Context
Central Asia is suffering like no other region in the world from the consequences of climate change. Continued expansion of deserts and arid areas are predicted, along with above-average increases in temperature and water shortages. Natural resources such as pasture, forests and wildlife are already scarce and have been placed under considerable strain due to inappropriate exploitation. The region is affected by a lack of awareness about, or application of strategies for the sustainable use of these resources. Consequently, they are becoming degraded in the short and medium-term, and biodiversity is being lost. This, in turn, serves to aggravate poverty in rural areas. The governments have now understood the dangers, but they are mostly overwhelmed when it comes to solving the problems.
Objective
Pasture, forest and wildlife resources are being managed in an economically viable, socially acceptable and ecologically sustainable way.
Approach
For several years, GIZ has been developing new, regionally adapted approaches for the participatory and sustainable management of natural resources, and has been implementing projects in Central Asia that range from direct support for communities, to the promotion of cross-border cooperation and regional partnerships.
Forests: We take a joint forest management approach, under which the national forest department leases the long-term usage rights to forest plots to private tenants. The tenants use the plots in a sustainable manner and protect them from illegal deforestation and overgrazing. At the local level, our programme supports people and national institutions in concluding lease contracts and designing management plans. It provides technical training to both the tenants and the forest department staff, and supports incentives for local forest users to reforest degraded areas (savings book approach). Positive experiences from the local level are fed into national forest sector reform.
Pasture: Regional experiences are shared more widely, and locally adapted problem-solving approaches are developed to encourage the sustainable management of pastures. Central aspects of the approach are the sensitization of pasture users and support for the pasture committees. At the same time, we are promoting dialogue between the users and the staff of the local authorities and relevant ministries.
Wildlife: Here, activities are based on the principle of ‘protection through use’, which involves local people in the design of wildlife management regulations, while allowing them to gain economic benefits from their application.
Climate adaptation: In all fields of our activity we take into consideration climatic changes in the region, and we support efforts by our partners to adapt both new and existing management methods.
Knowledge management: Regional knowledge management has become a priority of our work. For example, we are currently working to establish a search engine for the region. Known as K-Link, this tool automatically connects and links all online information and documents on environmental topics. This is intended to simplify users’ access to knowledge in all the Central Asian countries. Active regional exchanges should promote rapid, efficient transfer between the countries of good practices and successful approaches in the sustainable management of pastures, forests and wildlife.
Results achieved so far
Active regional exchanges promote the rapid and efficient dissemination between countries and between sectors, of approaches to the sustainable management of pasture, forests and wildlife that prove successful.
In Tajikistan, sustainable forest management has now been given a legal basis and is being more widely introduced. Thus, even outside the pilot areas it is now becoming possible to increase the forested area and improve the living conditions for those who use the forests. Drawing on the Tajik experiences, a similar approach is now also being applied in Kyrgyzstan. As for Turkmenistan, a new national law on forests has been developed and nursery operators trained, with support from the programme.
In Kyrgyzstan we advised the Ministry for Agriculture on the introduction of a new pasture law, basing this advice on experiences gathered during a pilot project. In Kazakhstan the participatory pasture management approach has been adapted to local conditions and can now be integrated legally and institutionally.
In Tajikistan, sustainable wildlife management has been successfully introduced and is now being used in different parts of the country. This user-based approach to wildlife management is now being transferred to Kyrgyzstan.