FAO project will create Community Landscape Management Groups

Bishkek – Human activity is the main driver of climate change. Industrial processes, deforestation, uncontrolled grazing, and the burning of fossil fuels lead to increased greenhouse gas emissions.

The resulting greenhouse gases envelop the Earth like a blanket and cause sudden changes in temperature, increasing the frequency of natural disasters such as mudslides, floods and swamping of rivers in the spring, floods and heat waves in summer.

Recent years, destructive mudflows have often been observed in the south of Kyrgyzstan. According to the Ministry of Emergency Situations, one of the main reasons for the increase in the frequency of mudflows was abnormal precipitation. Climate change is increasing the frequency of these events by making weather conditions less predictable.

Ak-Talaa, Suzak, Toguz-Toroo and Uzgen are climate-sensitive areas

The four adjacent areas, Ak-Talaa, Suzak, Toguz-Toroo and Uzgen, are located in climate-sensitive zones and are exposed to the hazards described above. Based on this, they were selected as target areas for the FAO project “Carbon Sequestration through Climate Investments in Forests and Rangelands in the Kyrgyz Republic(CS-FOR).”

Natural resources in these areas, especially forests and grasslands, are very sensitive to the impacts of climate change. One indicator of sensitivity is the degradation of pastures and forests.

Community Landscape Management Groups

The sustainable use of natural resources is essential for mitigating climate change. In June 2024, the CS-FOR project working group began social mobilization in four project target areas to create community landscape management groups (CLMGs).

“CLMG is a voluntary consultative public body for the planning, management, or monitoring of natural resources,” said Gulmira Urmanbetova, the national coordinator of the CS-FOR project. “Members will be elected from representatives of local self-government bodies, forestry enterprises, pasture user associations, as well as other civil society organizations, local activists, community members, women's committees, village elders, youth, and farmers.”

CLMG will implement activities throughout the entire project cycle. Will manage the process of identifying community needs in matters of natural resource management (forests and rangelands), organizing and facilitating their discussion at meetings. Provide assistance to aiyl okmots in managing pastures through the development and implementation of an Integrated Natural Resources Management Plan in the context of climate change, which will include issues of repairing infrastructure for livestock grazing, constructing watering points, rotating pastures, improving pasture grasses, feed production, livestock production, as well as issues planting forests and fruit crops.

“At the moment, social mobilization for the creation of CLMG locally is continued by our local consultants, whom we have selected and trained in all the skills and knowledge on the mechanisms for implementing project activities and creating comprehensive plans,” said Ruslan Tyupeev, the CS-FOR project coordinator from the partner organization Development and Investment Agency communities of the Kyrgyz Republic (ARIS). “At the moment, local consultants are actively continuing to organize round tables and meetings, informing the population about the goals and objectives of the project, and creating CLMG initiative groups, which will further become the driving force of the FAO CS-FOR project.”