Forests and Rural Livelihood in the Kyrgyz Republic - Development Potentials

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Activity Type: 
Activities Related to Forest Livelihoods

CHALLENGE

What are the structural and institutional constraints to generating income from Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFPs) and ensuring the benefits accrue to poor rural communities in the Kyrgyz Republic?

More than 35% of Kyrgyz Republic’s population lives below the poverty line. And the poorer, more isolated rural communities tend to rely on forests as a source of consumables, energy, and to an increasing extent, income-generating produce.  This is especially true for the villagers who live on the periphery of walnut forests who depend on this resource for their daily subsistence and income.

The export potential for NTFPs in the Kyrgyz Republic is inadequately known. But opportunities could be significant.  For example, dry nuts are non-perishable, have a high value per unit of weight, and benefit from marked increase in international demand. 

APPROACH

PROFOR is supporting analysis in this area in collaboration with the World Bank that will concentrate but not be limited to Non Timber Forest Products (NTFPs) in the Kyrgyz Republic, and will provide a stronger factual base for the growing debate in the country concerning forest management. 

The findings will help inform implementation of government and donor interventions to improve forest management, and will focus on the relationships between State Forest Enterprises inherited from the Soviet era (lezkozes) and local villagers in harvesting timber and NTFPs.  It will also focus on revealing problems in the value chain, including the organizational aspects of mobilizing labor and necessary financing, from collection to delivery to market in order to understand their underlying causes. 

The formulation of specific recommendations for overcoming problems should help increase the benefits that forests produce for communities relying on NTFPs for livelihood to improve their share in the overall income generated. 

MAIN FINDINGS

This activity is ongoing. Findings will be shared on this page when they become available. You can also follow us on twitter (twitter.com/forestideas) or subscribe to our mailing list for regular updates.

Last updated 06/09/2009