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LEARNING TO RESTORE AND PROTECT AZERBAIJAN’S FARMLANDS

September 8^th, 2016

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LEARNING TO RESTORE AND PROTECT AZERBAIJAN’S FARMLANDS

The timeless rural villages of Azerbaijan boast lush orchards and grassy hillsides, ringed by the dramatic peaks of the Caucasus Mountains. This region with its predominant grasslands is rich in indigenous flora.

However, serious degradation of pastoral farmlands threatens the future of Azerbaijan’s farming communities as well as the region’s broader ecosystem. Overgrazing is one of the primary reasons for Azerbaijan’s pastoral degradation.

Overgrazing results in losses of organic carbon soil through wind and water erosion and soil impoverishment. Loss of organic matter reduces soil stability and eroded, unstable soils increase the likelihood of greater water runoff and landslides.

Under continuous and unsustainable grazing, pastures have less vegetation cover & broader ecosystem is weakened, allowing erosion to occur.

With EU funding and UNDP support, the Clima East Pilot Project in Azerbaijan is working to teach and establish sustainable pasture management practices, improve the fertility of pastures and forests, and prevent soil erosion and landslides.

The project selected the rural communities of the Shamakhi and Ismayilli regions where the primary occupation is sheep and cattle breeding.

Daily migration from village to pastures.

Murshud Mirzayev, local shepherd in Burovdal, Ismayilli region

Discussing the demarcation of border with the local shepherd.

Jonathan Etzold, international ecologist, and local community member in the nursery monitoring the condition of the trees.

Jonathan Etzold, international ecologist, and local community member checking the survival rate of the young trees.

Tree nursery created with active support from the local community. Indigenous plants and fruit trees included.

The technology to greener pastures

Since 2013, the project has worked to monitor and create an inventory for 3,000 hectares (ha) of summer pastures. Through the use of satellite imaging and remote sensing applications, a vegetation map was created. The collection of this data has helped to clarify where and how restoration work needs to happen. The pasture inventory has been completed on 3,000 ha of land in target zones.

Updated information on soil and vegetation cover of newly inventoried pastures is available to environmental authorities and local pastoralists. Part of the inventory entailed field assessments of pasture camp sites coupled with remote sensing analysis, allowing for the identification of areas for restoration.

Inventory team is happy with the results.

National specialist training on new carbon methodologies.

Demonstrating results for the future

After completing the inventory, restoration activities in the pastures have been working to demonstrate best practices for the sustainable use of pasture resources and better erosion control measures.

In the project sites, severely degraded areas were detected in all 16 summer pastures. In response, fencing and reforestation, combined with sowing erosion-controlling plants, has allowed for natural regeneration of vegetation. In the gravest cases of soil dislocation, bio-engineering measures using woody materials were applied.

Continuation of pasture restoration activities with local restoration and agronomy experts.

As part of the erosion prevention measures, workers planting trees transferred from the nursery.

Local community members braving rough weather conditions to complete the fencing task for the demonstration plots.

General view of eroded mountain side in the fall

Field trips are organized to detect areas affected by erosion

Demonstration plots, protecting and restoring the ecosystem.

The project demonstrated several experimental restoration treatments to enhance carbon pools, including the sowing of more than 20 ha of degraded soil with seeds, completion of 12 demonstration plots with plantings and erosion prevention measures, and the establishment of rotational grazing systems for 16 farms of approximately 3,000 ha.

By the end of the initiative, more than 3,000 ha of summer pastures will be restored, allowing the timeless practices of pastoralism in Azerbaijan to persist.

Summer pasture in the selected pilot region within the ClimaEast Pilot Project on “Ecosystem-based approaches to climate change”

The Clima East Pilot Project in Azerbaijan is supported through funding from the EU and UNDP.

The project consists of two main components: the first, consists of a number of pilot projects that support the development of ecosystems-based approaches to climate change; the second is a policy component that seeks to foster improved climate change policies, strategies and market mechanisms in the partner countries by supporting regional cooperation and improving information access to EU climate change policies, laws and expertise.

In Azerbaijan, the pilot project is working to promote more efficient use of land and forests in the Greater Caucasus - shifting from the current unsustainable practices to sustainable land and forest management practice. For more information on the project, please visit the Clima East website or the project profile for UNDP Azerbaijan.

This story was adapted and edited from an earlier version.

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Story by Andrea Egan / Photos: UNDP Azerbaijan

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Story by Andrea Egan / Photos: UNDP Azerbaijan

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LEARNING TO RESTORE AND PROTECT AZERBAIJAN’S FARMLANDS

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