The aim of this report is to describe and analyse the economic and business aspects of agroforestry implementation in Uzbekistan. This information is presented with the goal of enabling the development of detailed and specific suggestions for land use contract development. First, the report presents an in-depth literature review of studies that have examined the economic structure and viability of agroforestry and other agricultural practices in the region. Specifically, this review focuses on developing a nuanced understanding of relevant business structures, economic relationships between various land users and local forestry officials, and existing co-management agreements and contracts that affect the economic viability of land use activities. Current employment structure and land tenure conditions are also examined. Second, the report presents the findings of several field visits to pilot sites in Uzbekistan. These field trips were organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and carried out by national experts Sirojiddin Eshmatov and Sobir Azizov. Based on interviews and visits to farmers, the study team collected information about the current economic situation of smallholder farmers and other land users. These visits aimed in part to understand the specific economic and business considerations faced by agroforestry practitioners or interested land users in the pilot sites. Together, the two components form the empirical basis for a set of specific recommendations for land users and policymakers interested in developing agroforestry as an economically viable activity in the context of agriculture in Uzbekistan.

This is a literature review on land use and integrated land use management systems in Uzbekistan. The review aims to synthesize and examine the state of knowledge and the scope for establishing various integrated resource and land use management strategies such as types of agroforestry systems and integrated pastoral management for the sustainable management of forest and agricultural resources in Uzbekistan. The review also aims to explore land use governance in Uzbekistan, delving into the governance structures, formal and informal institutions, their transformations, and path dependencies that shape the post-socialist realities for Uzbekistan. The report reflects upon the land use governance and management practiсes in Uzbekistan against the key principles and suggestions made in the international academic literature on integrated land use systems and governance in semi-arid regions. Drawing on the experiences made in two pilot sites in Uzbekistan (Bukhara and Navoi) with co-management regimes around livestock herding and agricultural use in forest areas, the report seeks to elaborate governance guidelines and recommendations tailored to the specificities and socioeconomic and ecological challenges of the two pilot regions.

- Foreword and acknowledgements - Executive summary - Spatial and land-use planning systems across the OECD - Australia - Austria - Belgium - Canada - Chile - Czech Republic - Denmark - Estonia - Finland - France - Germany - Greece - Hungary - Ireland - Israel - Italy - Japan - Korea - Mexico - Netherlands - New Zealand - Norway - Poland - Portugal - Slovak Republic - Slovenia - Spain - Sweden - Switzerland - Turkey - United Kingdom - United States - Bibliography

Greater Central Asia encompasses a vast area that includes deserts, natural grasslands, steppes, shrublands and alpine regions. Many of these land types are degraded and productivity is falling at a time when human populations and livestock inventories are on the rise. Ecosystem stability and biodiversity are under threat and there is an urgent need to develop more sustainable land management regimes. This book uses an integrated regional approach to provide a comprehensive exploration of sustainable land development in Central Asia. An interdisciplinary team of experts analyses the economic, ecological, sociological, technological and political factors surrounding sustainable land and water management in the region, sharing potential problems and solutions. As international concern about desertification grows, the book concludes by asking how the region is likely to develop in the future. This book will be of value to scholars, students, policy makers and NGOs with an interest in sustainable development in Central Asia.

This report aims to highlight the current strengths of the institutional disaster risk reduction (DRR) system for agriculture in Uzbekistan as well as indicate existing gaps and capacity needs to further enhance it. A comprehensive assessment is conducted, which includes a general overview of the country’s agricultural sector and outlines the most frequent natural hazards that are impacting the sector. It is followed by an analysis of the existing legal, policy and institutional structure and discusses various components of the system, including the functioning of early warning systems, assessments of disaster risks, post-disaster needs assessments, including damages and losses assessments and the availability of agricultural insurance for farmers. It concludes by providing recommendations for capacity building interventions to strengthen the current system to reduce the adverse impacts of natural hazards, in particular, floods, landslides and droughts, and climate change on agriculture in Uzbekistan.

This book reviews the concept, contemporary research efforts and the implementation of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM). The IWRM concept was established as an international guiding water management paradigm in the early 1990ies and has become a vital approach to solving the problems associated with the topic of water. The book summarizes fourteen comprehensive IWRM research projects with worldwide coverage and analyses their motivations, settings, approaches and implementation of results. Aiming to be an up-to-date interdisciplinary scientific reference, this book provides a comprehensive theoretical and empirical analysis of contemporary IWRM research, examples of science based implementations and a synthesis of the lessons learnt. It concludes with some major future challenges, the solving of which will further strengthen the IWRM concept.

This publication is a product of the GEF-funded FAO project ‘Decision Support for Mainstreaming and Scaling Out Sustainable Land Management (DS-SLM)’ which has developed a decision support framework (DSF). The DSF integrates experience from work with land degradation (LD) and SLM into an overall strategy for mainstreaming and scaling out SLM at different spatial and temporal scales. This publication serves as a step-by-step guide for the application and implementation of the DSF during planning, design and implementation of SLM interventions. It includes elements – both in its modules and proposed tools and methods – which can support countries in pursuing land degradation neutrality (LDN).