Economic and Ecological Restructuring of Land- and Water Use in the Region Khorezm (Uzbekistan)
Project description in Russian (Adobe PDF-file)
http://www.zef.de/khorezm.0.html
Keywords |
Sustainable land use, efficient water use, economy, legal-administrative studies, Aral Sea Basin, Uzbekistan |
Countries |
Uzbekistan |
Objectives |
Project objectives:
Since the 1920s, irrigation cultivation in Uzbekistan has been continuously intensified at the expense of the Aral Sea; the ecological consequences are well known. Effective and sustainable land and water use can only be achieved with a concomitant reorganization of economic and administrative structures that aims especially at changes in natural resource management. The objective of this project is, therefore, to establish a research program that combines proposals for restructuring of the landscape with proposals for legal-administrative reorganization in order to utilize human and natural resources more efficiently. In the "Water Related Vision for the Aral Sea Basin for the Year 2025", the UNESCO has shelved the plan to stabilize the water level of the Aral Sea in favor of the more realistic and important objective, the improvement of the living conditions of the people living in the Aral Sea Basin (UNESCO 2000). The Khorezm region was selected because until now little attention has been paid to this area although the province plays an important role in the water budget of the Amu Darya delta. The area is also typical of the agricultural systems in Uzbekistan, which are mainly based on irrigated cotton production. The basic idea of the project is to designate part of the area currently used for agriculture for ecological purposes. Possible losses in agricultural production are to be compensated for through more efficient but sustainable land and water use based on the introduction of modern and profitable agricultural production systems. The area no longer used for agriculture is then to be transformed into protective forest stands. The aim is to integrate plantations (e.g., orchards, and the locally favored poplars for wood production) and natural stands based on the natural Tugai forests. At the same time, agricultural production methods are not only to be improved and intensified but also to be made ecologically more robust (through improvement of irrigation techniques, tillage methods, and the planting of hedges and windbreaks). The accompanying economic studies will be devoted to operational analysis of the individual farms (kolkhozes) and investigation of economic incentives for saving water, e.g., a water price based on an economic "River Basin" model. In addition, economic questions in connection with the health crisis will be investigated. The legal-administrative studies will be devoted especially to the investigation of decision structures, water allocation mechanisms and how these are accepted and handled by the people ("local perspective"). In addition, right of use of agricultural products and obligations for maintenance of the irrigation systems are to be investigated. By closely integrating these three research areas, the common dilemma of development efforts that research results are not adequately implemented can be avoided. This makes necessary not only the establishment of a close, trustful partnership with the local scientists, but also close collaboration with the population involved and the local and national authorities. The investment in the ecological structures in this region is to bring about an improvement in the water quality and sanitary living conditions. The aim of the project, apart from conducting a problem analysis, is to examine the technical and legal-administrative feasibility and acceptance of the restructuring measures by the people. The project is to provide the data base for later exemplary ecological, economic and administrative restructuring of the use of natural resources in Uzbekistan. To begin with, this will be limited to the Khorezm district but can later be extended to other regions (e.g., neighboring Karakalpakstan). For this, all data is to be integrated in a geographic information system (GIS) for which capacities have to be developed in Urgench, and which is to function in the same way as in the already existing collaboration between the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and the University of Nukus. |
Methodology |
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Team Members |
Prof. Dr. Paul Vlek (Director at ZEF, Department of Ecology): Dr. Ahmad Manschadi (Scientific Project coordinator): Dr. John Lamers (Project coordinator in Uzbekistan) see http://www.zef.de/team_khorezm.0.html |
Partner Institutions / Funding Organizations |
Funding: The project is funded by the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF). Additional doctoral scholarships have been made available by the Ministry for Education and Science of the State of Nordrhein-Westfalen. Project Partners: The main partnership will be between the Center for Development Research (ZEF Bonn) and the State Al-Khorezmi University in Urgench, Uzbekistan. Other partners are the UNESCO and: in Germany especially
in Uzbekistan many partners participate, among them
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Publications |
see http://www.zef.de/publications_khorezm.0.html |
Workshops / Conferences |
First workshop in Germany, 19. February 2002 |
Duration of the Project |
Phase I 2002-2003: Infrastructure, databases, data collection and evaluation |
Contact |
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