National Strategy and Action Plan to Combat Desertification in Kazakhstan

The Republic of Kazakhstan is a huge Euroasian country. The country’s area comprises 2.7 million ha, stretching for 2925 km from west to east from the Lower Volga and the Caspian to the Altai and China; 1600 km north to south, from the West Siberian Plain and the Southern Urals to the Tien-Shan ridges and the Kyzylkum Desert. Almost all landscape types of the globe are represented in the country’s vast area, from subtropics and various types of sultry deserts to Alpine tundra and glaciers. The landscape diversity, as well as the great intracontinental seas and lakes, such as the Caspian, the Aral, Balkhash, Zaisan and Alakol determine the rich diversity of Kazakhstan biota. The flora of Kazakhstan numbers over 6000 vascular plant species; its territory is inhabited by 837 vertebrate animals, including 500 birds, 52 reptiles and 150 fishes. The diversity of invertebrates and cryptoganous plants amounts to tens of thousands of species.