in ancient times. From those times, there remained barely noticeable tracks of roads, the ruins of fortresses and caravan sheds, abandoned wells and memories of the local nature of travellers, who had to overcome Badhyz dense forests for several days in the 13th century. The contemporary look of the vegetable cover is peculiar – a savannah type pistachio open woodland. The diorama in the section of Badhyz in the Department of Local Nature of the State Museum of the State Cultural Centre of Turkmenistan provides visitors with the view of one of the beautiful natural sites of our country. Its name is translated as the land where the wind is born. This year, the Badhyz State Nature Reserve, located in the interfluve between the rivers and founded to preserve the riches of the local animal and vegetable kingdom, is celebrating 80 years.

15 January 2022

Diverse Mountainous Juniper

The formation of the floristic composition of juniper forests, the impact of such groups on the environment determined the importance of the plant for the sustainable development of the entire vegetation cover of the mountains. In the structure of the vegetation cover of the Kopetdag Mountains, the presence of the Turkmen juniper reflects the ecological stability of ecosystems. The flow rate of mountain springs and small rivers, the control over the mudflow hazard factor, the structure and productivity of plant communities and the wellbeing of the entire flora and fauna depend on the safety of juniper woodlands. Due to their geographical position, the Kopetdag Mountains separate the deserts of Turan and Iran and at the same time connect the mountainous regions of Zagros, the Armenian Highlands, Transcaucasia and Atropatena (Northern Iran) with the Pamir-Alai system and Hindu Kush, and they are a kind of region with a system of parallel ridges elongated in the north-western-eastern direction. In addition, the Kopetdag Mountains are a barrier to air masses that conditions the climate of southern Turkmenistan, a fresh water accumulator, a supplier of valuable soil-forming rocks and a centre of origin and genetic diversity of many plants and animals with a rather high degree of endemism. According to their structural features, they are distinguished into the Western, Central and E

7 January 2022

Secrets of the Vegetable Kingdom

The UN announced a decade of the restoration of ecological systems for the period from 2021 to 2030, due to the fact that the degradation of terrestrial and marine ecosystems leads to economic losses, while more than two billion hectares of deforested and degraded land can be restored, a new study by UNEP says. According to preliminary estimates, by 2030 it is planned to “return to life” from 765 million to 1 billion hectares of agricultural and wet lands worldwide. The nature-forming role in ecosystems is played by the vegetation cover of land or sea algae, and it is not in vain that biologists, ecologists and climatologists pay special attention to afforestation and the restoration of forests and phytoplankton of reservoirs and to the study of the ability of plants of different climatic zones to adapt to changing environmental conditions and to maintain the healthy state of natural complexes.

7 January 2022

Dagdan Means “from Mountains”

In the world flora, the area of the Celtis encircles the globe in a wide strip, the northern border of which passes through Japan, continental Asia and southern Europe, and the southern border runs through Australia, the Cape region of Africa and Argentina. Despite the high polymorphism, there are 50 Celtis species, the plant retains a single type of structure of flowers, fruits and leaves, occupying various ecological niches. This beautiful, powerful tree with a luxurious fifteen-metre crown is one of the few deciduous drought-resistant rock plants. Its bluish-green hard leathery leaves tend to curl in hot weather, which reduces transpiration – evaporation of moisture. Fruits – drupes with fleshy sweetish pulp – ripen by October, until late autumn they stay on the branches, serving as food for birds. The light-loving plant likes freedom and space, spreads its crown widely, grows slowly, but lives up to 600 years, forms a developed root system, keeping limestone outcrops and other rocky mountain exposures in lowlands from washout and wind erosion.

24 December 2021

Lake under the Vaults of the Cave

An underground lake with a length equal to a football field was discovered accidentally in the Koytendag Mountains six years ago. To be more precise, the water level of the underground hydraulic system dropped so much that the water receded from the upper horizons and released a new underground “double” hall, the ceiling of which was partly the bottom of a vast depression, in which water used to appear on the surface. Now, the entrance to the caves is an impressive land subsidence with a diameter of 100 metres and a depth of 50 metres. The discoverers dedicated the discovery to a caver from Gaurdak, speleo-diver and explorer of the Koytendag caves Igor Kutuzov. The examination of the newly formed cavity revealed the first “dry” hall 45 metres long and the second, spacious hall 125 metres long, with a lake, the clear water of which allows you to see the bottom at great depths. The maximum ceiling height is 25 metres. The karst lake is notable for being part of an underground hydraulic system and, in accordance with the principle of communicating vessels, it keeps one water level or “horizon”. That is why the lake “breathes”, the level of its water “mirror’” fluctuates – it goes up and down, depending on the season of the year. According to the initial results, the length of the reservoir is 87 metres, the width is 62 metres and the total area is 4,400 squ

10 December 2021

Filled with Echoes of Ancient Times

The valley of the Sumbar River is an unusual place in Turkmenistan that attracts like a magnet with its natural monuments and amazing beauty of nature. Magtymguly etrap, Balkan velayat, is a kind of centre of the Sumbar valley. For example, one of such attractions is Uch-deshik cave, or, as it is also called, Sheripe, located on the right bank of the Chendir River on a steep hill about 30 metres high. The curtain of the stream falls from a wide stone ledge in a scattering of silver spray. Many legends are associated with that place.

