On March 3, 2023, an event related to "March 3 - World Wildlife Day" was held in the Tourism Department of Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic with the participation of tourism industry representatives and "tourism volunteers of Nakhchivan". Akbar Novruzov, the director of the Department, who opened the event with his opening speech, said that starting from 2013, every year March 3 is celebrated as "World Wildlife Day". The purpose of holding this day is to attract the attention of society to the protection of wild fauna and wild flora, to call the public to take care of wild nature and to educate in this field.For this purpose, the State Tourism Agency of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Tourism Department of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic of the "Joint Action Plan for the Development of Tourism in the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic for the years 2020-2023" in accordance with the section on the preparation of hiking routes based on mountain trails in the ecotourism section , Togrul Jafarov, an expert on ecotourism of the Azerbaijan Tourism Bureau, was invited to the autonomous republic to identify mountain trails. The expert visited the Shahbuz, Julfa, Sharur and Ordubad regions of the autonomous republic together with the employee of the Tourism Department of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, inspected the natural areas and evaluated the places suitable for mountain trails.
Then Orkhan Jafarov, the leading consultant of the Tourism Development and Promotion Sector of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic Tourism Department, noted that before the World Wildlife Day was adopted by the UN on December 20, 2013, at the Conference held in Thailand in the spring of 2013, March 3 was proposed to be celebrated as Wildlife Day. Conference participants applied to the UN regarding the proposal, and 180 countries joined this Convention. The celebration of this day showed the need to protect biological diversity on earth.
In that year, the 40th anniversary of the adoption of another important document in the field of natural diversity protection was also celebrated. This document was called the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora and was adopted on March 3, 1973. International trade in rare species of flora and fauna is regulated by this Convention. International trade of registered wild animal and wild plant species is under control. The degree of control ranges from controlling the trade of rare and endangered species, depending on their status, to outright bans. Currently, it controls approximately 5,800 animal and 30,000 plant species at the international level.
Currently, specially protected natural areas make up 28 percent of the territory of the autonomous republic, which includes 2 reserves - "Arazboyu" State Nature Reserve, "Arpachay" State Nature Reserve and 1 national park - Zangezur National Park named after Academician Hasan Aliyev.
After the speech, Togrul Jafarov, expert on ecotourism of the Azerbaijan Tourism Board, stated that the territory of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic has unique geographical conditions. Zangezur-Daraleyaz ridges stretching from the southeast to the northwest, Arazboyu plains, river valleys, mountain lakes, waterfalls, etc., starting from the ridges. geographical objects and colorful nature landscapes alternate each other. Settlements surrounded by all these landscapes, especially remote mountain villages, meadow-village traditions make this diversity a bit more interesting.
When these factors are taken into account, it is seen that there is a potential for active tourism opportunities in the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic. The speaker stated that during the assessment covering the dates of August 16-24, 2022, 5 tourism routes were initially identified: Kuku-Gurbulag waterfall, Kuku-Ganligol, Zorbulag-Batabat, Paragachay-Aghdara-Tivi and Pazmari waterfall.
Pedestrian routes based on the identified mountain trails were shown on the map to the participants of the event and detailed information was provided about each route.
In the end, the creation of new mountaineering tourism routes and the development of those routes were discussed.