Saiga of the Ustyurt Plateau

Wider Implication : Working with nature

 

Saiga of the Ustyurt Plateau


Until the 1990's saiga antelope populations were considered to be relatively secure. Then the Soviet Union collapsed plunging many of its inhabitants into extreme poverty.  Saiga horns are highly valued in Traditional Chinese Medicine, and with limited employment options, the people of Eurasia began slaughtering saigas in their hundreds of thousands in exchange for desperately needed income. 

Now the saiga is listed as Critically Endangered by the IUCN, its numbers having dropped by 95% in the last fifteen years, the largest decline of any land animal in that period.

Conservation Works facilitated an e-dialogue between two sectors, European zoos and an international NGO, both wanting to help conserve the saiga.  This led to an introduction to the Saiga Conservation Alliance who identified a major obstruction to progress, a lack of knowledge about saiga migratory movements.  CW has sponsored the SCA to identify and solicit donors to underwrite a major study to discover where saiga go - and when, which is critical to a strategic plan for their future protection and  management.

 

 

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