Abstract
The introduction of communism into Central Asia brought agricultural transformation on a massive scale. Irrigation projects, expansion of livestock numbers and ploughing of the northern steppe modified vegetation and soils. Despite initial censorship, in the late Soviet period resources available for the study of land degradation processes were substantial and large scale mapping projects defined uniform criteria for degradation type and severity. Scientists found that degradation of vegetation cover from grazing was widespread, although productivity losses were slight in many areas. Tighter regulation led to stabilization of forest cover. Perhaps the most acute form of degradation was soil salinization, and the related Aral Sea disaster. Independence brought economic crisis: privatization turned salaried workers into subsistence farmers, dependant on local resources for survival. The early years were characterized by ploughing of marginal land in the mountains; abandonment of steppe fields for want of machinery; collapse in livestock inventories; and increasing reliance on wood for fuel. These changes led to a new mixture of degradation and recovery processes. Yet these were poorly documented, as funding for science collapsed and trained personnel migrated or retired. Institutes came to depend on environment-focussed development projects, so incentives to keep degradation on the agenda became strong. Such projects fund little basic science—so most statistics used to justify them were based on data from the 1980s or on more recent national data unaccompanied by documentation of methodology. Some research funding became available through international scientific collaborations, which have improved our understanding of specific processes such as grazing, soil erosion and deforestation. But much of this research is case-study based and cannot be scaled up. Studies at the national or regional scale often involve time-series analysis of remotely sensed vegetation indices. These have revealed responses to climatic factors, but so far have provided only speculative documentation of anthropogenic degradation processes over large areas.
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Notes
- 1.
Note that the CV of primary productivity may be higher than that of rainfall (Ash and Melvor 2005).
- 2.
A related Desertification Map of the Drylands of Asia (Kharin et al. 1999) was based on a land cover classification using NDVI and surface temperature values from the AVHRR instrument. These values were related to land degradation types using existing desertification maps, which probably explains why this map bears a strong resemblance to the original 1985 map.
- 3.
Various criteria for measurement of vegetation degradation are given in these sources; the quantitative criteria used here are those listed in Babaev and Kharin (1999) as these seem to be the ones most likely to have been used for the map under discussion.
- 4.
We focus primarily on processes affecting degradation of vegetation cover and soil salinization. Wind and water erosion are not treated specifically as these processes act to exacerbate the ploughing, grazing or cutting activities initiated by people.
- 5.
In contrast, Bizhanova (1999) notes that despite intensive use, a relatively small area of sandy deserts in Kazakhstan could be classified as severely degraded.
- 6.
According to the source data (Babaev 1996), all usable land in Turkmenistan is degraded in some way. Of this area, around 75 % are classed as having degraded vegetation cover; but only 10 % are said to be moderately or highly degraded, having productivity losses over 25 %. Conversely, another set of figures presented both in Kharin (2002) and elsewhere in the NEAP (which suggest a comparable total area of degraded vegetation) state that 50 % of this area is moderately or severely degraded. Lastly, figures derived from the USSR Arid Lands map suggest that 40 % of arid lands in Turkmenistan have been affected by some form of degradation since the 1960s.
- 7.
In 1960 the area of irrigated lands in Turkmenistan was 496,000 ha with a drainage flow of 0.1 km3—by 1994 this had climbed to an irrigated area of 1.7 million ha, with a drainage flow of 6.6 km3.
- 8.
Electrical conductivity in decisiemens per metre.
- 9.
Year on year GDP change was still negative across Central Asia in 1995, but by 1999 it was positive in all five republics (Babu and Sengupta 2006).
- 10.
With exceptions including cotton growing areas of Tajikistan and the large arable farming corporations which appeared in arable areas of Kazakhstan.
- 11.
For example, in Kyrgyzstan the area planted to fodder crops dropped from 48 % of total cropped area in 1991 to 18 % in 2003; in Uzbekistan from 25 % of cropped land area in 1991, to 7 % in 2003 (Suleimenov et al. 2006).
- 12.
In Kazakhstan a total of 147 m ha (or 80 %) of rangeland depends on man-made facilities using subsurface water. Most of the boreholes do not function (partially due to disintegration of their construction and partially due to lack of electricity) and about half of shaft-wells are also out of service (Schillhorn-van-Veen et al. 2004).
- 13.
Le Houérou (1984) suggests that, when compared between different sites, RUE is inversely related to aridity since the proportion of inefficient rainfall increases with aridity (i.e. evaporation and runoff are relatively more important). The same has been noted for the steppes of Central Asia (Gilmanov 1995). Conversely, higher RUE values are associated with lower rainfall at single sites because, at a given location, plants are more efficient at using rainfall in dry years.
- 14.
Karakharsangs, consisting of the moss Tortula desertorum, lichens and cyanobacteria.
- 15.
Aknazarov (2003) presents data for the Eastern Pamir suggesting a steep decline in vegetation productivity between 1965 and 2000, but it is not clear whether the bulk of this change occurred during the Soviet period or afterwards. It is not clear how precipitation is accounted for in the study, which appears to depend on a comparison of two single years. Literature on the Pamir suggests that biomass may fluctuate from year to year by several orders of magnitude. In the Eastern Pamir the coefficient of variation in precipitation was 53.4 % for the years from 1939 until 1953 (Domeisen 2002). In the nearby Western Pamir it was found that estimated that peak annual biomass of teresken pasture varied between 240 and 590 kg/ha over a period of just 6 years in a single study area (Agakhanyants and Yusufbekov 1975). This illustrates the significant problem of interpreting studies by Central Asian institutes which are based on changes in vegetation productivity alone.
