Sustainable Land Management

The proposed tasks and activities for this component will focus on the development and implementation of innovative approaches to sustainable land management, involving community-based land use planning. Field level activities will be directed at assessing the degradation status of the ecosystem resources of individual sub-district units (SDUs) , and then assisting each one to plan and implement a series of sustainable land management micro-projects with the potential to not only combat land degradation but also raise rural household incomes and alleviate poverty.

The project will provide direct technical and financial support to each SDU for a maximum period of three years. This will cover the participatory planning process in year 1 (component 3.1) and the implementation of some of the key micro-projects and other components of the plan in years 2&3 (component 3.2). Thereafter the communities will have been sufficiently empowered to enable them to seek further technical and financial support from other local, national and international level sources. After the three year active involvement period, continuing project support will primarily be in the form of technical advice, and if required acting as a facilitator to help link communities with other sources of support.

In the first year of project implementation participatory land use planning will be undertaken in the eight 'pilot' sites identified and studied during the PDF-B phase . In the second year the project will begin scaling up activities by replicating the participatory land use planning and micro-project formulation process in a further eight SDUs. An additional eight SDUs will be added in each subsequent year, in line with the agreed prioritisation schedule set out in the regional trans-boundary strategy and action plan (component 1.1). In order to ensure that each participating SDU receives three years of project support the final set of land use planning exercises will be initiated in year six.

Output 3.1: A minimum of 48 SDUs with their own land use plan for the improved management of their local ecosystem resources, and functioning community-based civil society organizations engaging in the planning and implementation of field level sustainable land management activities.

Output 3.2: A minimum of 48 SDUs addressing ecosystem degradation and rural poverty through implementing innovative field level sustainable land management practices, and related micro-projects.

Output 3.3: The commercial value of conserving the unique landscape and biodiversity resources of the High Pamir and Pamir-Alai Mountains realised through development of the area's potential for environmentally sensitive tourism, with the costs and benefits shared equitably with the local communities.


TJ	KG	GEF	UNEP	UNU

Developed by UNU-C3 (Campus Computing Centre)