Tajikistan will present the "Tugai Forests of the Tiger Beam Reserve" for inclusion in the UNESCO World Heritage List.
UNESCO will consider this issue at the 45th expanded session of the World Heritage, which will be held from 10 to 25 September 2023 in Saudi Arabia. This is reported by the Environmental Protection Committee under the Government of Tajikistan.
The Tugai forests of the Tiger Beam Nature Reserve are recommended for inclusion in the World Heritage List based on an assessment conducted by ICOMOS (International Council for the Conservation of Monuments and Places of Interest).
The Environmental Protection Committee provided basic information about the Tiger Beam State Nature Reserve, which is needed for nomination to UNESCO.
The main task of the state nature Reserve Tiger Beam is the preservation of the natural complex characteristic of the southern deserts and floodplains of the rivers of Central Asia, the protection of rare animals and scientific research.
The significance of the state nature Reserve Tiger Beam for the protection of nature in the region is extremely great.
It is the only desert-tugai nature reserve in the world in the zone of dry subtropics of the Central Asian type.
Pheasant, striped hyena, gazelle, Bukhara deer, gray monitor lizard and waterfowl are found here.
In winter, many waterfowl and near-water game stop at the reservoirs, including white and black storks, cormorants, geese, swans, mallard ducks, coots. Some of the mallard coot ducks remain for nesting.
Of the reptiles, the reserve is characterized by gyurza, efa, cobra, monitor lizard and others.
In addition, badgers, wild boars, porcupines, tolai hares, urial, steppe cats, foxes, jackals, wolves live on the territory of the reserve.
More than 480 species of higher plants grow in “Tiger Beam”, 20 of which are included in the Red Book of the Republic of Tajikistan.
The greatest value of the state nature reserve Tiger Beam is represented by floodplain tugai forests, which are better preserved along the left bank of the Vakhsh River. In this nature reserve, they are represented by loch, turang and mixed turang-alder plantations.
The Tiger Beam Nature Reserve is a unique corner of nature, the only one for the whole globe. This is a living memory of the dense, impenetrable thickets of woody and shrubby vegetation that existed relatively recently on huge areas – tugai.
The great scientific and educational significance of the reserve is invaluable. The preserved corner of Tugai allows us to assess the current scale of human influence on nature, on the evolution of the landscapes of our planet.
