Baku: Azerbaijan continues to implement large-scale initiatives to restore populations of rare species, including bison and gazelles, thereby contributing to biodiversity conservation and strengthening ecosystem resilience to climate change. This was stated in a joint publication and video material entitled 'The Great Herbivores of the Caucasus Stage a Comeback,' produced by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of Azerbaijan, and the IDEA Public Union.

According to Azerbaijan State News Agency, the publication reads: 'In the dappled shade of Azerbaijan's Shahdagh National Park, beneath the snowy peaks of the Caucasus Mountains, lumber shaggy beasts not seen in these forests for over a century.' Over the last seven years, many of these bison, a hybrid of the lowland and Caucasian varieties, were relocated from European zoos to the park. Currently, about 90 of these animals reside in Shahdagh, including several pregnant females, helping to revive the plains on which they roam and stabilizing the mountain grasslands on which local communities rely for food, fresh water, and tourism income.

The restoration effort is part of a broader national initiative to reintroduce extinct species to Azerbaijan's ecosystems, partly to mitigate the effects of climate change, which has been raising temperatures, disrupting precipitation patterns, and increasing the risk of wildfires and landslides across the country. 'Whenever we help nature to be healthy, nature delivers on more than one front,' says Mirey Atallah, the head of the Adaptation and Resilience branch of UNEP. 'In the long term, we're delivering benefits for people in terms of climate mitigation and adaptation and societal resilience.'

Restoring ecosystems helps temper the effects of climate change in various ways, such as replanting mangroves to buffer coastal communities against severe storm surges and sea-level rise, reviving wetlands to recharge groundwater supplies, and seeding vegetation along hillsides to prevent landslides. 'Ecosystem restoration helps human social and economic systems to cope with multiple climate shocks,' explains Atallah. Reintroducing native species, known as rewilding, is one of the most effective restoration techniques.

Victims of overhunting and habitat loss, the last wild Caucasian bison was killed in 1927. Elshad Askerov, head of World Wildlife Fund Azerbaijan, explains that during the Soviet period, many other species were pushed to the brink of extinction. 'Soils and forests were severely overused, and many animals lost their habitats,' he says. 'We now have a historic opportunity to restore our species.'

The fund, along with the Azerbaijan Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources and local non-profit International Dialogue for Environmental Action, spearheaded the bison rewilding project. Large animals like bison act as 'ecosystem engineers,' distributing seeds through their waste and altering soil composition. Their movement and grazing create mosaic vegetation patterns, allowing grasslands to recover and attract smaller herbivores. 'Grasslands like these also attract different insects, and insects attract different bird species,' adds Askerov. 'This is how an ecosystem can recover, and a richer ecosystem is more resilient against climate change.'

Shahdagh's bison were brought to Azerbaijan from European zoos, where a breeding program crossed European lowland bison with the last remaining Caucasian male. Since their release into the wild, more than 25 calves have been born in the national park. Over the next 25 years, the programme aims to grow this herd to 500 individuals, the minimum number required for a sustainable population.

Azerbaijan's rewilding programme also extends to other threatened species, including the goitered gazelle that once grazed the lowlands and foothills of the Caucasus in the tens of thousands. In 1960, zoologists counted less than 200 gazelles in the entire country. Their numbers were decimated by poaching and habitat loss, but thanks to the establishment of wildlife reserves and the reintroduction of over 1,000 animals, there are now around 7,000 wild gazelles living in Azerbaijan's semi-arid Shirvan National Park.

Like bison, gazelles impact the land through their grazing patterns and play a crucial role in the ecosystem as prey for endangered carnivores, such as European lynx, striped hyenas, and gray wolves. 'Because this prey species is now numerous, the population of endangered carnivore species has started to recover,' says Askerov. 'In a food chain, every link is important.'

The bison reintroduction project is being closely observed by other environmental groups in the region, and one of Azerbaijan's neighbors has shown interest in replicating it. 'The rewilding projects are very successful in Azerbaijan - they are a model for other Caucasian countries,' says Askerov. 'We hope that eventually, these different herds will meet each other and become one big Caucasian population.'