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Transnational nomination of cold winter deserts of Central Asia as UNESCO World Heritage

After more than two years of intensive preparation, on 28 January the States Parties Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan submitted their documents for the nomination of the Cold Winter Deserts of Turan as a UNESCO World Natural Heritage Site to the World Heritage Centre in Paris.

The transnational nomination includes a total of 15 components from seven protected areas of the three countries. Under a Memorandum of Understanding that is part of the nomination, the States Parties agreed on transnational mechanisms for the management and protection of the nominated site, which has a total area of about 3.4 million hectares.

The Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) of the Cold Winter Desert of Turan is justified by the significant ongoing ecological and biological processes in the cold winter deserts, as well as their importance as habitat for globally threatened animal and plant species.

The nomination process received scientific and organizational support from the CADI project. The basis for the joint approach was laid in January 2020 during a CADI workshop on the Island of Vilm. At the end, the 25 representatives of the three countries expressed their will to jointly prepare the nomination within the Vilm Declaration.

One year before the submission of the nomination documents, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan have already added the site “Winter Cold Deserts of Turan” to their national lists of proposals (“tentative list”) in January 2021.

The winter-cold deserts of Central Asia have not yet been included in UNESCO’s World Heritage List. A recent study by the IUCN emphasizes that they have the potential for this.

“Turanian deserts of the temperate zone” nominated for inclusion in the UNESCO World Heritage List

Joint declaration of intent and schedule towards the World Natural Heritage nomination of the “Cold winter deserts of Turan”

List of participants of the Workshop on Vilm

World Heritage thematic study for Central Asia (IUCN)

IUCN presentation: World Heritage in Central Asia

  • Work package I
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News & Events

  • FAO CADI project highlights17. January 2023 - 15:35
  • Proceedings from the International Cold Winter Desert Conference published14. October 2022 - 14:30
  • Dunes in sunsetOleg Kugaev10th CADI Newsletter available!28. June 2022 - 12:38
  • Further work of the Regional Secretariat of CADI project was discussed in Tashkent13. June 2022 - 13:22
  • Mass deaths of animals in trenches in Kazakhstan continues7. June 2022 - 13:56

CADI brochure

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Kontakt / Contact

Universität Greifswald
Institut für Botanik und Landschaftsökologie /
University of Greifswald
Institute of Botany and Landscape Ecology
Soldmannstraße 15
D-17489 Greifswald

Projektleitung / Project Leader:
Dr. Michael Manthey
Phone: +49 3834 420 4128
manthey [at] uni-greifswald.de

Projektkoordination / Project Coordinator:
Christian Welscher
Phone: +49 3834 83542 24
christian.welscher [at] uni-greifswald.de

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