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This report was prepared by Scientific Information Centre Aral of the Sustainable Development Commission IFAS, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. Last updated: 24 March 2003 |
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1.1 Geography and administrative units 1.3 Climate 1. > _top |
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1.1 Geography and administrative units The Kyrgyz Republic (Kyrgyzstan) is a continental country, located in the north-east of Central Asia. In the north Kyrgyzstan borders on Kazakhstan, in the south-east and east on China. In the south-west where the Tien-Shan joins the Pamiro-Altai mountain shaft, it borders on Tadjikistan, and in the west on Uzbekistan. The Tien-Shan ridge predominates in Kyrgyzstan. It divides the country into two zones: the northern part, including the Talas, Chui and Issyk-Kul oblasts and Bishkek, and the southern part, including the Djalal-Abad, Naryn and Osh oblasts. The area of Kyrgyzstan is 199,9 thousand sq.km. 4,2% of this area is occupied by forests; 4,4% - by water; 53,5% - by cultivated lands. The country is extremely mountaineous, 94% of its territory is located 1000m above the sea level, 40% of which is over 3000 m. above the sea level with large glaciers and eternal snow. Average altitude of the Kyrgyz territory is 2750 m. above the sea level. The highest point is Peak Pobeda (7439 m.), the lowest is 350 m. above the sea level (in the south-west of the republic). The area, occupied by the republic is very seismic, with frequent earthquakes and sill floods. The most important ones among the intermontane hollows are: low-montane Talas hollow (length—140 km, width—26 km) and Chui hollow (accordingly—250 and 60 km); mid-montane hollows- Issyk-Kul hollow (250 and 70 km) and Middle Naryn hollow (170 and 54 km); high-montane hollows-Ak-Say (180-30 km) and Alay (165—26 km). The vastest hollow among them is the Fergana valley (340—160 km). The Chui valley is the largest frontier hollows of the northern Kyrgyzstan. It is located between the Chu—Ili mountains on the north and the Kyrgyz mountain range on the south. The Chui valley lies on the altitude of 500-1300m. The Chong-Kemin valley occupies the eastern part of Chui oblast. It has a shape of a small hollow with the altitude of more than 1300 m and almost plane bottom of 6 km width. In the past there was a lake here. The valley is fringed with the slopes of the Kungey-Alatoo mountain range on the south. The mountainside is slitted by deep river canyons. On the north the valley is surrounded by the Zaalayski mountain range, the slopes of which are drier and severely cut by rut. On the west the Zaalayski mountain range gets low and above the widened part of the Chong-Kemin valley it rises only to 400-600m. The Issyk-Kul Hollow is located on the northeastern part of Kyrgyzstan. Its peculiarities are predetermined by the presence of a deep, large and non-freezing lake. It creates uncommon conditions of thermal regime and moistening. On the north the valley is surrounded by the Kungey Alatoo mountain range. On the south it is surrounded by the Terskey Alatoo mountain range. Length-250 km Width-more than 100 km The total area-about 23,000 square km. The average air temperature of January: -2-100C,of July +180C Precipitation-on the eastern shore is 600 mm, on the western shore is 11,5 mm. The Fergana valley is the largest intermontane cavity-hollow. It has a shape of almond or a shape of a big oval plate. From almost all sides it is surrounded by mountain ranges. Only on the west, where the Syrdarya River flows out of the valley, there is a relatively narrow neck-the Khodjent Gates—which connects the valley with open desert plains of the Middle Asia. The Fergana valley is full of crumble deposits—the products of mountain destruction—the thickness of which is 8 km. It is an evidence of its old formation. The plane part of the valley stretches to more than 300 km, its area is 22,000square km. The Presidential administration had been adopted in the Kyrgyz Republic. State power was separated on legislative, executive and judicial. Askar Akaev is the President of the Kyrgyz Republic. The Parliament of the Kyrgyz Republic, called Jogorku Kenesh, is a representative body carrying out legislative power and consists of two chambers: Legislative Assembly, including 35 deputies, works constantly and is elected on the basis of the representation of people,s interests. Assembly of People,s Representatives, including 70 deputies works on sessions and is elected on the basis of territorial interests representation. Executive power is implemented by the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic, Subordinate Ministries, State committees, administrative institutions, local state administration: Constitutional Court, Supreme Court of the Kyrgyz Republic, Supreme Arbitration Court and local courts (courts of regions, districts, cities, military courts) are the courts of the Kyrgyz Republic The Procuration office of the Kyrgyz Republic carries out control of clear and uniform execution of law acts. According to the Constitution adopted on May 5, 1993 Bishkek is a place of the Kyrgyz Government location, and it is a political, economic, cultural centre. Supreme power bodies of State administration, representatives of foreign countries are located in Bishkek. The capital of Kyrgyzstan is Bishkek with the population. 766,7 thousand people on January 1, 2000. Kyrgyzstan is divided into 7 administrative oblasts and 41 administrative regions. There are 20 towns, 29 settlements, 422 ailkeneshes in its structure. On January 1, 2000 the total number of settlements all over the republic was 471 units. Maps: [Map 1.1.1: Outline Map] [Map 1.1.2: Administrative Map] [Map 1.1.3: Districts Map] Tables: [Table 1.1.1: Main Kyrgyzstan Administrative Units] 1.1 > 1. 