Sünt-Hasardag Nature Reserve is a

nature reserve A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, or features of geological or ...

(''

zapovednik Zapovednik (russian: заповедник, plural , from the Russian , 'sacred, prohibited from disturbance, committed o protect committed o heritage; ) is an established term on the territory of the former Soviet Union for a protected area whi ...

'') of

Turkmenistan Turkmenistan ( or ; tk, Türkmenistan / Түркменистан, ) is a country located in Central Asia, bordered by Kazakhstan to the northwest, Uzbekistan to the north, east and northeast, Afghanistan to the southeast, Iran to the sout ...

. Established in 1977 for the protection of indigenous flora and fauna, it is located in south-western part of the

Kopetdag The Köpet Dag, Kopet Dagh, or Koppeh Dagh ( tk, Köpetdag; fa, کپه‌داغ), also known as the Turkmen-Khorasan Mountain Range, is a mountain range on the border between Turkmenistan and Iran that extends about along the border southeast o ...

Range in

Balkan Province Balkan Region ( tk, Balkan welaýaty, Балкан велаяты) is the westernmost of the five regions of Turkmenistan. Clockwise from north it borders Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan (north); two provinces of Turkmenistan (east), Iran (south), and ...

, covering an area of 303 km². It also incorporates one sanctuary: * Sünt-Hasardag Sanctuary - established in 1990. The reserve is dominated by a dry subtropical climate, with long dry summers. The temperature in summer ranges from 35 to 45 degrees Celsius. The rainy season starts in November and lasts until April.The reserve is known as one of the centers in the world where wild relatives of cultivated crops thrive; wild relatives of figs, wild apples, walnuts, pistachios, almonds and cherries grow here. All of them represent a significant historical gene pool for crops.

References

*''National Program for the Protection of the Environment'', Ashgabat, 2002, pp. 149–151

External links

* https://web.archive.org/web/20090609072344/http://natureprotection.gov.tm/reserve_tm.html Nature reserves in Turkmenistan Protected areas established in 1977 World Heritage Tentative List {{Asia-protected-area-stub