Agroforestry for Landscape Restoration and Livelihood Development in Central Asia

Abstract

is an internationally respected leading ethno-ecologist who works in coupled human environmental systems. His current research includes investigation of early warning signals of global change, trans-boundary water governance, landscape restoration, ecosystem services and their resilience, agriculture, and integrative conservation. Dr Xu leads the World Agroforestry Centre's East and Central Asia regional programme.

Farmers’ Perceptions of Tree Shelterbelts on Agricultural Land in Rural Kyrgyzstan

“…In contrast to suggestions by previous research from Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan, the water consumption of trees or shelterbelts was not raised as a concern by respondents [14,17,37]. Nevertheless, in the sample villages agriculture was highly dependent on irrigation and one quarter of the respondents reported difficulties with their water access.…”

“…Moreover, when properly managed, the trees can also provide provisioning ESS as a reliable source of timber and fuel wood, offering new sources of income to farmers. Fuel wood from shelterbelts can reduce pressure on natural forests [14,[17][18][19]. In the former Soviet Union, shelterbelts were widely adopted to reduce wind speed on large agricultural areas of collective farms (kolkhoz and sovkhoz).…”

Dryland Forest Restoration Under a Changing Climate in Central Asia and Mongolia

“…Almost 78% of the land area of Mongolia is subject to desertifi cation and soil degradation (Desertifi cation Atlas of Mongolia, 2013). Forms of degradation include soil erosion in the mountains, secondary salinization of irrigated lowland agriculture, and reduced vegetation from deforestation, overgrazing, and wildfi re (Djanibekov et al, 2016;Kleine et al, 2009;Mirzabaev et al, 2016;Tsogtbaatar, 2004;Tsogtbaatar, 2009). Policy and institutional constraints, some relicts of the Soviet centrally-planned economic policies, are obstacles to addressing degradation drivers (Djanibekov et al, 2016;Mirzabaev et al, 2016).…”

“…Forms of degradation include soil erosion in the mountains, secondary salinization of irrigated lowland agriculture, and reduced vegetation from deforestation, overgrazing, and wildfi re (Djanibekov et al, 2016;Kleine et al, 2009;Mirzabaev et al, 2016;Tsogtbaatar, 2004;Tsogtbaatar, 2009). Policy and institutional constraints, some relicts of the Soviet centrally-planned economic policies, are obstacles to addressing degradation drivers (Djanibekov et al, 2016;Mirzabaev et al, 2016). For example, agroforestry is not a recognized land use in national legislation in Central Asian countries and farmers cannot use land for agroforestry that has been designated for other crops such as cotton (Djanibekov et al, 2016).…”

“…Policy and institutional constraints, some relicts of the Soviet centrally-planned economic policies, are obstacles to addressing degradation drivers (Djanibekov et al, 2016;Mirzabaev et al, 2016). For example, agroforestry is not a recognized land use in national legislation in Central Asian countries and farmers cannot use land for agroforestry that has been designated for other crops such as cotton (Djanibekov et al, 2016). Land tenure is another obstacle, both because lack of tenure deters farmers from making investments such as planting trees and because aff orestation to protect fi elds is no longer under government control (Kleine et al, 2009).…”