1.2 Socio-economic features The economy is predominantly based upon agriculture. The major land use category is permanent pasture (44%). Only 7% of the land is under arable production, of which 9,000 km2 are irrigated lands. The main agricultural export products are cotton, wool, and meat. Industrial exports include gold, mercury, uranium and electricity. Kyrgyzstan has been one of the most progressive countries of the former Soviet Union in carrying out market reforms. Decrease in production was severe following the break up of the Soviet Union in 1991, but by mid-1995 production began to recover and exports began to increase. The richest natural resource for Kyrgyzstan is hydropower, 89% of electricity production is by hydropower. There are also significant deposits of gold and rare earth metals. Coal, oil and natural gas are exploited at a local level. Other mineral deposits include nepheline, mercury, bismuth, lead and zinc. Each year Kyrgyzstan exports 1.1 billion kWh of electricity (hydropower) and imports 850 million kWh of electricity (gas and oil). The mid-year estimated number of the constant population of Kyrgyz Republic was 4 887 500 in 2000, one third of whom were living in urban and two third in rural area. The population of Kyrgyz Republic in the demographic attitude is young, children and adolescents made up 38%, persons of able-bodied age made up 53% — and nearly 9%— are more senior than able-bodied. The expected life expectancy at birth in Kyrgyz Republic has decreased almost for three years during first years of independence, made up 65 years in 1995. Next five years the tendency to growth was marked — 68.5 years in 2000. Socio-economic statistics of Kyrgyzstan is shown in Table 1.2.1. Basic social and economic indices of the republic As a result of collapse of the uniform economic complex of the former USSR, the GDP of Kyrgyzstan has decreased by 28 percent in the last ten years. For instance, in 1992-1994 the annual average reduction of GDP was more than 16 percent; but in 1995 a slump in production slowed down (5,4 percent in comparison to the previous year). For the last five years (1996-2000) the GDP has gained more than 30 percent in comparison to 1995 which demonstrates macroeconomic stabilisation. GDP of Kyrgyzstan by sectors (1990 – 100%) is shown in Chart 1.2.2. Since 1996 positive trends in the industry have emerged: the structure of industrial production has essentially changed, the value of non-ferrous metallurgy has increased, and the start is given to the development of new industry - oil refining. For the last ten years, agriculture has also undergone changes common for the overall economy of Kyrgyzstan. However, the agricultural recession was not as considerable as in the industry. Moreover, during the last years there has been a steady growth of the sector resulting in complete overcoming of the recession. It is worth noting that the growth was achieved in the context of dramatic changes in the structure of agricultural property. Despite the decrease in energy and water resource consumption, as well as substantial decline in fertilizer usage, one may note an increase in the volume of basic agriculture crops. In 1996, for the first time after several years of recession of agricultural production there emerged a growth trend: the volume of agricultural production in 2000 in comparison to 1996 has increased almost by 30 percent. Apart from the positive factors mentioned above, there are also negative tendencies that need to be immediately addressed. Transition to a new economic system has resulted in new tendencies of agricultural reindustrialization, use of primitive manual labor with minimal production processing. At present, agriculture is an industry where mainly the poor are involved. This endangers further sustainable development of the industry. Agriculture is the dominant sector of the Kyrgyz economy, accounting for 45% of GDP and for half of total employment in 1997. Production of most crops declined considerably during 1990-1995 but began to recover during the past two years. However, livestock and wool production, two of the traditional mainstays of the rural economy, have declined severely and still remain depressed. Agro-industry continues to face a serious crisis with annual production declining over 90% for most commodities between 1990 and 1996. Government intervention in agricultural marketing has largely disappeared. The foreign trade regime and prices have been liberalized. Over 65% of the agro-business has been privatized and demonopolized. [Table 1.2.1. General Information on Kyrgyzstan in 1990-2000] [Table 1.2.2. Total yield of basic crops (thousand tons), livestock and cattle (thousands) and poultry (millions)] Social and economic situation of the Republic in January-October 2002 is shown in – http://nsc.bishkek.su/Eng/Home/Social.htm [Chart 1.2.1: Population Growth Rate] [Chart 1.2.2. GDP of Kyrgyzstan by sectors] [Chart 1.2.3. Agrocultural output by type of ownership] 1.2 > 1. 1.3 Climate The climate is continental: cold winters and hot summers with big local deflections depending on the altitude. In July the average temperature in the lowlands ranges from +17 to +27 degrees C (the highest temperature can be more than +40 degrees C), while at the altitude of 3000 m above the sea level the temperature can only be about +10 degrees C. In winter there are frosts in all regions. Precipitations on the territory of Kyrgyzstan are distributed extremely unevenly. Large amount of precipitation is observed at mid-altitude southwestern slopes of Fergana and Chatkal ranges (more than 1000 mm), in high-mountainous and nival 1,elts of northern slope of Kyrgyz Range (about 1000 mm), in Kemin valley and in Eastern lssyk-Kul (up to 900 mm). Considerably less precipitation are observed in Talas and Chui valleys (from 250 up to 500 mm), in a valley-foothill belt in Fergana (from 300 to 700 mm). Most of the areas of Internal and Central Tian-Shan on average annually receive 200-300 mm. Least supplied with moisture are Western Issyk-Kul (144 mm), certain areas of