This transnational property comprises fourteen component parts found across arid areas of Central Asia’s temperate zone between the Caspian Sea and the Turanian high mountains. The area is subject to extreme climatic conditions with very cold winters and hot summers, and boasts an exceptionally diverse flora and fauna that has adapted to the harsh conditions. The property also represents a considerable diversity of desert ecosystems, spanning a distance of more than 1,500 kilometres from East to West. Each of the component parts complements the others in terms of biodiversity, desert types, and ongoing ecological processes.

Brief synthesis The Cold Winter Deserts of Turan is a transnational serial property shared by Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The property comprises 14 component parts distributed across arid areas of Central Asia’s temperate zone between the Caspian Sea and the Turanian high mountains system. The property is subject to extreme climatic conditions with minimal levels of precipitation, very cold winters and hot summers. In spite of these extreme conditions, the property boasts an exceptionally diverse flora and fauna that has adapted to the harsh conditions. The property also represents a considerable diversity of desert ecosystems, their evolution, functions and natural dynamics, covering Turan Deserts from the mountain depressions and piedmonts of Altyn-Emel to the gypsum deserts of Southern Ustyurt, spanning a distance of more than 1,500 kilometres from East to West. Each of the component parts has its own specifics, and at the same time, they complement each other in terms of biodiversity, desert types, and ongoing ecological processes. The component parts located in the Aral Sea region represent the desert ecosystem and not the wetland ecosystem of the Aral Sea itself as they were present before desiccation of the sea and hold attributes that reflect the biodiversity values of the Turanian deserts. The property consists of a vast area of 3,366,441 hectares, with buffer zones adding up to a total of 622,812 hectares. Criterion (ix): The serial property represents the cold winter deserts as an outstanding example of the development of terrestrial ecosystems in extreme climate conditions and of the evolution of survival and adaptation strategies of plants and animals as ongoing ecological and biological processes. The 14 component parts include diverse geomorphological desert types, which are reflected by different ecosystems. It is representative of most of the ecological-physiographic vegetation types in the Turan deserts: sagebrush and perennial…