Liniger, Hanspeter

Wolfgramm, Bettina

Zähringer, Julie

Bern Open Repository and Information System (BORIS)

Tropentag, October 5-7, 2011, Bonn“Development on the margin”Sustainable Land Management and Resilience to Climate Change inTajikistanJulie Gwen Za¨hringer, Hanspeter Liniger, Bettina WolfgrammUniversity of Bern, Centre for Development and Environment (CDE), SwitzerlandAbstractIn Tajikistan, the increasing pressure on available land combined with inappropriate landuse practices has led to widespread unsustainable land management. As a consequence, ru-ral livelihoods that support the majority of the population are being negatively affectedby land degradation such as fertility decline due to soil nutrient mining, soil erosion due tobad vegetation cover management, and inadequate forest management due to demands forfuel and timber. For the coming years, it is expected that Tajik agriculture faces varyingclimate change impacts which, on the whole, will further deteriorate production conditionsand thus adversely affect the economy and rural livelihoods. With the existing land degra-dation impacts noted above, sustainable land management (SLM) strategies and practicesbecome even more critical for Tajikistan. SLM can enable land users to adapt, as well asbecome more resilient, to climate change by conserving soil and water, restoring productivenatural resources, enhancing food security and increasing food production. In order to de-velop strategies for climate resilient adaptation of land management, knowledge is neededon the state of land resources in Tajikistan today and on SLM opportunities for climatechange adaptation. Therefore, an inventory of relevant past and current projects/initiativesin SLM was prepared using the WOCAT (World Overview of Conservation Approachesand Technologies) framework. Case studies on SLM technologies as well as SLM approa-ches covering all major land use types in Tajikistan were documented through interviewswith land users and SLM specialists. The case studies were then assessed for their climateresilience applying the newly developed WOCAT climate change module. In order to testthe documented SLM technologies and approaches for their applicability, workshops wereorganised with rural communities in the different agricultural zones of Tajikistan. Expe-rienced and anticipated climate change impacts on the communities were discussed andland users selected and assessed those SLM practices they regarded the most suitable onesfor climate change adaptation in their context. The goal of this study was to identify bestSLM technologies and approaches to improve rural livelihoods and resilience to climatechange and to make recommendations for their up-scaling.Keywords: Adaptation, climate change, land degradation, resilience, rural livelihoods, sustainableland managementContact Address: Julie Gwen Za¨hringer, University of Bern, Centre for Development and Environment (CDE),Baumackerstr. 51, 8050 Zu¨rich, Switzerland, e-mail: julie z60@hotmail.com

Sustainable Land Management (SLM) and Resilience to Climate Change in Tajikistan

http://www.tropentag.de/2011/abstracts/links/Zaumlhringer_AcZ9N30Q.pdf

Sustainable Land Management (SLM) and Resilience to Climate Change in Tajikistan

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

Bern Open Repository and Information System (BORIS)