Fergana (Batken -150 mm). Snow cover within the limits of Kyrgyzstan is determined by distribution of precipitation, length of cold period, peculiarities of radiation background, and wind redistribution. Variety of physical and geographical conditions cause uneven distribution of snow cover on altitude, different length of periods of its presence and destruction. Snow cover increases as it moves to east, and on average it is 15-20 sm. for foothills of the north of the republic, in the east of Issyk-Kul basin — 20 sm. In high-altitude valleys of Tian-Shan the snow cover is distributed extremely unevenly. In Ak-Shiyrak and Karakol valleys it does not exceed 3 sm., at maximal height of 14 sm., in Karakudjur valley on average — 9 sm., maximum — 27 sm. Very strong snow cover is formed in mid-altitude and high-altitude belts of Fergana range, where it reaches almost 150 sm. The highest level of precipitation is in the mountains, mainly in the form of snow, with maximum rate of 1000 mm on the slopes of the Fergana valley. The precipitation in the Talas oblast ranges from 250 to 500 mm. In the Issyk-Kul oblast - from 200 mm in the west to 600 mm in the east. It usually rains and snows in autumn, winter and spring, sometimes it snows in May. The summer is usually dry. The potential annual evaporation rate changes from 200 mm at high altitude (more than 300 m) to 1600 mm in the low places (less than 500 m). The evaporation in the irrigated regions is from 1200 to 1600 mm greatly exceeding the average rate of precipitation. Detailed information can be found on website: - http://www.climatechange.undp.kg/engl/html/3_2.html , and in sources: Mountains of Kyrgyzstan According to the boarders of zone-division, the zone of relative compensated discomfort occupies the most of the territory of the Kyrgyz Republic. The large part of the non-compensated discomfort areas are situated in Naryn and Issyk-Kul districts. The zone of full comfort in the republic occupies inconsiderable per cent of the territory and is represented only in Chui and Batken districts. It is smaller in Jalal-Abad district and, next comes less decreasing districts , they are Batken, Talas, Osh, and Naryn . In Issyk-Kul district the zone of comfort and relative comfort is absent in average year section, which is explained by the insignificant seasonal contrasts in this territory. If the summer and winter seasons are examined separately, the picture of the bio-climatic zones division in any territory changes significantly. Thus, in summer the coastal zone of the lake Issyk-Kul belongs to the zone of relative comfort. Generally, the zone of non-compensated discomfort (45,8%) occupies the most per cent of the Kyrgyzstan’s territory. Thus, the zones of relative and compensated discomfort occupy 35,8% of the territory. The 16,7% of the territory belongs to the zone of relative comfort. [Map 1.3.1: Bioclimatic zoning of the Kyrgyz Republic] [Map 1.3.2: Distribution of Annual Rainfall] [Map 1.3.3: Air Temperature January] [Map 1.3.4: Air Temperature July] 1.3 > 1. |
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2.1 Physiography 2.2 Soils 2.4 Wetlands, mangroves and inland valley bottoms 2.6 Natural hazards 2.7 Land cover 2.8 Land use 2.9 Land use change 2.10 Land Productivity 2.11 Environmental Impact of land uses 2. > _top |
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2.1 Physiography In the territory of Kyrgyzstan there are four basic geo-morphological complexes: mountain, foothill, foothill-valley, foothill-plain. The age of mountain range relief, that forms this complex, is mainly Pliozenic, less often Early Quarteral. Foothill-plain geo-morphological complex is peculiar to external intermountain hollows — Chui, Fergana and close to them Talas, Issyk-Kul, Alai. Foothill geo-morphological complex is prevalent within relatively low elevations located between main ranges and hollows. In a foothill zone of Fergana and along northern slope of Zaalai (Chong Alai) range this complex of a relief of «Adyr» tyoe was developed not only in Kainosoic, but also in Mezosoic deposits, in the form of dumps or «counters» in Northern Tian-Shan, («badland», and Issyk-Kul and Kochkor hollows. Foothill-valley complex is prevalent mainly in internal intermountain hollows, which are mainly located in Internal Tian-Shan. The largest intermountam hollow here is Mid-Naryn; the hollows of the 40th parallel Fergana, Chatkal and others also belong to the same complex. [Map 2.1.1: Relief ] [Map 2.1.2: Seismic zones] [Map 2.1.3: Geomorphologic Complexes] [Map 2.1.4: Types of a climate] [Table 2.1.1: Hinge-altitude levels of territory of Kyrgyzstan] 2.1 > 2. 2.2 Soils Sharp natural contrasts of the relief , climate, moistening of the plants created the original top spoil of the land. Vertical and horizontal zoning is typical for the territory, it modifies the stretched structure of the top soil in the mountainous system . According to the geomorphologic conditions the land soil is divided into four groups like 1) soil of the foothills (half reserved inter mountainous hollows from 500 –1000 meters of the absolute height); 2) the soil complete reserved inter mountainous hollows (from 1300 till 3200 meters); 3)outside soil of the mountains (from 3 000 till 4 000 meters); 4)soil of the mountains slopes (from 1 000 till 5 000 meters). Inside zoning soils are distinguished separately. In half reserved inter mountainous hollows gray soil, gray brown and chestnut colored soils and chernozemy are spread; naked and gray desert steppe and chestnut steppe soils are spread in the out side part of the mountains. Gray soils, gray brown, gray dark brown, chestnut colored and brown soils are typical for the mountainous slopes which is situated 1000-2500 veters above the sea level, black soil, brown, black-brown nut tree forests, black soil fir tree forests, dark colored soil of the juniper forests are typical for the steppe-forest part of the mountains (2100-3200 meters above sea level), steppe and meadow (plain) soil is typical for the subalpic mountains(3100-4500 meters above sea level), turfy half peat-bog, turfy tyndra like peat bog soil is typical for the Alpic area. Medow, meadow bogged, bogged, peat bogged soil is typicalfor inside zoning area. [Map 2.2.1: Soil associations] [Map 2.2.2: Soil Agrochemical map] [Table 2.2.1: Basic types and sub-types of soils in Kyrgyzstan] 2.2 > 2. 