26 November 2021

Cold Akpatlavuk Volcano

There are many fascinating places in the world that make people enchanted by the beauty and harmony of nature. Undoubtedly, one of such corners of nature is a mud volcano called Akpatlavuk, whose name is translated as White Volcano. It is located in the so-called South Caspian depression in south-western Turkmenistan, where almost half of all mud volcanoes of the world are located. There are more than 200 of them in the region, and about 30 volcanoes are located in the territory of Turkmenistan. Their number varies depending on the activity of the bowels of the earth. For example, a new mud volcano appeared in Turkmenistan’s water area of the Caspian Sea in 2017. Akpatlavuk is located between the villages of Ekerem and Esenguly in the Balkan velayat. This natural wonder is one of the highest and most active volcanoes in the region. It arouses fascination with its grandeur; its height is about 80-90 metres. The road to the volcano runs along a deserted off-road. After arriving at the foot of the mountain, we climbed its slope, where various shrubs and herbs, such as harmala, wormwood and other plants used in folk medicine grew. The scent of these herbs can be dizzying with a variety of aromas.

5 November 2021

Ethnographic Wonders of Ayry-Baba

Rocks, wind, snow, low temperatures and oxygen deficiency make the mountain peaks difficult to reach. But despite this, people have been striving to conquer them since ancient times. Is this why mountain peaks are revered as places of patience and endurance, spirituality and holiness? For example, Mount Kailash in India, Mount Fuji, Mount Sulaiman-Too in Kyrgyzstan, Mount Khan Tengri in Tianshan on the border of three states, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and China, and Mount Ararat that Armenia and Turkey associate with their culture. Likewise, the top of the Koytendag ridge – Mount Ayry-baba is not only the highest point of those mountains and Turkmenistan (3,139 metres above sea level), but is also is a sanctuary revered by local people. When approaching the Koytendag Mountains, the summit can be seen for hundreds of kilometres away. It can be seen in snow and cumulus clouds, in fogs and under a bright sun, in any weather. Its majesty is so attractive that you cannot take your eyes off. In winter, those places are covered with snow, some niches have the ice cover ten metres thick. In summer, standing on the summit, you can admire goats and mountain rams grazing in the mountain meadows and watch the birds of prey soaring at lower altitudes. In early spring, and sometimes even in February, the rare Crocus korolkowii blooms there at the edge of the melting snow. Though there are pea

29 October 2021

Medicinal Milkvetches of the Koytendag Mountains

The flora of Turkmenistan includes about three thousand species, of which one-third can be found in the Koytendag Mountains – in gorges, on hills, at foothills and along mountain rivers and lakes. Among the plants that complement the local landscape are amazing milkvetches (Astragalus). In different parts of the country, 157 species grow, 63 of them can be found in the mountain zones of the southeast of the country at an altitude of 2,500 metres above sea level; nine species are endemic, for example, Astragalus kelifi, and twenty ones can be attributed to rare plants. Biologically active substances found in various organs of these leguminous plants are characterised as medicinal, fodder, ornamental, dyeing, or industrial raw material. High in the mountains, milkvetches are rare, they prefer the flat foothills and even the sandy areas of the Karakum Desert; they are well eaten by livestock, therefore some of them are used in fodder production. There is a need for domestication in their natural habitats by additional over-grassing. Livestock breeders appreciate their tallness, productivity, high germination capacity even after secondary mowing, resistance to

