Farming Encroaches on Tajik Nature Reserve

Tigrovaya Balka in southern Tajikistan is a designated nature reserve but experts say it will suffer unless an uninhabited buffer zone is created around it.

The area consists of unique subtropical forest with a diversity of wildlife species. The tigers which gave it its name were hunted out 50 years ago.

Farming takes place right up to its boundaries, and local people allow their livestock to stray in to graze.

Experts are calling for the reserve to be fenced off and a strip of “no-man’s land” to be created around it to reduce the harm caused by human activity.
 

This audio programme, in Russian and Tajik, went out on national radio stations in Tajikistan, as part of IWPR project work funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.