By Oliver Mundy
Kyrgyzstan has a unique problem: it has an abundance of rich high-alpine summer pastures, but these are hard to reach. Roads and buildings from the Soviet time have deteriorated. Other herding societies witnessing an ever-decreasing area of pastures might envy such a challenge.
The pasture user unions are reporting rising livestock numbers and better pastures thanks to access to new areas. Livestock are valuable assets that help to overcome poverty.
Kyrgyzstan has a unique problem: it has an abundance of rich high-alpine summer pastures, but these are hard to reach. Roads and buildings from the Soviet time have deteriorated. Other herding societies witnessing an ever-decreasing area of pastures might envy such a challenge.
IFAD's Livestock and Market Development Projects I and II, with the support of ASAP funding, aim to strengthen the traditional “transhumant” system where herders move with their animals to the high mountains overthe summer months. The two projects work with over 300 pasture user unions who receive training and can submit grant proposals for small projects. Over 20,000 villagers have participated in trainings and in selecting over 1,400 micro projects.
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| No livestock? A local pasture committee in Naryn put a 5-year grazing ban on 9,500 ha of heavily degraded pastures, allowing the vegetation to recover The projects are helping the pasture user unions to rehabilitate livestock shelters, water troughs, housing for herders, and roads. Their locations are being monitored through an online map. The infrastructure gives herders better access to and better management options for both old and new pastures. It also provides them with more options to react to changing conditions – in particular to bad weather induced or worsened by climate change. Livestock mobility and flexible management practices are key for climate change adaptation in pastoral systems. |
The pasture user unions are reporting rising livestock numbers and better pastures thanks to access to new areas. Livestock are valuable assets that help to overcome poverty.
While summer pastures are abundant, spring and autumn – and in particular winter – pastures are the bottleneck. They are vulnerable to degradation. The herders’ current strategy to relieve grazing pressure by using new pastures will become ineffective as soon as there are too many livestock that remain on spring and winter pastures waiting for the snow at higher elevations to melt. Without a meaningful change in stewardship practices, the problem of degradation is only postponed and may even worsen.
The pastures user unions are increasingly becoming aware of this problem. The projects advocate pasture rotation, increased fodder production, measures to prevent erosion and focus on increasing productivity per animal. Pasture user unions with good leadership have the capacity to enforce better management practices. One union in the northern Naryn region is successfully imposing a 5-year grazing ban on 9,500 ha heavily degraded pastures.
Other institutions are also heading the right way. One of the implementing partners of the project, the Kyrgyz Association of Pasture Users’ Union, received an award from the International Land Coalition in September this year for its successful approach of helping pasture user unions to locally manage ecosystems sustainably.