16 October 2014: During a side event to the twelfth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP 12) in Pyeongchang, the Republic of Korea, the International Council for Game and Wildlife Conservation (CIC) honored community-based conservancies in Tajikistan with the CIC Markhor Award.

The CIC Markhor Award recognizes and celebrates outstanding conservation performance by people, private and government institutions, enterprises, or conservation projects that link the conservation of biodiversity and human livelihoods through the application of the principles of sustainable use, in particular hunting, as part of wildlife and ecosystem management.

Tamás Marghescu, CIC Director General, highlighted that the award recognizes the empowerment of local people to look after their own natural resources. Uahekua Herunga, Minister of the Environment and Tourism, Namibia, handed the award to Munavvar Alidodov, Panthera, representing the Tajikistan Mountain Ungulate Project, a joint initiative of 6 community-based conservancies.

The Project began more than a decade ago, with local hunters and concerned individuals in Tajikistan recognizing the need to conserve the mountain ungulates of their communal areas. In 2008, community-based organization ‘Parcham’ in the Bartang valley was established, followed by ‘Yoquti Darshay’ and ‘Yuz Palang’ in the Wakhan valley, ‘Muhofiz’ in Hazratisho, and ‘Burgut’ in the eastern Pamirs. Partners supporting the Project throughout the years include the GIZ Regional Programme Sustainable Use of Nature Resources in Central Asia, Panthera and the Zoological Society for the Conservation of Species and Populations.

Prior Markhor Award laureates include the Torghar Conservation Program (TCP) of the Society for Torghar Environmental Protection (STEP) and the Namibian Ministry of Environment and Tourism (MET) together with the Namibian Association of CBNRM Support Organizations (NACSO). [CIC News] [IISD RS Sources]