Environmental awareness bearing fruit

The Global Environment Fund (GEF) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) are supporting an initiative to help revive apple, pear and walnut orchards, as well as vineyards near Tashtak village, in Kyrgyzstan's southern Jalal-Abad province. "In the past, there was so much fruit available in this region but then it started to disappear when people chopped the trees down," Burulsun Samatova, the leader of a project supported by the programme, said. The programme, which entails the provision of small grants, involves local communities in preserving the environment by changing attitudes. The result is a number of new small businesses that are based on sustainable local resources. "In the past our sovhoz [state farm] was based on goat-breeding but you see, goats eat everything. I am an economist and I am sure that fruit-growing will bring more profit for us - we can export our apples, if we can maintain the quality," Joldoshaly Mambetakunov, a 52-year-old who had taken advantage of the loan scheme, said as he munched on a freshly-plucked crimson apple from his orchard. "The unique thing about the programme is that it involves civil society, different NGOs, local communities and ordinary people. The best description of the programme is the slogan 'Think globally - act locally'," Zharas Takenov, a programme officer with UNDP in the capital, Bishkek, said. The scheme began in 2001 and is trying to preserve biodiversity while preventing soil degradation by promoting forests and orchards. By February 2005, the programme supported 96 projects in all parts of this mountainous country. In Jalal-Abad province alone, US $270,000 is supporting 37 individual local projects this year. During the Soviet era, the centrally planned economy was rigorously enforced, often at the expense of the environment. This led to the destruction of forests, poisoning of water sources, hunting of wild animals and the widespread use of chemical fertilisers. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the disappearance of subsidies and support to rural communities, the environment suffered again as local people chopped down trees and killed animals in order to survive. "In the recent past in our area there were wild boar, hedgehogs and rabbits. Now they have all disappeared. What will my children see in the future? It is necessary to explain to people that such things are important," Bolotbek Junusaliev, a farmer from Tashtak village, said. Meanwhile, the new orchards and the entrepreneurial skills necessary to market the fruit and nuts produced are breeding a new culture of self-sufficiency in the region.