ABSTRACT
With northern taiga forests and large southern deserts, as well as the largest mountains in the former Soviet Union, Central Asia exhibits a tremendous diversity of ecosystems. Central Asia contains the world’s fourth deepest lake (Issyk-kul) and borders the largest inland body of water in the world (the Caspian Sea). Central Asia also holds some of the USSR’s principal nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons production and testing sites, and one of the world’s worst environmental disasters, the desiccation of the Aral Sea, once both the planet’s fourth largest lake and a thriving fishery. Bequeathed substantial and highly polluting industry from the remarkable Soviet development enterprise, the region also boasts important reserves of hydrocarbons and precious metals. At over 4 million km2, Central Asia covers an area larger in size than India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh combined, but with less than 5 per cent of their population.
