Landscapes in Central Asia are among the most rapidly degrading and climate-vulnerable areas worldwide. According to data reported by governments to the UNCCD, over 20% of the total land area in Central Asia is degraded, equivalent to roughly 80 mn hectares, an area almost four times the size of Kyrgyzstan. This affects an estimated 30% of the region’s combined population, Barron Joseph Orr, the lead scientist at the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), reported.
A report prepared by the UNCCD science team, including Olga Andreeva, Xiaoxia Jia, and Orr, describes land degradation in Central Asia as secondary salinization in irrigated lands, soil erosion in rainfed and mountainous areas, and loss of vegetation with detrimental changes in vegetation composition in the rangelands.
The causes of land degradation are varied but are widely attributed to unsustainable agricultural practices, the expansion of crop production to fragile and marginal areas, inadequate maintenance of irrigation and drainage networks, and overgrazing near settlements.
Scientific studies show that 78% of the total land of Kazakhstan is vulnerable to land degradation, ranking first in the Central Asia region, making it a major source of sand and dust storms.
According to 2019 data from UNCCD, 21.3% of the total land area of Kazakhstan was degraded, making 31.7% of the population exposed to land degradation and more than 58% of the population exposed to drought.
In response, the government of Kazakhstan has committed to restoring over four mn hectares of degraded land. The country has also committed to increasing its productive and sustainably irrigated land area by 40%, ultimately expanding the total irrigated area to two mn hectares.
Kyrgyzstan announced the implementation, among others, pasture rotation, and improved pasture infrastructure in its rangelands. It is expected that through the implementation of sustainable land management practices land degradation will be avoided, reduced, or reversed in over four mn hectares of the region.
Under the state afforestation program, Kazakhstan has recently been set to plant 2 bn trees on an area of 1.5 mn hectares, including on the dried-up seabed of the Aral Sea, by 2025.
Combined with the country’s commitment to achieving carbon neutrality by 2060, these measures could reverse some of the effects of land degradation and climate change overall.
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