2.3 Agroecological systems Land Fund of the Kyrgyz Republic includes agricultural and non agricultural elements of the arable lands and in accordance with the purposeful setting. Land Fund is divided into six categories: - Chart 2.3.1 The total area of the Administrative border of the Kyrgyz Republic is 19994,5 thousand hectares. Agricultural arable land-10,545 thousand hectares. Plough land-1307,8 thousand hectares or 12,4 % from the total arable agricultural land 0,31% plough land ,0,21% irrigated land for every worker [Map 2.3.1: Propagation of agricultural cultures ] [Table 2.3.1: Total land area and agricultural area by territory] [Table 2.3.2: Distribution of the Land Fund in Agriculture ] [Chart 2.3.1.: Distribution of the state Land Fund according to the setting ] 2.3 > 2. 2.4 Wetlands, mangroves and inland valley bottoms The soils are predominantly loess soils, also called sierozems, or grey desert soils. They are poor in nitrogen and humus, but they have favorable physical characteristics (e.g. high permeability). They have high capillary rise. For the design of subsurface drainage systems, this means that the drain spacing may be relatively large. The high capillary rise requires a drain depth sufficient to avoid salinization in the top layers of the soil. 2.4 > 2. 2.5 Inundation Land Types Wetlands occupy only 0.5% of territory of the Kyrgyz Republic. They are located in rivers valleys, foothill valleys, near base surfaces of detrital cones – i.e. where the ground waters approach close to the offset surface (hollows of high mountain lakes – Yssyk-Kul, Sonkul, the valleys of the Chu, Talas, Naryn rivers with their tributaries, systems of the rivers Suusamyr, Djumgal, Kochkorka and other). Wetland waters can be used only at drainage, but this can entail negative economic consequences, what is not always reasonable. 2.5 > 2. 2.6 Natural hazards [Table 2.6.1. Emergency pollution of land resources] 2.6 > 2. 2.7 Land cover Kyrgyzstan is situated at the conjunction of three large soil and climatic phases of Eurasia - Turan, West Asian and Central Asian phases. The compound mountainous landscape and interaction of various natural conditions caused the formation of a great variety of soils (ranging from desert and subtropical to arctic zones). The structure of Kyrgyzstan's soil surface is represented by the following soil zones alternating from bottom to top - desert, desert-steppe, dry steppe, mountain-forest-meadow-steppe, mountain-meadow, meadow-steppe (sub alpine and alpine), high mountain steppe and high mountain desert. Soils on the territory of Kyrgyzstan are divided into two major groups: · soils of intermountain hollows and syrt plateaus · soils of mountain slopes. Due to a variety of landscapes and microclimate, limits of ecosystem variety are wide enough - from deserts to leaf-bearing and coniferous forests and Alpine high mountainous system. 22 classes of ecosystems were marked out by scientists of Kyrgyzstan. Availability of deserts (more than 13ths. sq.km, or 68% of the territory), nival and subnival zones (11.5 sq. km. or 12% of the territory) points to ecosystem poverty throughout the considerable territory of the country (12.6%). The most variable ecosystems are situated in middle mountain zone between 2000-3000 m above the sea level where 14 out of 22 classes of ecosystems occur. It makes up 63%, meanwhile the middle mountain area itself occupies just 30% of the country's territory. More abundant variety of ecosystems is represented in the western Tien-Shan and Central Tien-Shan biogeographical regions, where there are 16 out of 22 classes of ecosystems making up 72.7% of their total variety. Fergana and southern Kazakhstan regions are most meagre, there are 3-5 classes of ecosystems in them. Between them there are the Alai (13 ecosystem classes, 59.1%), the Northern Tien-Shan, the Issyk-Kul and the Central Tien-Shan regions (10 ecosystems per each, 45.4%). The structure of high-altitude zonality in mountains of Tian-Shan has a number of features related directly or indirectly with arid condition. For example, clear isolation in a number of areas on slopes of different exposition of hydro-ecological lines. The landscapes are divided into two adjacent, but ecologically diverse zone lines — arid and humid. The landscapes of the first zone are formed on slopes with insufficient atmospheric humidity, differ by prevalence of arid natural complexes, by open character of vegetative communities and occupy the main share of the areas on slopes of southern expositions. The landscapes of humid zone are located on slopes of northern expositions with sufficient humidity or on territorially limited areas earth humidity (riversides, lake basins etc.). High-altitude alpine meadow and meadow-steppe landscapes are formed at absolute elevations of 3000 — 3300 m. in some places reaching 3500 — 3600 m. The average temperatures of July here of less than +10 make about 1500 degrees. Snow stays for more that half-year, and in the summer precipitation fall a firm kind. Permafrost grounds and rocks are everywhere. Meadows and meadow-steppes are represented by low-grass sedge, sedge-different-grass. Cobresia-like meadows and meadow-steppes. Grounds are low-strength alpine meadows and meadow-steppes, sod-semi-turf under Cobresia. Arid line is represented by deserts, semi-deserts and steppes. Desert landscapes are represented by two zone types. One is a plain-foothill, another is mountainous, separated from the first type by many belts. For Northern and Western Tian-Shan typical are desert landscapes in the bottom tier of mountains