Economics of Land Degradation in Central Asia.

Abstract

The annual costs of land degradation in Central Asia through land use and cover change (LUCC) accounted for 6 billion USD between 2001 and 2009. These costs were mainly caused by rangeland degradation (4.6 billion USD), followed by desertification (0.8 bln USD), deforestation (0.3 billion USD) and abandonment of croplands (0.1 billion USD). The costs of action are about 53 bil-lion USD calculated over a 30-year horizon. The resulting losses, if nothing is done, may equal almost 288 billion USD during the same period. Thus, every dollar invested into land restoration may return about 5 USD in Net Present Value during this period. Better access to markets, extension services, secure land tenure, and live-stock ownership among smallholder crop producers are the major drivers of sustainable land management.

Full text

ZEF
Policy Brief No. 19
Economics of Land Degradation
in Central Asia
by Alisher Mirzabaev, Jann Goedecke, Olena Dubovyk,
Utkur Djanibekov, Quang Bao Le and Aden Aw-Hassan
Edited by Rebecka Ridder and Alma van der Veen
October 2015
Zentrum für Entwicklungsforschung
Center for Development Research
University of Bonn

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ZEF Policy Brief No. 19
MAIN FINDINGS
1. The annual costs of land degradation
in Central Asia through land use and
cover change (LUCC) accounted for 6
billion USD between 2001 and 2009.
These costs were mainly caused by
rangeland degradation (4.6 billion
USD), followed by desertification (0.8
bln USD), deforestation (0.3 billion
USD) and abandonment of croplands
(0.1 billion USD).
2. The costs of action are about 53 bil-
lion USD calculated over a 30-year
horizon. The resulting losses, if noth-
ing is done, may equal almost 288
billion USD during the same period.
Thus, every dollar invested into land
restoration may return about 5 USD
in Net Present Value during this peri-
od.
3. Better access to markets, extension
services, secure land tenure, and live-
stock ownership among smallholder
crop producers are the major drivers
of sustainable land management.
Introduction
Central Asia is strongly affected by
land degradation. This has negative
consequences on crop and livestock
productivity, agricultural incomes, and
rural livelihoods. The land degradation
hotspots are concentrated in the north
of Kazakhstan, and stretch over Eastern
Kazakhstan to the southern part of Central
Asia, covering Kyrgyzstan, the north-west
of Tajikistan and the southern parts of
Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan (Figure 1).
The major types of land degradation are:
- Secondary salinization in the irriga-
ted lands.
- Soil erosion in the rainfed and moun-
tainous areas.
- Loss of vegetation, desertification or
detrimental change in the vegetati-
on composition of rangelands.
Drivers of degradation
The major drivers of land degradation
in the region include: unsustainable
agricultural practices; the expansion
of crop production to marginal areas;
inadequate maintenance of irrigation
and drainage networks; and overgrazing
practices near settlements.
Study methods and data
In this study the Total Economic Value
(TEV) framework was applied. The
TEV framework accounts for the total
losses of all ecosystem services due
to land degradation, both provisional
(ex, declines in crop yields due to land
degradation) and non-provisional (ex,
lower carbon sequestration in the soils
Figure 1: Land
degradation hotspots
in Central Asia (in red),
a negative change in NDVI
between 1982-84 and 2006.
Source: adapted from Le et al.
(2014).

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ZEF Policy Brief No. 19
due to land degradation). The study is
based on remotely sensed satellite data
on the extent of land use and land
cover changes (LUCC) in Central Asia
between 2001 and 2009. The drivers
of sustainable land management have
been analyzed using data derived from
household surveys in Central Asia.
Drivers consist of biophysical factors
(e.g. climate conditions, agro-ecological
zones), institutional factors (e.g. market
access, land tenure), access to rural
services (e.g. access to extension) and
other household characteristics.
Results
Over the last ten years, Central Asia has
experienced a wide range of changes in
land use and land cover:
- Abandonment of formerly rainfed
croplands in Kazakhstan.
- Continuing desiccation of the Aral
Sea.
- Conversion of barren lands into other
land covers (e.g. shrublands and gras-
slands).
- Increase in forest areas across the
region, especially in Kazakhstan.
Economic impacts of land
degradation
The total annual costs of land degradation
due to land use/cover change only (i.e.
without the costs of land degradation
due to lower soil and land productivity
within the same land use), were about
5.85 billion USD between 2001 and 2009.
Most of these costs, about 4.6 billion
USD, are related to land use changes that
lead to soil erosion or desertification.
Yet, land improvement is an ongoing
process in the region. This includes the
transition from low productive croplands
to grasslands in northern Kazakhstan.
This finding contradicts other results that
highlight widespread land degradation in
the area. A possible explanation for this is
that even though the value of provisional
services of these lands may have declined
(no more grain harvests), the total value
of ecosystem services provided by these
areas in northern Kazakhstan may have
actually increased after conversion from
croplands to rangelands/woodlands (ex,
higher carbon sequestration).
Cost of action to address land
degradation
The results show that the costs of action
against land degradation are lower than
the costs of inaction in Central Asia by
more than five times: The costs of action
were found to equal about 53 billion
USD, whereas if nothing is done, the
resulting losses may equal almost 288
billion USD during the same period.
Drivers of Sustainable Land
Management (SLM)
About 39% of the surveyed households
in the region do not use any SLM
technology, while the remaining 61%
use at least one method.
Table 1: The costs of land degradation in Central Asia through land use and cover change.
Source: Authors’ calculations using MODIS and TEEB datasets.
Country Annual cost of land
degradaon in 2009,
in current billion USD
Annual cost of land
degradaon per
capita, in USD
GDP in 2009,
in current
billion USD
The cost of land de-
gradaon as a share
of GDP (in percent)
Kazakhstan 3.06 1782 115 3%
Kyrgyzstan 0.55 822 5 11%
Tajikistan 0.50 609 5 10%
Turkmenistan 0.87 1083 20 4%
Uzbekistan 0.83 237 33 3%
Total 5.85 769 178 3%

