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id21 insights is a thematic overview of recent policy-relevant research findings on international development
. Funded by the UK Department for International Development, it is distributed free to policymakers and practitioners worldwide. This issue of Insights includes the following articles:
- Are NTFPs a way out of poverty? Over the last 30 years, policymakers and conservation non-government organisations have focused on the sustainable production and commercialisation of non-timber forest products (NFTPs). Is this a way forward in tropical forested areas for successful conservation and rural development?
- Walnut fruit forests in rural Kyrgyzstan: Agroforestry is the predominant way of life in forested parts of southern Kyrgyzstan and walnut forests are a major part of the cultural landscape. Local farmers lease forest plots from the state and these provide a wide range of nontimber forest products (NTFPs).
- Sharing science with forest communities in Amazonia: People in remote Amazon villages regularly sell 30 metre fruit trees to log-gers that can produce up to 2,000 nutritious fruits a year. The villagers, who rarely know the market prices, earn the equivalent of two US dol-lars per tree.
- Sal seeds, an untapped resource in India: Across central India, around 30 million forest dwellers, mostly tribal people, depend on the seeds, leaves and resins from Sal trees (Shorea robusta) for their livelihood. Sal seeds are crucial because people collect them in May and June when other sources of income are limited – after Kendu (Diospyros melanoxylon) leaves have been harvested and before the agricultural season.
- Wildlife products and forest livelihoods: Wildlife products are a significant source of food, income and fuel for many people living in tropical forested regions.
- Governing NTFP market chains: Strategies to extract and cultivate non-timber forest products can increase financial returns to poor producers. However, a global study by the Centre for International Forestry Research shows that such strategies have led to resource depletion and inequalities between households and people within the market chains.
- Local processing boosts local earnings: Households rarely generate enough income from gathering NTFPs (non-timber forest products) and selling them locally. Their retail value sold beyond local markets is far higher.
- Rubber market chains in Indonesia: Rubber (Hevea brasiliensis) has generated substantial profits to communities living near forests in many countries. In Indonesia, rubber producers have taken advantage of international demand, national development schemes, and high competition among wholesalers working for processing plants.
- NTFP commercialisation: The commercialisation of non-timber forest products (NTFPs) has been widely promoted as a successful approach to rural development in tropical forest areas. But the benefits of poverty alleviation and natural resource conservation can be hard to achieve.
- Useful web links
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The objective of the Tien Shan Ecosystem Development Project (TSEDP) in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyz Republic (KR) are to: a) reduce anthropogenic pressure on natural ecosystems and natural resources through development of sustainable tourism and increase of income of local population; b) earn incomes from selling certified carbon received as a result of afforestation in the Kyrgyz Republic and to share this practice in the region; c) increase income of rural population by means of wood and non-wood forest products and incomes from selling certified discharges received as a result of afforestation and foresting; d) reduce water and wind erosion of soil by creation of erosion-preventive and wind-protective forest strip by means of ecosystem approach
. Plant 13,950 ha of new forests to reduce erosion of soil, prevent avalanches and mudflows and decrease water logging caused by deteriorated drainage systems; and e) increase financial sustainability of the State Agency for Environment Protection and Forestry (SAEPF) under the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic and Aiyl Okmotus (AO) thanks to revenue generated by carbon trading.
Negative impacts include:
i) effect from small-scale construction works at specially protected natural areas (improvement of roads, reconstruction of buildings, irrigation infrastructure, and etc.);
ii) long-term demand for irrigation in areas with scarce water resources;
iii) increase of fire hazard;
iv) non-regulated usage of pesticides and herbicides;
v) access to pasture areas, reduction of existing pastures; and
vi) allergic risks.
Mitigation measures of the project are:
1) all contracts for construction works should meet standards on environment protection, health and safety required by legislation of the KR and World Bank (WB) procedures;
2) TSEDP project will ensure corresponding trainings for forestry personnel and participants of the project on creation of plantations of fast-growing wood species and on training of integrated pest management, usage, storage and transportation of pests and other progressive forestry practices;
3) TSEDP project will prepare Strategy of Social Responsibility that will include: training programs for information, activity on plan development for making decisions on usage of resources, development of compensation measures, principals of joint participation in monitoring and evaluation; and
4) it will be realized selection of quick growing wood species excluding allergic risks from poplars. Selection of cuttings for seedling will be from males that do not cause allergic reactions.