generated mainly due to Turan desert element - these are absinthial, saltwort, willow shrubbery, and other deserts with gray soils, generated on powerful forest-rock deposits of undermountain plains, trains of mountain waste cones, low bills. Climate is droughty, with hot summer, moderately soft winter, small amount of precipitation with a maximum during the spring period. The mountain deserts are formed by absinthial, saltwort and others formations, mainly of Central Asian genesis. Semi-desert landscapes are represented by mainly absinthial-cereal, ptilagrost-absinthial semi-deserts. Deserted and semi-deserts of second type are at 1600-2200 m (Issyk-Kul, Kochkor, and other mid-altitude basins). High-altitude at 3000-3600 m above sea level on upland accumulative low-wave plains. The latter are characterized by dry climate, low temperatures, low-strength snow cover, small quantity of precipitation (less than 300 mm) with a maximum during summer time. Mountain-steppe landscapes also have two high-altitude types. One — low-altitude — mid-altitude steppes, which contact or have contacted with zonal flat steppes. Another variant - separated from first no-steppes, though usually completely or nearly covered by steppes. Depending on humidifying mode distinguished are low-altitude — mid-altitude steppes landscapes small-turf (northern) steppes -Northern Tian-Shan and southern savanna-like steppes of Southwest Tian-Shan. The first are distinguished bу а maximum of precipitation in spring and early-summer, chestnut grounds, grass with prevalence of sheep's fescue, feather-grass, sagebrush. The second are distinguished bу а maximum of precipitation in winterspring, grass with prevalence of large-grass umbrella-like grass -giant fenne1s and prangosses –and large-cereal - like types -bluegrass, beard grass. Wood-bush structure of vegetation - rear forests, pistachio, almond and а number of xerophytic bushes. Soil is gray-brown. These landscapes develop in а wide range of temperature conditions: the sums of temperatures of higher than + 10 degrees change from 3100 to 2000 degrees. High-altitude steppe landscapes have а smaller distribution: sub-alpine and alpine meadow-oat grass, sheep's fescue, and ptylagrost steppes опlу cover southern slopes, combined with meadow-steppes, and meadows The sums of temperatures of higher than +10 degrees decrease here to 1500 degrees.. At absolute heights at 3900 –4300 m there are polygonal stony tundra and so-called cold deserts at 3600- 3800 m. Tundra landscapes are mainly in Internal and Central Tian-Shan and оп all high ridges as small spots. They have the following features: low temperatures, dryness of air and physiological dryness, which leads to wide circulation of psychofit vegetation, moss, lichen, and rare cushion plants. Soils are low-strength, polygonal, and the vegetative cover is very rare. High-altitude cold deserts are located at hillymoraine upland surfaces. These landscapes are characterized by extremely rarefied vegetative cover, represented bу cushion plant from dryad, besides them are Tian-Shan reed grass and rare samples of richteria, smelovskia, and others. Soils are lowstrength, high-altitude, polygonal, takyr, and deserted. Mountain-rock-nival and glaciant-nival types of landscapes are present near-ridge parts of ranges, and occupy up to 15% of the area of republic. Landscapes of intermountain hollows are characterized by dryness: irrespective of а high-altitude location the аnnual sums of deposits do not exceed 400 mm. The lowest, semi-closed hollows - Fergaпа, Chui and Talas - have in the lower parts desert and semi-desert landscapes that turn into steppe in higher locations. The bottoms mid-altitude hollows of Internal Tian-Shan are steppes and semi-deserts, while high-altitude hollows are characterized by а combination of steppes, meadow-steppes and deserts. [Map 2.7.2: Surface temperature of ground in April] [Map 2.7.3: Surface temperature of ground in July] 2.7 > 2. 2.8 Land use Land fund of the Republic can be characterized as follows: From all the lands of the Republic (19995.1 thous. ha) the agricultural lands occupy 10798,1 thous. ha. They are distributed in accordance with the types: - croplands – 1260.1 thous. ha; - perennial vegetation - 39.9 thous. ha; - deposits – 21.5 thous. ha; - hayfields – 169.2 thous. ha; - pastures – 965.2 thous. ha; - personal lands – 132.3 thous. ha, from them: - croplands – 101.9 thous. ha, orchards and other plants – 22.7 thous. ha; - other agricultural lands –7.7 thous. ha; - collective orchards – 4.4 thous. ha; - collective kitchen gardens – 5.4 thous. ha. Total floor space of the irrigated lands forms 1064.7 thous. ha, from them croplands – 828.6 thous. ha. Lands assigned for agricultural use exploited by agricultural commodity producers are 5788.2 thous. ha, from which 887.6 thous. ha are the irrigated lands. Agricultural fund of redistributed lands is 340.9 thous. ha, from them the irrigated –176.3 thous. ha. Not distributed fund of Redistribution agricultural lands redistribution is 85.2 thous. ha, from them the irrigated – 30.5 thous. ha; - reserve lands – 9996.9 thous. ha, from them the irrigated – 25.5 thous. ha; - lands of forest fund – 2634.3 thous. ha, from them irrigated – 14 thous. ha; - lands of inhabited arrays – 231.7 thous. ha, from them the irrigated – 132.5 thous. ha; - lands being under industrial plants, transport, communications, defense – 227.5 thous. ha, from them the irrigated - 3.1 thous. ha; - lands of especially protected territories – 349.3 thous. ha, from them the irrigated –1.4 thous. ha; - water fund lands – 767 thous. ha, from them the irrigated – 0.5 thous. ha; - private lands make up 1242.1 thous. ha; municipal property – 54.8 thous. ha; state property – 18698 thous. ha. In 2000 the Kyrgyz Republic has used outside its administrative borders 14 ha of lands on territory of Tajikistan and Tajikistan has used 17.5 ha. Per capita agricultural lands in the Republic for January 1, 2001: