Hunting banned in half of territories of all hunting farms in Kyrgyzstan

Hunting on the territory of 7.2 million hectares in Kyrgyzstan is prohibited, this is almost half of all hunting farms of the republic, the director of the State Agency for Environmental Protection and Forestry Abdykalyk Rustamov stated at the International Forum on the Conservation of Snow Leopard and Its Ecosystems.

According to him, the ban was introduced to preserve the food base of the predator. «One can assume that this is a moratorium on hunting,» he said.

In addition, the state agency introduced local bans on hunting. «For example, from 2017, hunting for artiodactyls in the Moscow, Sokuluk and Alamudun districts of the Chui oblast is banned for three years,» Abdykalyk Rustamov said.

He noted that the territories where hunting is prohibited will be monitored to find out how the moratorium affects the number of wild animals. As he stressed, in the 2000s the number of snow leopards in Kyrgyzstan decreased to 150 individuals, now this figure varies from 350 to 500.