Zarafshan National Natural Park

Zarafshan State Reserve — a reserve in the Samarkand region (right bank of the Zarafshan River). Established in 1975. The reserve area is 2352 hectares, including forested area of 868 hectares. Located 5 km southeast of Samarkand city. The reserve area extends along the riverbank for 35 km, with a width ranging from 150 m to 1400 m. Its main purpose is the preservation, study and restoration of the natural habitat of reed plants and fauna, and the unique and disappearing plant and animal gene pool. The reserve’s climate conditions are typical of continental subtropics. Air temperature reaches +40° in summer and drops to –27° in winter. Average annual precipitation is 100–400 mm. The flora consists of reed, cattail, bulrush, and rush species such as terak, tol, jiyda, chakanda. In the reserve area there are 266 species of plants, 172 species of birds, and 8 species of fish. The Zarafshan riverbank is protected in the reserve and the issues of breeding it in cages have been studied. Since 1996, climate‑conditioning work has been carried out on six main Bukhara poplar (tamarisk) seedlings (xongul) brought from Badaytoqay and Qizilqum reserves. In 1998 the first generation was obtained from them and the propagation of this rare animal continues. Boris Dyakin.