Agricultural lands – 2.2 hectares; Croplands - 0.28 hectares; Perennial planting – 0.008 hectares. The important problem at present is the use of agricultural lands. In 2000 82.97 thous. ha croplands remained out of use, from them the irrigated – 30.0 thous. ha. The basic reason the lands were not used is a qualitative composition of soils such as salting, saline soils, wetlands, stony soils, wind and water erosion. Structure of lands’ fund has significantly changed lately owing to the change of structure of agricultural commodity producers – reforming the kolkhozes, sovkhozes and private farms quantity increase. Over past decade croplands and perennial planting have decreased because of transforming not enough effective areas into the less valuable lands, that generally corresponds to realty and allows averting their further degradation. Part of not enough effective pastures was transferred to a reserve category and the remained 3.6 mln. ha of distant ones do not use at all, what is favorable for them. At the same time 2.7 mln. ha attached to the village pastures, being intensively exploited, are overloaded because the farmers do not obtain means for livestock transporting at remote, especially distant pastures. Basic factors, influencing the soil cover are the anthropogenic ones – farming and pasture. The total territory of the state forestry of Kyrgyzstan accounts for 2601 thousand hectares (according to the data for 1998), including areas covered with forests - 849.5 thousand hectares, and those covered with bushes - 342.6 thousand hectares. The share of the forestland in the total territory of the Republic is 4.25%. Due to intensive use of forests during the period of 1930 - 1988, the areas of forests considerably reduced, including plants crucial for forest formation - fir tree, walnut-tree and archa. The distribution of irrigated lands by the regions of the Kyrgyz Republic for 1990-2000 is characterized by the following indexes (% of total area): - Issyk-Kul region – 13%; - Naryn region – 15-17%; - Talas region – 10-11%; - Chu region – 30-35%; - Djalal-Abad region – 12-13%; - Osh and Batken region – 15%. Modern condition of the irrigated lands according the data for 2000 is characterized by the following indexes: - Favourable irrigated lands without any problems – 600 thous.ha; - Irrigated highlands – 398 thous.ha; - Irrigated lands with a decline more than 0.03 – 269.3 thous.ha; - Unfavourable irrigated lands – 90 thous.ha; - Salted irrigated lands (all salting degrees) – 124.3 thous.ha; - Irrigated lands with UGV up to 1.5 m – 15.5 thous.ha; - Irrigated lands with UGV up to 3.0 m – 175.4 thous.ha. [Map 2.8.2: Propagation of a winter wheat ] [Map 2.8.3: Propagation of cotton and sugar-beet] [Table 2.8.1 Distribution of land fund on special-purpose by territory] [Table 2.8.2: The results of the state account of the lands by categories and land users] [Table 2.8.3: Arable Land by territory] [Table 2.8.4: The distribution of the lands by types ] [Chart 2.8.1: Distribution of Land on Target Purpose] 2.8 > 2. 2.9 Land use change For 1995-2000 about 60 thous. ha of lands were taken from agricultural revolution. Around 150¸200 thous. ha of lands, including 50-60 thous. of the irrigated ones annually were not utilized, or had rested. The republican land fund suitable according indexes of soil-climatic conditions for additional lands including in irrigated husbandry is about 1.2mln.ha Owing to drop of investments and lack of irrigation and drainage systems repairing the degradation lands increase in Aravan, Batken, Suzak, Tyup, Talas and other regions. Only on Kara-Bura region under the Big Talas canal 10 thous. ha (30%) of croplands are subjected to wetland. [Table 2.9.1 Ploughed fields use] [Table 2.9.2 Change of agricultural sowing] 2.9 > 2. 2.10 Land Productivity Process of loss in the fertility's basic parameter, humus, proceeds as а result of withdrawal by erosion and non-application of required dosage of organic fertilizers. Withdrawal of humus by plants from arable horizon constituted 20-45 percent; its contents in the soil does not exceed 2-2,5 percent, which is almost two times lower than the virgin parameters. In these conditions the productivity of agricultural crops directly depends on the amount of applied mineral fertilizers. According to estimations, the shortage of crops due to varying degree of soil degradation amounts to 20-80 percent on herbs and 15-50 percent on grains. [Table 2.10.1: Gross harvest of basic agricultural crops in farms of all categories by territory] [Table 2.10.2: Sown area of agricultural crops in farms of all categories by territory] [Table 2.10.3: Productivity centner/ha] 2.10 > 2. 2.11 Environmental Impact of land uses Soils are exposed to wind, water and pasture erosions. The soils of piedmont valleys are exposed to water (irrigation) erosion; soils in the western part of Issyk-Kul basin, in Kochkor and Alay valleys of Tash Rabat basin are exposed to wind erosion. Mountain slopes are affected mainly by pasture erosion or a combination of water, wind and pasture erosions. The level of erosion determines territory division into strongly eroded soils accounting for 31% of all agricultural lands, mildly eroded - 27.1%, and slightly eroded soils - 17%. Non-eroded soils account for only 3.5%. The rest of the lands is represented by soils affected by combinations of different levels of erosion. Irrigated farming results in oversalted soils and swamps. The total area of salted and swamped lands in the Republic exceeds 400 thousand hectares. Most of them are located in Chuy valley (223 thousand hectares) and hollows of Inner Tyan-Shan range (128 thousand hectares). Key factors of anthropogenous impact variety are the following: · transition to a settled way of life: as a result a lower forest border raised to 100-200 meters, there is not a single large tract of forest without felling.Forest area has decreased more than a half; · destruction of steppe lands for ploughing, disappearance