Saryarka, the steppe and lakes of northern Kazakhstan and a refuge of the saiga antelope

Background

Saryarka - Steppe and Lakes of Northern Kazakhstan is a natural World Heritage property made up of the Naurzum State Nature Reserve and the Korgalzhyn State Nature Reserve. The property covers 450,344 hectares, with a buffer zone of 211,147.5 hectares outside it. It holds two groups of fresh and salt water lakes that sit on a watershed between rivers flowing north to the Arctic and rivers flowing south into the Aral-Irtysh basin. The Korgalzhyn-Tengiz lakes and the Naurzum lakes are listed as Ramsar sites, and Lake Tengiz depends mainly on inflows from the Nura River. About 200,000 hectares of Central Asian steppe lie within the property, giving a refuge to more than half the species of the region's steppe flora. It was inscribed under criteria (ix) and (x), for ongoing ecological processes and for biodiversity, including vast numbers of migratory birds and the critically endangered saiga antelope.