The Karakum Desert occupies about 80% of the territory of Turkmenistan. The high aridity of the climate, soil types, and sparse natural vegetation, with high sensitivity to even small changes in the wind velocity, favor deflation processes characterized by: drifting sand and dust storms. The desertification and land degradation process is characterized by (i) reduction or loss of the vegetative cover; (ii) soil deflation in dry and desert lowlands; (iii) water erosion of hillsides; (iv) salinization of irrigated lands; (v) salinization of soils caused by lowering of the Aral Sea level; (vi) technogenic desertification; and (vii) waterlogging or salinization of pastures around the points of discharge of collector and drainage water. Flooding processes and salinization of lands opened for irrigated agriculture, together with pollution caused by oil and gas production, also have caused severe environmental degradation along the entire Caspian Sea coastal region of the country.

Land degradation results largely from improper land use, and inefficiency of irrigation water management has been the principal cause. Total water consumption in Turkmenistan has been increasing, partly due to population growth but also because of the deteriorating irrigation system and opening of new land for grain production. Pastureland degradation also is no small problem in Turkmenistan, where animal husbandry faces the challenges of desert and semidesert conditions, small reserves of fodder, the seasonal nature of their utilization over a considerable territory, large fluctuations in the fodder reserves over years and seasons, and inadequate water supply in a number of regions. Total annual direct economic losses from different forms of land degradation have been estimated to be around $350,000,000 equivalent annually. (Source: CACILM Multicountry Partnership Framework Project Document, 2006).

The NPF identifies two categories of problems related to land degradation: economic policies, legislative acts, administrative regulations, institutional arrangements, and land-use rights that are still evolving unevenly from those in place during the Soviet period; and lack of data, experience, and consensus on how to modernize agricultural infrastructure to improve water-use efficiency, or to supervise use of the fragile rangelands for livestock. The major program activities are to: improve the water-use efficiency of agricultural systems in various integrated ways on a pilot basis to demonstrate the benefits that will justify investment and the process of change required to achieve a more sustainable system of land use; and build national institutional capacity to mainstream SLM and to improve the incentives for land and water users to manage these resources sustainably.

This project will create an enabling environment for the integration of SLM principles into the sectoral and nationwide development policies and strategies. At the local level the project will contribute to increased livelihood standards in the three pilot areas through improved management of land resources. Capacity building for participatory land-use planning and management in three agro-ecological zones will be a key element in order to overcome the existing gap between the decision-making process and the needs of farmers. The results are expected to be: (i) an increased number of land users who utilize the results of technical and scientific support for improved land management, and the acceptance and active support of land-use plans by local stakeholders, local administration, and decision makers with regard to further investments in sustainable land management; and (ii) increase of the capacity of land users for sustainable land management (Source: Country Pilot Partnerships on Sustainable Land Manangement. CACILM Multicountry Partnership Framework. Executive Summary)