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Laman Ismayilova

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Hirkan Forests might be included in the UNESCO Heritage list in 2023. The Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources Mukhtar Babayev made this statement at the 9th meeting of the National Commissions for UNESCO of the TURKSOY Member States in Baku, Azernews reports.

"The transnational Hirkan Forests nomination was prepared based on three areas with a total area of 24,000 hectares within the Hirkan National Park and submitted to UNESCO World Heritage Committee at the end of 2022," the minister said.

"Up to 350 of the over 2,500 mud volcanoes spread across the world are located in Azerbaijan. Our country occupies a unique place in the world in this area. For this reason, work is underway on the creation of geoparks in Azerbaijan and joining UNESCO's Global Geoparks Network (GGN) in accordance with the resolution adopted at the 8th meeting of the National Commissions for UNESCO of the TURKSOY Member States. We truly believe that the validation of mud volcanoes as a geopark will boost the development of geotourism in the country as well as Azerbaijan's recognition as a country with the world's greatest concentration of mud volcanoes," he added.

The Hirkan Forests are a zone of lush lowland and mountain forests covering about 55,000 square km (21,000 sq m) adjoining the shores of the Caspian Sea.

The forest is named after the ancient region of Hirkan. In the World Wide Fund for Nature categorization, the eco-region is referred to as the Caspian Hirkan mixed forests.

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