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Juniper forests and the survival of high mountain communities in Central Asia

12.06.2020

The University of Central Asia’s (UCA) Mountain Societies Research Institute is leading the way in groundbreaking work on tracking the growth of juniper forests in Central Asia. 

One third of forest lands in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan are covered with juniper trees, and at moderate and high altitudes in mountain areas of Central Asia, juniper forests make up as much as 80 percent of all forest lands. With no existing database on the growth of juniper forests, research fellow Gulzar Omurova and a research team seek to develop a sustainable model of growth and productivity for these forests.  

UCA’s Mountain Societies Research Institute, together with a group of researchers from Germany, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, launched the “Juniper Central Asia Project” in 2019. The two-year project has five focuses, including socio-economic research, year-ring analysis, assessment of the distribution zones and the biomass of juniper forests through remote sensing, and the creation of models to describe dynamics of development and degradation of these forests. 

While these forests are subject to special protection, their condition is still deteriorating, explains UCA Senior Research Fellow at MSRI Jyldyz Shigaeva. “Due to overgrazing and illegal logging, annual deforestation rates exceed the natural biomass buildup and the natural reforestation capacity. Some assessments suggest that juniper forests decrease annually by about 2 to 3 percent,” he says. “If the forest cover continues to decrease at this speed, it will not only result in irreversible desertification, but will also lead to an increased number of natural disasters, threatening agricultural activities and the lives of the local communities.”

Omurova’s research focuses on dendrochronology, an academic discipline that analyses trees as living and accurate depositories of historical information. Since last year, she has collected and analysed more than 20 juniper tree samples from different areas of the western part of the Zeravshan Valley in Tajikistan. Her samples span a 126 year period - from 1893 to 2019. 

Omurova explains why this project is essential to the future health of Central Asia’s juniper forests. “There is an information gap in obtaining scientific knowledge, such as calculating the productivity and absolute growth rates of individual trees,” states Omurova. “Trees can provide a wide range of information on weather, river water levels, earthquake intensity, and whether insects and other living creatures have increased or decreased over time. As nature develops in cycles, such knowledge helps to create forecasts and models.”

This research will help prepare process models related to erosion, water balance and yield of juniper forests, as well as forecast potential changes in these indicators, building on social and environmental data. It will also provide government agencies and local communities with practical solutions for forest resource management. 

The project team has also studied five villages in Tajikistan living adjacent to juniper forests. Household surveys have found that while local communities prefer using juniper trees for their household needs, they mostly do it illegally, with only about 5 percent of households having licenses to cut down diseased trees. It also found that most households use juniper trees instead of coal in order to save coal for the winter season (about 30 to 40 percent of household budgets is spent on coal). Cultural aspects also play an important role, as households use juniper trees to bake bread; they believe that juniper trees give bread a special taste. 

Overall, preliminary socio-economic analysis has found that these household practices are unsustainable for forest growth. This year, the project will continue to collect data to identify the most detrimental practices, find alternative solutions, and help plan and manage forest resources sustainably. “Today, juniper forests are treated like cost-free resources, and if this continues, future generations will not see juniper forests on mountain slopes,” states Omurova.

Over the course of the past 30 years, there has been no significant work conducted to prepare comprehensive records or monitor biodiversity, ecosystems and forests in Tajikistan. Consequently, environment protection and forest management plans use outdated records and build-on estimates.  

In this context, the results of the UCA’s project have become especially important. Models, outputs of remote sensing and data on the forest biomass buildup illustrate where and how juniper forests regenerate or decrease, consequently helping to determine where controls should be enhanced or preventive measures implemented.

Learn more about UCA’s Mountain Societies Research Institute (MSRI)

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