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ZEF Policy Brief No. 19
IMPRINT
Among the most frequently used
practices are integrated soil fertility
management, with varying levels
of fertilizers and manure; and more
efficient irrigation techniques such as
drip irrigation. Factors that positively
affect SLM adoption are: better access
to markets and extension services,
learning about SLM from other farmers,
private land tenure among smallholder
farmers, livestock ownership among
crop producers, smaller household sizes
and lower dependency ratios. In general,
it seems that households are more likely
to adopt SLM practices when they live in
areas with higher land degradation.
Conclusions
We find that dissemination of sustainable
land management practices and better
access to extension services, markets and
credit are crucial factors to address land
degradation in Central Asia. The annual
costs of land degradation due to land use
change are about 5.85 billion USD, most of
which caused by rangeland degradation,
desertification, deforestation and the
abandonment of croplands. The costs
of actions to address land degradation
are substantially lower than the costs of
inaction. In fact, every dollar invested
into land restoration could yield about
five dollars in returns in net present
value over a 30-year period.
References
1 Gupta, R., K. Kienzler, A. Mirzabaev, C. Marus, E. de
Pauw, K. Shideed, T. Oweis, R. Thomas, M. Qadir, K. Sayre, C.
Carli, A. Saparov, M. Bekenov, S. Sanginov, M. Nepesov, and R.
Ikramov (2009). Research Prospectus: A Vision for Sustainable
Land Management Research in Central Asia. ICARDA Central
Asia and Caucasus Program. Sustainable Agriculture in Central
Asia and the Caucasus Series No.1. CGIAR-PFU, Tashkent,
Uzbekistan. 84 pp.
2 Friedl, M. A., Sulla-Menashe, D., Tan, B., Schneider,
A., Ramankuy, N., Sibley, A., & Huang, X. (2010). MODIS
Collecon 5 global land cover: Algorithm renements
and characterizaon of new datasets. Remote Sensing of
Environment, 114(1), 168-182.
3 Bai Z.G., Dent D.L., Olsson L. and Schaepman M.E. (2008).
Global assessment of land degradaon and improvement 1:
idencaon by remote sensing. Report 2008/01, FAO/ISRIC
– Rome/Wageningen.
4 Le, Q. B., Nkonya, E., & Mirzabaev, A. (2014). Biomass
Producvity-Based Mapping of Global Land Degradaon
Hotspots. ZEF-Discussion Papers on Development Policy,
(193). Bonn, Germany.
Country Annual
TEV
cost of
land
degra-
daon
(2009)
Annual
provisio-
nal cost
of land
degra-
daon
(2009)
Cost
of ac-
on
(6
ye-
ars)
Cost of
acon
(30
years)
Cost
of
inac-
on
(6
years)
Cost
of
inac-
on
(30
ye-
ars)
Rao
cost of
inac-
on/
acon
Kazakhstan 24 11 22 22 102 138 6
Kyrgyzstan 4 2 6 6 22 29 5
Tajikistan 4 2 4 4 17 24 6
Turkme-
nistan
7 3 10 10 35 48 5
Uzbekistan 7 3 11 11 36 49 5
Central Asia 47 20 53 53 213 288 6
Table 2: Costs of action vs inaction in Central Asia (in billion USD).
Figure 2: Spatial
distribution of SLM
adoption. Note: the hotspots
of land degradation have blue
colors. Source: authors' assessment
based on the survey.
Publisher:
Zentrum für Entwicklungsforschung (ZEF)
Center for Development Research
Walter-Flex-Strasse 3, 53113 Bonn
Germany
phone: +49-228-73-1846
e-mail: presse. zef@uni-bonn.de
www.zef.de
Contact: Oliver K. Kirui, ZEF, okirui@uni-bonn.de
Editors: Rebecka Ridder and Alma van der Veen
Layout: Katharina Zinn