National Action Plan of the Republic of Tajikistan to combat desertification.

National Action Plan of the Republic of Tajikistan to combat desertification is a national cross-sectoral program. Its main objectives shall be set forth as follows: (a) establishment of an information system on desertification issues, including data collection and processing; (b) monitoring of desertification process; (c) mapping of desertification process; (d) strengthening the role of the local population, non-governmental organizations, including women's organizations to combat desertification; (e) improvement of legal framework on nature management; (f) organization of stationary methods of monitoring the desertification process; (g) distant exploration of desertification; (h) zoning of the national territory by degree of soil degradation; and (i) development of recommendations and proposals for sustainable land tenure.
The objectives shall be achieved through implementation of a series of pilot projects: (a) Pamir foothill region (combating desertification in mountainous areas through the effective use of local renewable energy sources); (b) preservation and expansion of forest areas (forest ecosystem conservation, conservation of biodiversity, restoration of degraded unique and typical mountain ecosystems, promotion and stimulation of traditional community forest management); (c) improvement of environmental conditions in the irrigated land area to improve living standards of the population (drainage and land reclamation works, prevention of soil erosion and landslides); (d) preservation of biodiversity in the high mountain conditions of Tajikistan (conservation of a unique alpine system and creation of additional pastures, increase of animal feedstuffs); and (e) creation of year-round pastures in desertification zones (improvement of deflated pastureland, transfer of seasonal pastures into the category year-round pastures with a view of conservation of unique biological diversity and increase of wild fauna species per unit area).