Tajikistan Markhor: New Scientific Data and a Conservation Success Story

The Republic of Tajikistan is the most important range state of the subspecies Heptner (aka Bukharan or Tajik) markhor, Capra falconeri heptneri. Local communities are the key players in this conservation success story. The revenues from hunting tourism are the engine that has been driving the process.

This positive development has been recognized widely in the international conservation community, especially the work of the local communities in the Darvaz and Shamsiddin Shohin districts in collaboration with Tajikistan’s Committee on Environmental Protection. The International Council for Game and Wildlife Conservation (CIC) honored the communities in 2014 with its prestigious Markhor Award. In May 2017, the German Ministry for Environment mentioned Tajikistan as a good example of conservation hunting when it rejected demands by antihunting NGOs that Germany ban hunting trophies.

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