of brushwoods, swamps and lakes in downstreams of rivers due to drainage and utilization of water for irrigation; · direct destruction of ecosystems during minerals mining. As a result tens of thousands of hectares are turned into "Moon Scape". Part of them went to the bottom of reservoirs (for example, a unique colony of gray herons in Kyrgyzstan was flooded by the Toktogul reservoir). · Increase of automobile network made practically all corners of the country accessible and levelled relief of highland plateaus(syrty) allow transport to move without any roads. · An exessive number of cattle on decreasing pasture areas (up to 25% pastures were practically lost since loads were exceeded by 5-10 times). · Population density in residential regions is more than 100 people per sq.km. According to stiff continental conditions it is a load exceeding ecological stability of environment. Existing pasture overload with the cattle last years brought to the decrease of productivity for 25-30 years , 4 times average. It also brought to the growth of the weeds and toxic herbs or vegetation, confusion and to other types of erosion. Anthropogenic influence for the pastures deepened with the natural factors as it was for the top soil. As the result of that level degradation is considered to be very strong in Chuy valley pastures, foot hill and plain part of Fergana valley, Issyk-Kul, At-Bashy hollows, upper part of the Naryn river, Sary-Jaz valleys. The level of degradation is considered to be strong in major pastures of (25-50%) Kyrgyz, Teskey- Kungoy, Ala-Too, Talas, Fergana and Chatkal mountain ranges. Nowadays as the result of the cattle decrease in the number natural restoration had began in the far away and distant pastures. Nevertheless the degradation process continue to develop in the pastures that are situated near the villages. Considering this situation there is a cute problem of rational organization of the land tenure by means of the mastering pasture circles, state support of the Distant Cattle Breeding. In 1990 total emissions of all greenhouse gases in the republic in СО2 equivalent amounted to more than 36,700 Gg, including 29,600 Gg of CO2 emissions. Net emissions, taking into account absorptions of CO2, were 35,900 Gg. Specific emissions of greenhouse gases in 2000 were more than 8.5 t per capita, of them 6.8 t is accounted for by СО2. The dynamics of total emissions of main greenhouse gases Chart 2.11.1. reflects the state of the republic's economy. The major contribution to the national greenhouse gas emissions in the republic is made by the energy sector activity, whose share in 1990 was about 80% and in 2000 74% of the total emissions of all main greenhouse gases in СО2 equivalent. The structure of main greenhouse gases emissions in СО2 equivalent by sector in 1990 and 2000 is illustrated in Chart 2.11.2. Methane sources in agriculture are livestock and poultry farming, rice production, and burning agricultural (stubble) remains. Methane emissions from spontaneous forest and steppe fires are also considered among them. In livestock and poultry farming, enteric fermentation and manure are also taken into account. The dynamics of methane emissions from agriculture in the period from 1990 to 2000 is shown in Chart 2.11.3. . The largest portion (82-87%) from the total methane emission in the sector is accounted for by the animal enteric fermentation. The share of emissions from the collection, storage and application of manure and droppings is 12-13%, the share of emissions from rice production is small: 0.3-2.7%. Methane emissions from burning agricultural (stubble) remains in the fields account for 0.7-2.25 of the total methane emissions in agriculture. The share of methane emissions from spontaneous forest fires is insignificant: 0.01-0.05%. Methane emissions from livestock farming are 94-98% of the total emissions in the agricultural sector. The largest methane emission is produced by the enteric fermentation in cattle (53-66%), sheep and goats (24-41%), horses (5-8%). Manure and droppings account only for 12-13% of methane emissions in the sector. The maximum contribution to emissions from manure is made by cattle (86-90%), sheep and goats account for 4-7%, horses - 2-3%, pigs - 1-2%, and poultry - 0-1%. Methane emissions from rice production are 0.48-2.56 Gg or 0.34-2.67% of the total emissions in agriculture. A significant mass of agricultural (stubble) remains is left in the fields after harvesting. The practice of burning stubble remains just in the fields is widely applied in the republic. Methane emissions from burning stubble remains in the fields are 0.89-2.03 Gg or 0.63-2.22% from the total emissions in agriculture. The dynamics of СО2 emissions during the conversion of forest and grass lands is shown in Chart 2.11.4.. The section "Land Use Change and Forestry" on the whole, reflects the natural carbon cycle trends. The temporal growth of СО2 removal in forests and other reservoirs of wood biomass is slow, but stable, whereas emissions from conversion do not have any clearly expressed tendency. The removals exceed the emissions more than 100 times. But the removals, in their turn, are more than 30 times lower than the total national СО2 emissions. [Table 2.11.1: Anthropogenic impact and law protection problems in surface geosystems] [Chart 2.11.1. Dynamics of total emissions of main greenhouse gases in Gg of СО2 equivalent] [Chart 2.11.2. Total emissions of direct greenhouse gases by sector] [Chart 2.11.3. СН4 emissions in agriculture, Gg ] [Chart 2.11.4. Dynamics of СО2 emission during the conversion of forest and grass lands, Gg] 2.11 > 2. |
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3.1 Hydrography 3. > _top |
