The biologist and journalist Adriane Lochner, with a PhD in biology, set off on her journey to Tajikistan, where she visited the local nomad shepherds and rode yaks. In this photographic journal, Bergzeit Journal features a selection of her fascinating imagery.
Among other things, I was near the village of Alichur in the Murghob district in the autonomic province of Gorno-Badakhshan in the Tajik Pamir Mountains, “the roof of the world”, almost 4,000 meters above sea level. The village of Alichur lies on the Pamir Highway, a lonely trade route through the Pamir Mountains. Horses don’t cope well with the harsh winters. Therefore the locals use yaks as load and riding animals. Recently they have started to offer yak trekking for tourists. Women are now also being trained as guides. The income is used for wildlife protection (e.g. for ibexes, Argali wild sheep and snow leopards).
I went there on a research trip for the protection of the snow leopard. Various local and international nature conservation organisations are working in the high mountains to ensure that the poor rural population no longer needs to poach to feed on the meat of wild sheep and ibex and to protect their livestock from snow leopard attacks. Ecotourism is one method, alongside sustainable hunting tourism, the sale of handicrafts and subsidies for predator-proof fences. I tried yak trekking together with an American Vet.
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