The Altai-Sayan mountain country is one of the key Global 233 eco-regions worldwide, which represent 95% of biodiversity on Earth. WWF works on 35 of them as top priority and Altai-Sayan is one of them.
On top of rich biodiversity, the region represents the most complete sequence of altitude vegetation zones in Siberia. The area contains geographically distinct biomes, consisting of high-mountain taiga, mountain tundra, a mix of forests, desert and semi-deserts, steppes and wetlands. This mountaineous eco-region gives life to two of the world's ten largest rivers: the Ob and Yenissei, with a total watershed of over 5.5 million km2. It also contributes to the drainage of Lake Baikal. The health of the region is therefore crucial for eco-systems that stretch far outside immediate area.
Altai-Sayan region covers an area larger than the territories of the Netherlands, Switzerland, Austria, Denmark, Belgium, Great Britain and Germany put together.
The richness of the eco-system comes from its situation, at the border between:
- The tiger zone in the North with central siberian taiga forests,
- The steppes in western Siberia,
- The central asian deserts of China and Mongolia.
The region contains the world's largest unbroken stretches of Siberian pine forests of the highest quality, which consists mainly of endemic Siberian fir forests that have relict and endeimc vasculr plants and mosses.
Of more than 200 rare plant species, 12% are endemic. The region is also the north-western habitat of the snow leopard, also called irbis, as well the habitat of Altai mountain sheep, also called argali. These 2 flagships species are listed as endangered species in the IUCN Red List. We will talk more about them in the next posts.
Argali sheep
Irbis
In addition, Altai-Sayan eco-region also preserves an important historical heritage with sites dating back to 35,000BC (petroglyphs, cave paintings, menhirs, steles, tumuli, etc.). And indigenous people today still share common cultures, mixed from pagan customs and shamanism, and centuries of ancient cultures (Scythian, Turkic, Iranian, Chinese) and languages families (Slavic, Turkic, Mongolian).
The actual population consists of 1.5 million people, who mainly live in rural areas and rely heavily upon local natural resources. People in the Russian part are engaged mainly in farming, cattle breeding and mining, and many people earn a living by hunting. Poverty, widespread unemployment and a lack of alternative economic activities can have a negative impact on both the natural resources and biodiversity of the region. In the next post, we will see more precise threats and what WWF is doing to prevent those.
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