On Sept 30th, 2019, almost 15 German and Kyrgyz stakeholders came together in the small town of Naryn, Kyrgyzstan, to mark the official start of the CLIENT II project "ÖkoFlussPlan". The German Federal Ministry of Education and Research supports the three-year project with 860'000 €. Monika Iwersen, German ambassador to the Kyrgyz Republic, also attended the event following an earlier discussion about the current state of the funding measure CLIENT II with special focus on the commencing project "ÖkoFlussPlan" and the chances for local educational, research, and planning institutions that go along with it. By developing sustainable forms of land use, the project intends to meet the needs and allow for economic growth of the local community while also taking into account the vulnerability of sites that are especially worth protecting. Remarkable was also the high number of local attendents.
Background of the transnational and interdisciplinary project: The floodplain forests along the river Naryn in Kyrgyzstan are currently still in a largely undisturbed condition. A natural drainage regime ensures both high dynamics and high biodiversity. For the local population, the alluvial forests provide important ecosystem services such as fuelwood, areas for livestock grazing, recreational spaces, and protection against erosion. Human use of the forests for wood and grazing, however, threatens their future existence. In addition, plans for a barrage hydropower cascade on the upper course of the river further jeopardise the ecosystem's natural dynamics and biodiversity. The result are conflicting goals: a secured supply of energy for the local population and the country's economic development through promotion of hydropower on one hand, preservation of naturally diverse ecosystems with their valuable services on the other.
In order to reduce the present anthropogenic pressure on these forests, the intention is to provide the local population with alternatives for sustainable logging in the form of short rotation coppices. This measure is complemented by the introduction of modern technologies for renewable energy generation and a kind of energy use that is more efficient as a whole. Environmental education, capacity building, and different forms of stakeholder dialogue will also be involved.
The workshop began with introductory welcome adresses by the German embassy, the rector of Naryn State University, the project management agency, the project coordinator, the Kyrgyz State Agency for Environment Protection and Forestry, and CASIB. The following session focused on the objectives and implementation of the project, including insights into the individual work packages (hydrology, GIS and remote sensing, ecology, and renewable energies as well as environmental education, capacity building, and stakeholder dialogue). Later in the day, the participants visited the forest administration agency of the oblast Naryn and a nearby community. The second day was dedicated to a joint excursion to selected sites of investigation.
These research activities on alluvial ecosystems result in data that serves as the base of further monitoring and scientific investigations and will prove indispensable for future environmental management with regard to the planned dams. Besides training scientists for the duration of the project, a network will develop that can stay in place long after the project terminates. In addition, the local agencies will receive recommendations for long-term drainage management to be equipped and adaptable in the face of future changes. The knowledge that is gained through this project can, moreover, be helpful in acquiring a better understanding of the natural dynamics of large rivers and come in useful when assessing their protection and opportunities for renaturalisation in Europe, too.
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