The online meeting at the Ministry of Environmental Protection of Turkmenistan discussed the nomination of the Koytendag Nature Reserve (Turkmenistan) and the Surkhan Nature Reserve (Uzbekistan) as a transboundary UNESCO World Natural Heritage site.

The meeting was attended by representatives of the Michael Succow Foundation for Nature Conservation (MSF, Germany), the Center for Large Landscape Conservation (CLLC, USA), the Slovak Speleological Society, the French University of the Azure Coast, the Ministry of Ecology, Environmental Protection and Climate Change of the Republic of Uzbekistan, the Surkhan State Nature Reserve, scientific communities of Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, and others.

The nomination of Koytendag to the UNESCO World Natural Heritage List is a priority for Turkmenistan, and this work has been ongoing for several years.

The initial dossier "Koytendag Mountain Ecosystem" was developed jointly with experts from the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB, UK) and submitted to the UNESCO World Heritage Committee in 2015. After a technical review, experts recommended submitting a transnational nomination jointly with the Surkhan State Nature Reserve to maintain the integrity of the entire Kugitang mountain ecosystem.

In 2021, the Ministry of Environmental Protection of Turkmenistan signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Center for Large Landscape Conservation (CLLC), under which the project "Improving the Potential and Connectivity between the Nature Reserves of Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan" is being implemented. The project aims to promote the conservation of the biodiversity of the Koytendag mountain ecosystem, strengthen the reserve's capacity, provide support in the collection of scientific data, conduct joint monitoring, and introduce SMART inspection in the Koytendag Nature Reserve.

Based on the results of this project, the nomination dossier will be finalized jointly with experts from the M. Succow Foundation, who have extensive experience in preparing UNESCO nominations.