Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan straddles eastern Europe and central Asia. The Volga and Altai Mountains meet in a flat steppe that also borders plains of western Siberia and deserts in Central Asia. It is one of the world’s largest landlocked countries, and most of the country is used for human activities, in its majority by rangeland. Kazakhstan has high biodiversity rarity of terrestrial land vertebrates at a global scale. When analysed as single taxons, the rarity of amphibians, mammals and reptiles is also high. The rarity of marine fish and mammals is also high. Challenges to biodiversity include toxic chemical sites (from military activities); industrial pollution; drying of Aral Sea from irrigation diversion; water pollution of the Caspian Sea; desertification; soil pollution and salination.