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Country information on water resources is available at AQUASTAT. In case there is more information available, describe as follows. 3.1 Hydrography Total water reserves in the Kyrgyz Republic make 2460 km3. The clarification of reserves of revocable and wedging out waters, and also operation reserves of underground waters is required as well as their account in intra and inter-state water sharing. Glaciers. Total glaciers area is about 8.17 thous. km2 or 4.2% of the country territory. Fresh water reserves in mountain glaciers are estimated in 650 km3. Climate warming influences glaciers’ surface reduction, which area can decrease for 2025 on 30-40%. Lakes. Lake water reserves are estimated in 1745 km3 or about 71% from total national water reserves. Rivers. Total runoff of the rivers in different years varies from 44 to 50 km3 (taking into account revocable waters). Only 20-25% of annual river runoff are used for national needs, the rest of the water comes to territories of adjacent states. Ground waters. Fresh ground water reserves are estimated in 13 km3. Operation ground fresh waters make about 6 mln. m3/day (2.22 km3/year), moreover the reserve waters in two times exceed these indexes. Wetlands. Water resources are concentrated in wetland insignificantly, because the area of wetlands makes less, than 0.5% of the country’s territory. Maximum water intake indexes (13.93 km3/year) and water use (10.05 km3/year) were obtained in 1988. Owing to economical drop the water intake decreased in 2001 to 8 km3/year. Structure of national branch water use remains rather stable and does not suppose any further significant changes. About 90% of annual water expenses are used for irrigation, about 6% - for industry, less than 3% - for town and village water supply. Other economy branches as wood, fish economy, energy, services use in the aggregate of about 1% of total national water consumption. In Internal Tien-Shan the annual sum of precipitation compounds 200-300 mm, but owing to a significant hypsometric location, on high latitude, where air temperature is almost always negative, the precipitation are accumulated as glaciers. There are 8208 glaciers on territory of Kyrgyzstan, which cover an area of 8095 sq. km, and accumulate 700 billion m of water. There are a lot of high-mountainous lakes with a large amount of water reserves –1743 bil. m3, and a volume of only Yssyk-Kul lake is 1738 bil. m3. River basins water resources in the Kyrgyz Republic refer to the three main basins: Aral sea (76.5% of all area of the Republic), lake Issyk-Kul (10.8%), the Tarim river (12.4%) – China water way. Total amount of large river basins in the Republic is seven: Chu – annual runoff – 5.83 km3 , Talas and Assa - annual runoff – 27.4 km3, Amudaria - annual runoff – 1.93 km3, Tarim - annual runoff – 6.15 km3. According to protocols of interstate water sharing the Republic from all volume of the runoff formation can use on its territory the following river basins volumes: Chu – 3.85 km3, Talas and Assa – 0.95 km3, Issyk-Kul – 1.5 km3, Syrdaria – 4.88 km3, Amudaria – 0.42 km3. The most part of the river basins are located in mountain regions. Mountain formations serve as accumulators of atmospheric moisture, which in turn is a feeding source of a well developed network. Basic source of the rivers feeding are melted snows and glaciers. Wetlands. In the Republic the wetlands are not largely distributed (0.5% of all territory). They are mainly distributed on alluvial valleys and in outlying districts of a carrying out large cones, being formed in locations of close ground waters bed level (hollow of lake Issyk-Kul, Sonkul, valley of the rivers Chu, Talas, Naryn, systems of the rivers Susamyr, Djumgal etc.). Glaciers. Glaciers thawing, depending on meteorological conditions occurs with different intensity. Melted glaciers form glacial runoff, which during the summer together with seasonal melted snows give from 60 to 80% of the rivers runoff, that is very important for the irrigated agriculture. The territory of the Republic except for its highlands is located in a zone of insufficient moistening, where agriculture mainly depends on artificial irrigation. Therefore irrigation is a basic direction of use of water resources. For this purpose from river basins Chu, Talas Syrdaria, lake Issyk-Kul a lot of canals were taken out. Most of the mountain rivers are taken out in summer for irrigation at exit from zone of formation and do not reach main rivers. Water storages serve for purposes of more complete utilization of the rivers runoff. They are: Toktogul (volume 19.5 km3) on the Naryn river, Orto-Tokoi (volume 470.0 mln m3) on the Chu river, Kirov (550 mln m3) on the Talas river and series of small water pools, having local significance. Total amount of water storages in the Republic is 15 with useful capacity more than 10.0 mln m3, from which 3 are of energy use, 2 – of energy and irrigation use and 10 – of irrigation use. Kyrgyz glaciers are one of the main sources of formation of the rivers’ flow, therefore all the rivers refer to glacial-snow or snow-glacial types of feeding with a mean annual flow of about 50 billion m3. In total 27826 small and large rivers are formed on territory of the Kyrgyz Republic, which are in overwhelming majority the trans-boundary ones. Only the rivers of a basin of Yssyk-Kul lake refer to the internal (local) rivers. The main source of drinking water supply is underground waters. Besides drinking water supply the underground waters are used for the industrial needs and partially for land irrigation. The Agency on Geology Mineral Resources has prospected and confirmed the stocks of fresh underground waters on 44 deposits. The total volume of the water stocks is 10,587 cubic m/ 24 hours. At present, the country is exploiting about 4,374 water-containing constructions for the various needs. These constructions are water chinks. The total volume of the water-containers was about 2,100 cubic m/24 hours. [Map 3.1.1: Main hydrological basins] [Table 3.1.1: Hydrological characteristics of trans-boundary rivers] [Table 3.1.2. Dynamics of water resources] [Table 3.1.3: Basic characteristics of the largest lakes and water reservoir] | ||