22 October 2021

Oasis around Mounts Syunt and Hasar

Protected by two ridges of Mounts Syunt and Hasar, the valley of the Sumbar river is a wonderful corner of nature. The endlessly long Aydere gorge, partly included in the Syunt-Hasardag State Nature Reserve of the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment Protection of Turkmenistan, stretches there. The river of the same name, repeating the bends of the canyon’s sides, has a fast and stormy current, many small waterfalls – the most beautiful one can be found in the side gorge of the Sumbar valley called Gochdemir, and also rapids, rifts, chutes and shallow areas where moisture-loving and aquatic plants cling to the walls. Walking along this wide corridor, you can imagine yourself in a botanical garden, looking at the tall elm trees, which in the East are called karagach. These fast-growing light-loving deciduous giants are able to withstand cold and heat equally well. The tree adorns both the south and the north of the country, thus attracting the attention of gardeners and ecologists. There, low trees of Acer turcomanicum coexist with thickets of barberry and wild rose, rare wild-growing trees of Malus turkmenorum and Pyrus boissieriana are hidden in the thick of the forest. The place near the water is occupied by walnut trees and white-trunked plane trees, wild grapes and lush blackberry bushes “cling” to smooth rocks, and fig and cherry plum trees have chosen the dry

17 September 2021

Parrots Live in the Parks of Ashgabat

For many decades, sparrows and ringdoves have been the habitual birds inhabiting the courtyards, public gardens and parks of Ashgabat. Each morning began with the cheerful chirping of joyous sparrows making a fuss in the courtyards and on flowerbeds and the clanging of modest, delicate ringdoves that fearfully took off frequently flapping, gained height, spreading their wings and tail, and landed thrown by Ashgabat well-wishers. When multi-storey buildings appeared in the capital, an increasing number of wild blue pigeons settled down in the attics and empty roofs of high-rise buildings. In the early 2000s, exotic common mynas. In spring and autumn, other birds can be seen in the city; they stop for rest and feeding during the flight. The desert species of avifauna can fly from the Karakum Desert to feast on flowers of the maclura and mulberry fruits. However, all these birds of the local or migratory feathered fraternity have long become familiar; their appearance, sounds of voices and habits have become easily recognisable.

23 July 2021

In the Neighbourhood of “the Crocodiles of the Desert”

I spent my childhood up to 12 years in the desert, among salty takyrs and saxaul thickets. Nature was right in the palm of my hand – its riches, beauty and diversity were a gift for us, children, and the changeable weather of the Karakum Desert was something like a school of life and helped us grow up. The memory retained many meetings with different animals inhabiting the sandy hills, and each time it was a small, personal discovery for the boys who were always ready for new impressions and experiences. One story is about the desert monitor lizard, or zemzen in Turkmen – one of the most fascinating representatives of the fauna of Turkmenistan, an important element of natural ecosystems and a species that maintains the balance and regulates the numbers of rodents and other small animals. Nature has given it the most remarkable appearance among the inhabitants of the Karakum Desert. It is also called “the crocodile of the desert”, however in fact, it is just a large lizard with a head on a massive neck, a gaze of eyes protected by thick separate eyelids and a movable forked tongue. If you disturb the reptile, it begins to hiss menacingly and takes on a frightening look. The strong tail is its adornment and weapon.

16 July 2021

Water is a valuable property

Our ancestors respected and rationally used water resources. Water is a primary necessity not only in the lives of people, but also in the lives of plants and animals. In this regard, our ancestors created numerous proverbs, such as «A drop of water is a grain of gold», «Soil is a treasure, water is a diamond», «Water decorates the earth, the swan decorates the water», «Water places are beautiful, waterless places are a desert» and we tried to observe them. This approach is due to the environmental conditions and the acute shortage of water for our people. That is why our people followed the traditions of farmers and could have a plentiful harvest with less water, could provide themselves with a normal way of life. They have gained valuable experience in the use of rainwater. Our wise forefathers, having gained valuable experience in the construction of water structures since ancient times, built such wonderful irrigation structures as the dam, jykyr, well, kariz, sardoba. They built Soltanbent, Gowshutbent in Murgap, Garribent on the Tejen River. They could water the arable land by raising the water higher with the help of dams. Our people used jykyr in the Dashoguz region and the Amuderya region to irrigate medium-sized arable land. They built a kariz to irrigate arable land in the mountainous areas of Ahal. Kariz is an underground irrigation facility made by hand, wh

16 July 2021

Responsible development: Nature, Economics and Technology

United by understanding the importance of a multifaceted and systemic dialogue on the development of the Caspian region, the five coastal states – Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan and Russia – are again preparing for a meeting already at the Second Caspian Economic Forum to determine further prospects for international cooperation in the Caspian region. The forum is to be held in Moscow in August this year. During two days, various discussion platforms will discuss the development of trade and economic relations among the states of the Caspian region, interaction in the fields of transport, infrastructure, energy and ecology. Cooperation with the Caspian states is one of the main priorities in the foreign policy of the President of Turkmenistan. Turkmenistan backs up important political decisions taken at the highest level with specific mutually beneficial projects that meet high international environmental standards. Historical Prologue

9 July 2021

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