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Kyrgyzstan has a mixed track record in its progress towards achieving the national MDGs
. It is unlikely that all of the MDG targets will be reached by 2015 if the country continues along its current path. The country can potentially achieve its targets on poverty reduction, universal enrolment in primary education and literacy. Making sustainable progress towards MDGs will require the implementation of concrete plans of action in priority areas:
• Kyrgyz Republic is off track to meet targets for gender equality in employment and parliament. Although gender equality in primary schools has been met, unemployment is high amongst women, women’s wages are lower than those for men and women hold few managerial and parliamentary positions.
• Child and infant mortality has fallen steadily but slowly since the 1980s. In 2006 it was estimated that infant mortality in the Kyrgyz Republic is 38 per 1,000 live births, while child mortality is 44. Faster progress would be needed to meet the 2015 MDG target. Most children are immunised against measles.
• Official data suggest that maternal death rates have fallen in Kyrgyzstan; however there are significant differences between oblasts, with poorer oblasts having higher maternal death rates. Most births (96.8% in 2006) are attended by skilled personnel.
• The Kyrgyz Republic is experiencing a rapid growth of HIV/AIDS, particularly among intra-venous drug users. Death rates from TB have more than doubled from 8/100,000 in 1990 to 18/100,000 in the most recent years, with Multi Drug Resistant TB a significant problem. Malaria exists at low levels in Kyrgyzstan.
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The Central Asia sub-region is positioned in Euro-Asia which includes 5 independent states, namely, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan; Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan
. They won their independence upon the collapse of Soviet Union in 1991. They share many commonalities from the past and at present. Knowing them will help to address successfully their root causes and cause-relationship factors in designing the ICIMOD activities.
This briefing note gives a summary description of the region
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The Central Asia communication needs assessment was undertaken in the frame of the Asia Pacific Mountain Network’s support to the Mountain Partnership Secretariat
. It included telephonic and e-mail discussions with stakeholders from Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, supplemented by online research.
Characteristic for the region is the transition to a more decentralized free market economy since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Liberalisation of the telecom sector has brought infusion of capital and competition in the ICT sector. Since the early 2000s, Internet use has exploded in the region, and use of cellular telephony increased substantially. However, internet, landline, or mobile penetration into rural mountain areas has been minimal. The Trans-Europe-Asia fibre optic line, being laid down across Central Asia, and the launch of KazSat communications satellite from Kazakhstan, can help bridging the arural-urban, and rich-poor ‘divide’ by bringing costs down considerably
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DFID has a rolling programme of Country Programme Evaluations (CPEs) with 5 or 6 evaluations of countries or regions per year
. A synthesis report pulling together findings from 5 recent CPEs is also produced annually. CPEs are challenging evaluations attempting to provide an overview of the entire DFID programme over a 5 year time frame and evaluate whether DFID made appropriate strategic choices in the given context and delivered effectively. CPEs are ideally undertaken in the year prior to development of a new Country Assistance Plan, as they are designed to meet DFID’s needs for lessons that can inform future strategy and programming, as well as accountability for funds spent at country level. CPEs are intended for a wide audience including DFID’s country office staff and partners, senior DFID managers in the relevant regional divisions and members of the public/other stakeholders
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This paper assesses what progress different countries have made over recent years on preserving, protecting and restoring forest biological diversity
. Specifically, the report presents the findings of research undertaken in 22 countries by independent country monitors on implementation of the Expanded Programme of Work on Forest Biological Diversity adopted under the Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD/POW).
The report presents research findings on the following countries:
- Africa: Cameroon, Mozambique, Uganda;
- Americas: Brazil, Canada, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay;
- Eurasia: Bangladesh, Nepal, Indonesia, Bulgaria, Georgia, Germany, Kyrgyzstan, The Netherlands, The Russian Federation;
- Oceania: Aotearoa/New Zealand, Australia, Samoa.
