Back to category Published: 13 july 2022 Author: Zhanna Mukhatzhanova

Kenderli-Kayasan Protected Area

8.2% of Kazakhstan’s territory is designated as protected land. There are four protected areas in the Mangystau Region: the Ustyurt Nature Reserve, the Kenderli-Kayasan Protected Area, the Aktau-Buzachi Nature Reserve, and the Karagiye-Karakol Nature Reserve.

The Kenderli-Kayasan Protected Area was established in 2001 making it Kazakhstan’s newest wilderness area. Protected areas are not nature reserves; acceptable commercial exploitation and hunting are allowed there. The area preserves the habitat of MacQueen's bustards and saker falcons.

The Kenderli-Kayasan Protected Area encompasses vast plains and deep hollows. The hollows’ bottoms are often covered with salt pans, where only halophytic shrubs grow. These plants can survive in soil of high salinity. The most widespread halophytic shrub in the protected area is Halocnemum.

The hollows are surrounded by sheer cliffs up to 100 meters (328 ft) high. Up there, the vegetation is a bit more diverse: Atraphaxis, Salsola, and Malacocarpus crithmifolius. The plains are covered with wormwood, barnyard grass, and other steppe plants. Many of them serve as food for goitered gazelles and urials.

The area’s most notable bird species is the MacQueen's bustard. Arab sheikhs were given special permission to hunt these birds; however, they must replenish the losses. Every year they bring several hundred birds to the protected area. In, 2019, the number of MacQueen's bustards amounted to 200 thousand birds. This project is curated by the International Bustard Conservation Foundation, founded by the President of the United Arab Emirates.

Дрофа-красотка и сокол-балобан Кендерли-Каясанская з.з — *A MacQueen's bustard and a saker falcon*

How to get there?

The Kenderli-Kayasan Protected Area is located on the Mangyshlak Peninsula, a few kilometers south of the town of Zhanaozen. The neighboring village of Kulandy is on the territory of the protected area.