Ecovolunteer Expeditions - Kyrgyzstan

Text written by Françoise STEYER

Expedition overview

You will explore a still predominantly unspoilt country where you will take part in various eco-volunteering projects in the Naryn National State Reserve. The expedition takes participants to the regions of Song-Kul, Naryn and Issyk-Kul.

Song-Kul

Lying at an elevation of 3000m above sea level, Song-Kul is a large lake surrounded by a broad summer pasture ringed by mountains. It is accessible through unpaved tracks. Whilst sparsely inhabited by a few fishermen during the winter season, in summer the shoreside is dotted by the yurts of local shepherds spending the season together with their herds of numerous sheep and horses.

The marshlands to the south of the lake are the location of a natural reserve inhabited by a rich avifauna. It is a place for important migration routes for species such as anatidae or shorebirds, and black storks or bar-headed geese can be spotted.

Highlights

Two days in a yurt encampment with a local shepherd family

Bird-watching sessions with an ornithologist and counting of the various bird species

Naryn State Reserve

With roughly 100,000 hectares of spruce forests, alpine meadows, glaciers and rivers, Naryn State Reserve remains a vastly untouched territory populated by a number of protected species such as the snow leopard, Tian-Shan bear, wolf, lynx, Pallas’s cat, Siberian ibex, Marco Polo sheep, Maral stag, all of which are difficult to spot.

Highlights

Crossing the reserve on horseback along the Naryn river valley over a period of ten days in the company of the reserve rangers

Overnight camping in various locations and daily hiking along mountain ridges to monitor wildlife species, through direct observation and track search

Especially in June and July, searching for nesting areas for several species of birds of prey (golden and booted eagles, short-toed eagle, bearded and Himalayan vultures, black vulture...)

The data on birds of prey is especially valuable to the reserve as it will serve as a basis on which to conceive and implement future wildlife monitoring programs with the rangers. Observation sessions may be simultaneously carried out in two separate groups of participants posted in different locations.

Additional eco-volunteering assistance may be provided to the rangers, such as the mending of huts or haymaking.

Issyk-Kul

Exiting the Naryn reserve aboard jeeps, we will be driving for an entire day though an arid landscape of high altitude mountains interspersed with steppes, before finally reaching lake Issyk-Kul, often referred to as the Kirghiz “inland sea”.

Highlights

Kirghiz culture and daily life in surrounding villages

Time spent with local host families

If you wish to take part to this eco-volunteering project, please contact the organizer :

Bastien CHAIX

Email : jailoo48@gmail.com / Phone +(33) 6 25 72 55 06

Price : about 1800€ for 3 weeks

We were very proud to be able to organize two expeditions and to have our French eco-volunteers-also supporters of our charity Around The Rock- travel over to Kyrgyzstan. The vice-president and the rangers of the Naryn and Song-Kul reserves were very pleased with the results of our actions on-site. Undoubtedly they view eco-volunteering as an added value and are prepared to renew the experience in the future.

We wanted to make eco-volunteering easily accessible to everybody - we managed to gather a group of volunteers aged 24 to 62, all sharing a same passion for nature despite having very different professional backgrounds.

We are grateful to Bastien Chaix for his professionalism and for having shared with us his passion for birds of prey and other wildlife species of Kyrgyzstan.

The strength of eco-volunteering also lies in its team spirit and in the positive mindset of the participants, which is another reason why both expeditions have proven successful.

We managed to remain in line with the initially scheduled program, despite adverse climatic conditions during the June expedition, during which we were nonetheless fortunate enough to be able to watch numerous birds of prey (golden eagle, booted eagle, short-toed eagle, Himalayan vulture, bearded vulture...) as well as animals that would normally only rarely be seen, such as Tian-Shan brown bears, Marco Polo bighorn sheep, ibexes and a wolf.

The continuously dry and sunny weather during the second expedition allowed for additional projects to be rolled out, such as removing the waste and rubbish from the Song-Kul lake shore, haymaking for deer food and mending the roof of one of the huts in the Naryn reserve.

Traveling from one camping spot to the next on our horses were incredibly intense moments allowing each of us to keep their cool even in the steepest climbs, thanks to our Kirghiz horses which always remained gentle, strong and entirely reliable even on the most rugged terrain.

We wish and hope for this eco-volunteering project to be carried on in the long run with Bastien and other eco-volunteers.

Kirghizistan - Expéditions écovolontaires

https://www.flickr.com/photos/around-the-rock/sets/72157656465683181/

You can see all our pictures on the link above

Best of Expéditions écovolontaires Around The Rock au Kirghizistan (Asie centrale)

Voici quelques bons moments filmés lors des expéditions réalisées en juin et juillet 2015 au Kirghizistan avec des membres de l'association Around the Rock, tour du monde écovolontaire, à la ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zA7fmwakXGA&feature=youtu.be