About the region
The Region of Central Asia includes 5 States — Kyrgyz Republic, the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Republic of Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and the Republic of Uzbekistan.
It covers a territory of about 4 million sq. km and is a vast land of great contrasts in landscape and biological diversity — from steppes and deserts to mountain forests and tundra.
About 7000 species of angiosperm flora, 900 species of vertebrate and 20000 of invertebrates are described here; in some areas, up to 18–20% of species is represented by endemic — so that they can be met nowhere else in the World.
Many species are listed in the Red Data Book of IUCN such as the Asian cheetah, leopard and snow leopard, kulan, markhour and bukhara deer, different rare eagles and falcons, houbara bastard, cobra and gray monitor, beautiful tulips and butterflies, and many others.
Zones of contact of Asian and Mediterranean floras are situated here, and here you can find some of the unique natural centres of speciation, including centres of origin of cultural plants: crops and fruit trees, walnut, pistachio and almonds, grapes, pomegranates and beautiful flowers.
Mountains of Central Asia, it’s deserts with riparian forests in river valleys are recognized to be unique in the scale of the Planet, and they are included in the list of 200 priority ecoregions of the World.