yrgyzstan is a country of nomads. Pastoralism has been central to the Kyrgyz identity for thousands of years, evolving to suit the mountainous terrain that makes up today’s Kyrgyz Republic. Kyrgyz people rely on livestock (mainly horses and sheep) for their food, transportation, culture and economy, drinking fermented mare’s milk called kymys and enjoying a national sport called kok boru (resembling polo, and traditionally played using a goat carcass).
In recent years, though, Kyrgyzstan’s pasturelands have become more and more degraded. As the number of livestock in the country increased following independence from the Soviet Union, the tender grass that grows on the jailoos, or high-mountain summer pastures, has been overgrazed and trampled, while climate change is shifting the balance of local plants and threatening the land with desertification.
We arrived in Kyrgyzstan in late September to learn about these issues, and how the country is managing them, from Zhyrgal Kozhomberdiev, the Pasture Projects Coordinator at CAMP Alatoo, a Kyrgyz NGO focused on sustainable natural resource management in mountain regions. Based in Bishkek, he has coordinated projects on rangeland and forest management since around 2011, working closely with herding communities to improve pasture health and resilience.
When we sat down with Kozhomberdiev, he told us about his recent efforts to develop tools for pasture health monitoring, such as smartphone-based apps that allow herders and local managers to track plant cover, grazing pressure, and other ecological indicators. These innovations are designed to help communities make more informed decisions about grazing and land use, reducing degradation while supporting livelihoods.
CAMP Alatoo started in 2004 as a Swiss-funded development project with the aim of helping promote natural resources management in high-mountain areas, and developed into a fully-fledged Kyrgyz NGO. Kozhomberdiev began working there after receiving a degree in environmental engineering, and told us that he enjoys working with youth, local governments and pastoralists to craft solutions that they will support on a grassroots level.
“When you work with local communities and you use their knowledge, you use a material which is close to them,” Kozhomberdiev told us. “So the feedback is always positive from their side. They feel ownership [of] that knowledge.”
This notion of stewardship of the land is central to Urban Farming Education’s mission — and it’s one that we saw reflected as we drove through the country, past the snowy peaks of the Tian Shan Mountains. By this point, the herders had brought their livestock down from the summer pastures to the warmer valley below, practicing the kind of rotational grazing that’s kept the land regenerating for generations. We believe that by working with people to support their sense of ownership over the land, we can encourage sustainable practices that benefit people and the climate.
“When we travel, we have these preconceived notions of where we're going to go that we've never seen before,” Mike reflected at the end of the conversation with Kozhomberdiev. “But when we come, we realize it's the same planet. There's certainly unique things in this part of the world, but it's also a fragile ecosystem, the biosphere that we all share.”
