Promoting environmentally friendly and climate-sensitive land use practices

Context

The drylands and high mountains of Central Asia are home to diverse ecosystems, but due to the scarcity of forests, pastures, soil and water in the area, these ecosystems are increasingly being overused, which is posing threats to the biodiversity. Climate change exacerbates the situation by causing further degradation of natural resources, resulting in a decrease in ecosystem services and productivity, as well as an increased vulnerability of different land use systems.

Integrative Land Use Management Approaches (ILUMA) are based on the understanding of landscapes as ecosystems and offer solutions. Since they consider socio-economic, institutional, financial and environmental issues that differ across regions they can reach large parts of the population.

Objective

Integrative land use approaches are being mainstreamed in Central Asian countries.

Approach

The project supports partner institutions in enhancing the management of forests, pastures and protected areas across the Central Asian region. It focuses on improving policies, strategies and legislation in the countries or within certain regions and on implementing targeted measures within communities. The project provides advice and acts as a moderator on relevant topics, consolidates the capabilities of actors on the ground and implements pilot measures.

The activities include:

• Improving the framework conditions for municipalities and countries to more easily implement policies, strategies and laws on integrative land use.
• Ensuring that integrated land use practices are considered in regional development processes in Central Asia within the Interstate Commission for Sustainable Development (ICSD).
• Establishing the Green Central Asia Regional Expert Network for collaboration and learning about integrative land use approaches. This network is used by key actors from governments, civil society, research and the private sector.
• Promoting effective implementation of integrative land use approaches in transboundary protected areas and watersheds.

Last update: June 2023