Yaghnob National Nature Park

Yaghnob National Nature Park was formally created by the government of Tajikistan on May 2, 2019, covering roughly 57,000 hectares of the Yaghnob Valley in the Ayni district of the Sughd region, between the Zeravshan and Hissar mountain ranges. The park was established with a dual purpose: safeguarding a mountain ecosystem that still shelters snow leopards, lynx, ibex, and bears, monitored through camera traps and rangers drawn from local communities, and protecting the heritage of the Yaghnobi people, an indigenous group whose language descends from ancient Sogdian and who remain concentrated in this valley. Yaghnobi households continue to farm wheat, barley, and potatoes and to herd livestock seasonally across the high pastures, practices the park's management treats as part of what is being conserved alongside the wildlife. The area is also being developed gradually for research visits and small-scale, community-based tourism.