COMMUNITY RESTORATION AND AWARENESS OF THREATENED TREES IN CENTRAL ASIA

Central Asia's fruit and nut forests are shrinking and the unique tree species they contain are becoming threatened with extinction. Working in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, this project established school tree nurseries for threatened fruit and nut species, combining community engagement, awareness raising and forest restoration.

FURTHER INFORMATION

Communities in both Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan are heavily dependent on resources from the fruit and nut forests and building community awareness and support for sustainable management has been identified as a key strategy throughout FFI’s work in the area. The Red List of Trees of Central Asia, published as part of GTC work in 2009, identified 44 tree species threatened with extinction in Central Asia, many of which are found in the dwindling fruit and nut forest habitat.

Building on the success of our work in the Awacachi Corridor, Ecuador, this project aimed to establish school nurseries to grow threatened fruit and nut trees in Tajikistan and Kyrgystan. This addressed two aims of increasing community awareness and involvement as well as the restoration of threatened tree species.

Working in two schools in forested areas of Kyrgyzstan and two in Tajikistan, the project provided training to local state forestry staffl on awareness raising and nursery establishment. Tree nuseries were established at the schools following seed collection in the surrounding fruit and nut forests. Pupils have responsibility for their own threatened tree seedlings, which they plant out into the forest when the seedlings reach an adequate size. Nursery and planting work was accompanied by awareness activities to embed the messages with the children and media work to increase the impact of the programme in the wider community.

This project followed on from a successful project, working on the conservation of the highly threatened Niedzwetsky apple.

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