The temperate grasslands of Central Asia are habitat for a number of wide‐ranging and endangered species such as Mongolian gazelle, saiga antelope, black‐tailed gazelle and Asiatic wild ass. These species’ habitat covers hundreds of thousands of square kilometres of largely ecologically intact grassland. Unless carefully planned and managed, the development of railways, highways and fences will be the catalyst for population decline and loss of important wild natural resources.

    The temperate grasslands of Kazakhstan and Mongolia are the largest in the world and are critically important to the survival of Mongolian gazelle, Asiatic wild ass and saiga antelope.

    Kazakhstan and Mongolia are rapidly expanding their overland transportation network to support increased transcontinental trade and resource extraction.

    Railways, highways and fences prevent access to important seasonal resources for various species and cause the decline of wildlife populations.

    Future roads and railways must avoid further fragmentation, existing roads and railways should be modified to restore wildlife movements, and fences should be modified or removed to increase connectivity.

    GPS tracking of long‐distance migratory species that identifies preferred movement paths and existing barriers to movement is essential to properly plan infrastructure projects.

    Achieving a balance between healthy ecosystems and economic development is a significant and critical challenge for developing nations such as Kazakhstan and Mongolia. Experience from other regions has led to an established hierarchy of measures to meet this challenge – avoid, minimise, mitigate and offset. Kazakhstan and Mongolia should adopt these approaches now to ensure that the imminent massive expansion of their road and railway networks has a minimal effect on biodiversity and may even result in a positive effect.


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    Titel :

    Railways, Roads and Fences Across Kazakhstan and Mongolia Threaten the Survival of Wide‐Ranging Wildlife


    Beteiligte:
    van der Ree, Rodney (Herausgeber:in) / Smith, Daniel J. (Herausgeber:in) / Grilo, Clara (Herausgeber:in) / Olson, Kirk A. (Autor:in) / van der Ree, Rodney (Autor:in)

    Erschienen in:

    Erscheinungsdatum :

    2015-04-01


    Format / Umfang :

    7 pages




    Medientyp :

    Aufsatz/Kapitel (Buch)


    Format :

    Elektronische Ressource


    Sprache :

    Englisch




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