It is not only the founding reserve of the protected-area system across the vast Kazakh–Central Asian region, but also the only reserve in Kazakhstan that has maintained its official status continuously for the entire 100 years. Many other reserves were closed for several years in the 1950s and later restored on smaller territories, while the Almaty Reserve was even relocated to a different site.

During the same period in the 1950s, after onagers from Turkmenistan were brought in to Barsakelmes Island, the Aksu-Zhabagly Reserve assisted the Barsakelmes Reserve by supplying bales of hay to feed these animals.

The book, compiled by long-serving veterans of the reserve on the basis of documentary materials and their personal experience (having worked in the reserve from 7 to 22 years), describes not only the rich natural heritage of the reserve but also the complex and challenging history of its establishment, protection, and the scientific study of its flora, fauna, and natural ecosystems.

As one of the official reviewers (the great-grandson of one of the reserve’s founders, Professor Kashkarov D.N.) noted, “the book will take a worthy place as a teaching resource within higher education programs in the fields of Nature Conservation and Protected Area Management.” He believes that the book should be published in a print run sufficient to provide copies both for environmental conservation specialists and for general readers—in other words, it should be available in libraries throughout Kazakhstan.

Unfortunately, the reserve itself does not have the financial resources for such a publication, nor does the Institute of Zoology of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan, whose staff members are the authors of the book. Given current financial realities, the publication of works of this kind — despite their significance and necessity — has long been possible only through sponsorship support.

We would be sincerely grateful for your sponsorship contribution to the publication of this book, part of whose print run will also be distributed beyond Kazakhstan.

Review by Doctor of Biological Sciences, Professor, President of the Menzbier Ornithological Society, Eldar Anverovich Rustamov (Turkmenistan):

“Overall, the book is not only a timely and important publication about the nature and activities of the pioneer of Central Asia’s nature reserves, but also an example of how the scientific and memoir genres can be combined within the historical memory of society. It does so through the story of a small team of dedicated people who devoted their love and passion to science and to Mother Earth. This is a valuable resource for ecologists, biologists, and everyone who loves nature and strives to preserve it. The publication is a model of how memory should be preserved and passed on to future generations. One can only hope that the book will be published in a wide print run. And to the reserve itself, we wish it to proudly uphold its title of ‘Biosphere Reserve’ and continue preserving the ridges and mountain valleys of the Tian Shan for the benefit of nature and the people of Kazakhstan.”

The Key Botanical Area “Tauzholy” (Tauzholy, IPA-KZ-AM) is located in the southwestern outskirts of Almaty on the northern large-scale slope of the Zailiysky Alatau (Northern Tian Shan). Using IPA criteria adapted for Kazakhstan, the study assessed a 256-hectare site (1,045–1,472 m above sea level), based on 2023–2025 photographic observations on the iNaturalist platform, aggregated via GBIF, combined with targeted field surveys. The results show that the area meets six KBA subcriteria—A1, A3, A4, B2, B3, and C3.

The article discusses the main anthropogenic threats (urbanization pressure, overgrazing, recreational load) and the role of the KBA in maintaining ecosystem services in the Almaty foothills.

The area is proposed as a priority site for strengthened protection measures and as a demonstrative case for applying the KBA methodology in suburban landscapes of the Zailiysky Alatau.

Authors of the article: A. V. Dubynin, V. G. Epiktetov, I. Y. Selyutina, P. A. Adzhigildyaev (Institute of Botany and Phytointroduction, Almaty, Kazakhstan; Public Foundation “Wings,” Ridder, Kazakhstan).

The Public Foundation “Wings” for the Conservation and Protection of Animals and Plants has been granted the status of an information provider for GBIF.

GBIF — the Global Biodiversity Information Facility — is an international organization aimed at collecting, processing, and disseminating scientific information about the Earth’s biodiversity.

Birds, of course, know no borders: during migrations they travel thousands of kilometers across the territories of many countries. Studying them using only local sources of information does not provide a complete picture.

GBIF allows access to aggregated data on species, their global distribution, observations, and scientific studies with just a few clicks on its website. For example, the article “Where and When to Observe Birds in Kazakhstan” was prepared using GBIF data.

Today, GBIF has more than 3,000 data providers, including: scientific institutions, wildlife observation stations, national parks and reserves, medical organizations, and universities. Over the past 10 years, the volume of data available through GBIF has increased more than 15-fold, with the majority of observations now coming from citizen science platforms. These are well-known resources such as iNaturalist, eBird, and many others.

The first data provider for GBIF from Kazakhstan, in 2021, was the Institute of Botany and Phytointroduction, Main Botanical Garden, Almaty. Since then, 10 more scientific organizations from Kazakhstan have joined GBIF.

Today, the largest contributor in terms of published data is Karaganda University named after E. A. Buketov. KarNU has published its herbarium in GBIF (over 12,000 specimens) along with 25 other datasets, totaling around 100,000 observations.

When these data are used in research, GBIF allows users to see the list of publications, study them, and even contribute additional data. Continuing the example of KarNU, GBIF shows 89 scientific publications that have used data from Karaganda University.

Members of the initiative group “Wind of Wanderings” and the public foundation “Wings” have been monitoring the birds of Kazakhstan for several years. A platform, wingeds.world, was developed for publishing bird photographs and observations.

Starting May 2025, a permanent project in birdwatching, “Wings of the Steppe – 2025,” was launched. Participants photographed birds across different regions of Kazakhstan and uploaded the images to the platform. Each photo is accompanied by the species identification, date, and location, with specialists verifying the accuracy. The “Wings of the Steppe” project is designed in a gamified style to make participation engaging and to collect more data on birds during migration periods.

Additionally, a sector-based bird monitoring project is being developed. Participants select a square on the map and regularly record which bird species are present throughout the year. Recognizing that not everyone is an expert in bird identification, an artificial intelligence is being developed to determine the species from photographs and bird songs. This will allow anyone to contribute to the collection of bird observation data.

All observations are formatted so they can be exported to GBIF, meaning the data will be accessible to researchers worldwide and can be used for science and nature conservation.