Conserving Eden

Participatory forest management in the Tien Shan region of Kyrgyzstan


Armenica vulgaris	View to the Tien Shan mountains	Bishkek Botanical Garden entrance

Kyrgyzstan lies at the heart of the internationally important biodiversity hotspot formed by the mountains of Central Asia. Featuring a variety of land forms, rock types and climatic conditions over a wide altitudinal range, this hotspot is home to an immensly rich diversity of animal and plant life. Especially in the Tien Shan region of the Kyrgyz Republic, broadleaved forests form unique ecosystems predominantly composed of walnut (Juglans regia). In these walnut forests, a number of other fruit and nut bearing trees and shrubs occur, including species of apples, pears, cherries, plums, apricots and almonds. The walnut forests have always been of vital importance to the livelihoods of the peopel living in the region as a source of firewood, timber and food.

The recently published Red List of Trees of Central Asia identifies more than 40 species as globally threatened with extinction, including a number of wild fruit and nut bearing trees and shrubs.

The Project

In a new 3-year project funded by the Darwin initiative, BGCI is working with Kyrgyz scientists and interational experts from Bournemouth University and FFI to strengthen national and local capacity for the participatory management of the walnut tree forests in the Tien Shan region. As part of the project, surveys are being undertaken to assess the distribution of threatened fruit and nut tree species throughout their range in Kyrgyzstan.

Bishkek Botanic Garden

BGCI is working with the Botanic Garden of the National Academy of Sciences of the Kyrgyz Republic in the capital Bishkek to strengthen the conservation collections of wild relatives of cultivated fruit and but trees, and develop the educational and interpretational resources and capacity at the garden. Occupying a total area of some 150 ha, the Botanical Garden at Bishkek holds more than 5,000 taxa. The arboretum contains large areas with fruit tree cultivars, in particular apples and pears, as well as important collections of native and threatened fruit tree and shrub species, such as Malus niedzwetzkyana, Malus sieversii, Armenica vulgaris, Prunus sogdiana, Juglans regia and Vitis usunachmatica.

As part of the project, the central role of the Botanical Garden in environmental education and raising awareness of the need to safeguard the genetic diversity of wild fruit and nut-bearing species will be further enhanced through training and development of interpretation materials and facilities. In a city with more than one million inhabitants, the Botanical Garden offers a tremendous outreach potential and provides an ideal platform to publicise the work of the project, translating research findings into accessible information. As many of the species researched under this project grow in the living collections of the garden, visitors will have the opportunity to see the live plants, while learning about the importance of these species and the threats they face in the wild.

See this work reported in PlantTalk magazine