TSPC News

TSPC AUCA participated in the preparation of the analytical note "Restoring the country's natural capital to achieve the SDGs: Pilot land accounts and sustainable pasture management in Kyrgyzstan"

December 2, 2021

For Kyrgyzstan, a landlocked country in Central Asia, land is an essential part of its national economy. However, overgrazing and unsustainable land management are contributing to the degradation of Kyrgyzstan’s pasturelands. This degradation has come at a significant cost of around $600 million, or 16 per cent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). In an effort to reverse this trend, the government has committed to a set of land degradation neutrality targets and to make green agriculture one of the key priorities of its National Green Economy Programme.

To meet these targets, a pilot project was designed to help decision-makers assess the condition of pastures and the benefits of restoration initiatives, with the goal of eventually integrating the true value of land assets into the national accounting system. The aim of the project was to demonstrate how applying a natural capital approach – using geospatial data and assessing economic aspects of land use – can foster the adoption of sustainable land management practices and support the national green economy process.

With support from the Green Growth Knowledge Partnership (GGKP), the Economics Land Degradation (ELD) Initiative and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), this project used a range of scientific methods and tools – such as natural capital accounting, remote sensing and cost-benefit analysis – to better understand the current state and economic potential of land assets for a green economy as well as to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

1) Piloting Land Accounts in Kyrgyzstan. NSC specialists made a first attempt to apply natural capital accounting to land resources, and to pilot land accounts at the national level.

2) Geo-portal of the information system of land accounts. SALR specialists applied Geographic Information System (GIS) and remote sensing (RS) methods to

develop a geospatial portal. This allows for data on land resources to be geo referenced and displayed on new maps. Additionally, AUCA specialists applied GIS and RS methods to analyse the processes of degradation of pasture ecosystems at the local level.

3) Creation and test of National Soil Information System (NSIS) in pilot territories. The Society of Soil Scientists of Kyrgyzstan tested the creation of the National Soil Information System (NSIS) in two pilot territories.

4) Applying the ELD 6+1 step approach to improve pasture management in the Suusamyr Valley. The ELD approach shows the economic component of land management scenarios and ascribes an economic value to the problem of land degradation. In this project, AUCA applied the ELD methodology to analyse the costs and benefits of sustainable pasture management in the Suusamyr Valley.

Click on the picture to read the full study

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