- 16.
The authors state that the percentage of ruderal plant species in mountain meadows can reach 50–70 % of biomass whilst cushion thorns (Acantholimon spp.) have replaced primary Artemisia-dominated plant communities. The proportion of edible biomass reported by Soviet authors was extremely low (around 20 %) and may indicate the result of heavy grazing at that time (Agakhanyants and Yusufbekov 1975). Pasture regeneration times of 20–30 years given by Breckle and Wucherer (2005) combined with recent increases in livestock numbers suggest that these areas may be under heavy pressure.
- 17.
In four districts and two provinces. Each locality corresponded to one aiyl okmotu, the smallest administrative unit in Kyrgyzstan. These are equivalent to one Soviet-period sovkhoz and all the pastures used by this entity.
- 18.
Equivalent figures presented by the Asian Development Bank (2007a) show the same trends, but the absolute biomass numbers are exactly half those provided to this author by Giprozem.
- 19.
Biomass in Kyrgyz mountain pastures varies by 2–3 times from year to year depending on rainfall (Korneva 1959), thus fluctuations specific to the year of the survey must be removed. In addition, whilst the effect of grazing in previous seasons on long term productivity will be detected through current edible biomass levels, it is important that biomass has not been removed by animals in the year of the actual cut.
- 20.
To put this figure in context, average rates for soil loss have been estimated at 17 tons/ha/year in the US and Europe, and 30–40 tons/ha/year in Asia, Africa, and South America (Pimental et al. 1995).
- 21.
Both excel spreadsheets with country statistics, and national reports are available for the latest (2010) Forest Resources Assessment on http://www.fao.org/forestry/fra/fra2010/en/. The 2005 data were used here because they disaggregate areas into true forests and other wooded areas, which is useful for Central Asia. The 2010 statistical sheets did not include this distinction.
- 22.
In 2003 a map of soil salinity of Uzbekistan was published using the FAO-LADA methodology (FAO/AGLL 2003). Data from this map suggests the area of salt affected soils in Uzbekistan is 47 % of the total area; about 20 % is characterized with high degree of soil salinization. The worst affected areas are located mainly in the Syrdarya, Djizak and Central Fergana regions of Syr Darya River basin; in the Karakalpakstan and Khorezm regions close to the Aral Sea, over 90 % of land is affected. These figures are not directly comparable with published MAWR data, which are for irrigated land only.
- 23.
Bucknell et al. (2003) estimate that 600,000 ha of irrigate cropland were abandoned across the region, due to a mixture of water scarcity, lack of inputs and environmental problems such as salinity.
- 24.
In Kyrgyzstan, figures from the Department of Irrigation given in Kulov and Zhooshov (2007) suggest that the area of salinized land doubled between 1985 and 2002 whilst waterlogged land area increased by 400 %. On the other hand, the 2000 estimate of 12 % for irrigated lands affected by salinity is lower than equivalent state figures for 1985 (Braden 1995).
- 25.
Declining trends in NPP, even allowing for climatic variability, may be unrelated to land degradation (for example a change in crop type, expansion or reduction in irrigated areas and urban growth) but in Central Asia enough is known about changes in land use to allow informed speculation about the likely processes behind trends in NPP.
- 26.
Firstly those pixels in which annual productivity is related rainfall were identified (in tropical areas rainfall is so high that there is no relationship). Where productivity declined but RUE increased, the decline was attributed to drought and those areas are masked. NDVI trends are presented for the remaining areas as RUE-adjusted NDVI. To correct for relationships between RUE and rainfall itself between sites, statistical associations between observed sum NDVI and rainfall were found. The residuals of sum NDVI (i.e. differences between the observed and predicted sum NDVI) for each pixel were calculated, and the trend of these residuals (RESTREND) was analysed by linear regression. RESTREND points in the same direction as RUE: a negative RESTREND may indicate land degradation. Data are available at http://www.fao.org/geonetwork/srv/en/main.search?any=glada. Because the results from positive and negative RUE-adjusted NPP and RESTREND were very similar, only the latter is presented here.
- 27.
Ji (2008) has recommended regional monitoring using MODIS vegetation indices, combined with Landsat-based monitoring of sample sites.
- 28.
GEF website: http://www.thegef.org/gef/gef_projects_funding.
- 29.
In Kyrgyzstan, funding was provided for an SLM information system including collation and digitization of existing data and maps in Russian. However, no published material appears to have emerged from this exercise and, as noted in the project completion document, the system has not made its way into a searchable internet database on the internet (Asian Development Bank 2007b). This example is typical of a number of similar projects in the region.
- 30.
- 31.
Current trends in flow are hard to assess due to high inter-annual variation, but it appears that negative trends in precipitation in the Amu Darya basin since 1978 have been linked to decreased discharge in that river, whilst the Syr Darya has remained stable (Nezlin et al. 2004).
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Acknowledgements
I would like to acknowledge Elmar Mamedov, who helped to obtain some of the literature reviewed here, and Carol Kerven for proof reading. The Leverhulme Trust funded my Research Associateship during the period over which this paper was written.
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Robinson, S. (2016). Land Degradation in Central Asia: Evidence, Perception and Policy. In: Behnke, R., Mortimore, M. (eds) The End of Desertification? . Springer Earth System Sciences. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-16014-1_17
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