Overall, it reports that levels of implementation of the COP/POW are variable, but that all countries could do better. It ginds that levels of knowledge about the CBD/POW at the national level are low - shockingly so in many countries. There are some clear success-stories of forest biodiversity conservation, especially on recognised Indigenous lands, but indigenous peoples and local communities were hardly involved in policy-making. The report also notes that some countries are heavily reliant on protected areas as the main tool for meeting their commitments under the CBD/POW. In many countries, environmentally and socially harmful monoculture tree plantations are still being promoted within the framework of forest and climate change mitigation policies. Finally, it finds that insufficient efforts are being made in relation to forest restoration.
The report concludes with a number of recommendations, including:
- there is a clear need to strongly enhance awareness of the CBD/POW as a tool to implement the legally binding commitments under the CBD;
- forest biodiversity conservation policies must go beyond the establishment of protected areas;
- there is a clear need to develop a coherent definition of forests that recognises forests as an ecosystem and excludes monoculture tree plantations;
- governments facing high deforestation rates should implement deforestation moratoria and bans, which have proven to be a highly successful policy measure to halt forest biodiversity loss.
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Swiss support for the Kyrgyz energy sector has a history of over ten years
. Measures to save energy were initiated together with a Kyrgyz partner organisation at the level of the Kyrgyz distribution companies and at the level or rural consumers. Technical measures for the maintenance of the infrastructure (substations / overhead lines) have largely been implemented jointly with other international donors.
User-oriented home insulation and heating improvement projects at the village level have gone through the pilot phase, proved technically viable and are ready for upscaling. The most important idea behind these projects is that they are designed to use local material, as emphasised in the title
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The sudden independence of Kyrgyzstan from the Soviet Union in 1991 led to a total rupture of industrial and agricultural production
. Based on empirical data, this study seeks to identify key land use transformation processes since the late 1980s, their impact on people's livelihoods and the implication for natural resources in the communes of Tosh Bulak and Saz, located in the Sokuluk River Basin on the northern slope of the Kyrgyz Range. Using the concept of the sustainable livelihood approach as an analytical framework, three different livelihood strategies were identified:
(1) An accumulation strategy applied by wealthy households where renting and/or buying of land is a key element; they are the only household category capable of venturing into rain fed agriculture.
(2) A preserving strategy involving mainly intermediate households who are not able to buy or rent additional agricultural land; very often they are forced to return their land to the commune or sell it to wealthier households.
(3) A coping strategy including mainly poor households consisting of elderly pensioners or headed by single mothers; due to their limited labour and economic power, agricultural production is very low and hardly covers subsistence needs; pensions and social allowances form the backbone of these livelihoods.
Ecological assessments have shown that the forage productivity of remote high mountain pastures has increased from 5 to 22 per cent since 1978. At the same time forage productivity on pre-mountain and mountain pastures close to villages has generally decreased from 1 to 34 per cent. It seems that the main avenues for livelihoods to increase their wealth are to be found in the agricultural sector by controlling more and mainly irrigated land as well as by increasing livestock. The losers in this process are thus those households unable to keep or exploit their arable land or to benefit from new agricultural land. Ensuring access to land for the poor is therefore imperative in order to combat rural poverty and socio-economic disparities in rural Kyrgyzstan
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This paper is one of a series of Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) documents on forest-related health and biosecurity issues
. The purpose of these papers is to provide early information on on-going activities and programmes, and to stimulate discussion.
In an attempt to quantify the impacts of the many factors that affect the health and vitality of a forest, the Global Forest Resources Assessment 2005 (FRA 2005) asked countries to report on the area of forest affected by disturbances, including forest fires, insects, diseases and other disturbances such as weather-related damage. However, most countries were not able to provide reliable information because they do not systematically monitor these variables.
In order to obtain a more complete picture of forest health, FAO continues to work on several follow-up studies. A review of forest pests in both naturally regenerating forests and planted forests was carried out in 25 countries representing all regions of the world. This Overview of forest pests represents one paper resulting from this review
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