Zaamin State Nature Reserve

Zomin State Mountain-forest Reserve – Pomir-Oloy (Jizzakh region, Uzbekistan) is a reserve located in the northern flank of the western part of the Turkestan system. The main protected objects are high mountain forest systems (at altitudes of 1760-3500 m), the snow leopard, the bearded vulture, the black kite and others. Various animals are also present

History

It is known that in the 1860s the area that later became the Zomin Reserve was studied by the Russian naturalist A. P. Fedchenko. The first scientific description of the flora of this area was given in 1916 by Olga Norring, an employee of the Relocation Department of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Empire. From 1926 to 1929 and from 1934 to 1951 the Guralash Reserve (approximately 8500 hectares) was created, and the areas that formed its basis were fully developed as forest management.

Intensive pastures, disorderly cutting of forests (especially the mountain forests) and overgrazing threatened the sub‑alpine landscapes, which led to the adoption of a decision in 1959 to establish the Zomin Reserve. In 1978 the Uzbekistan People’s Park (31500 ha) was established, forming a single mass with the reserve.

Before the dissolution of the USSR the reserve was under the jurisdiction of the Main Directorate of Hunting and Reserves of the Ministry of Forestry of the Uzbek SSR.