According to UNOCHA, Tajikistan is the most disaster prone country amidst the Central Asian Republics. Up to 93% of land is mountainous. 70% of the population is living in rural areas where farming and livestock are the main sources of income. Widespread poverty forces more than 1 million Tajiks to labour migration, sending back remittances (about 40% of the country’s GDP). The eastern province of the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region (GBAO) has limited land available for agriculture and forestry. Coupled with a growing population, people are forced to expand their settlements in hazard areas and farm activities onto sloping lands. Pasture management for improving livestock is not well-developed, as farmers lack knowledge on fodder production, rotational grazing and livestock development. Communities lack the environmental consciousness, legal awareness, analytical skills and technical support to develop Sustainable Land Management (SLM) plans.

Communities in Khorog town, Shugnan and Roshtqala districts of GBAO have improved resilience to disasters through reduced vulnerability and increased livelihood opportunities.

The project will cover the town of Khorog and Shugnan and Roshtqala districts and will reach a total population of 50’000:

• Community Based Organizations (CBO) Pasture User Groups, Land Use Committees, IGA groups;
• Local authorities will undergo training and capacity building on DRR and pasture, livestock and land use planning
• Staff of specialized agencies on applying GIS tools and management of the Spatial Data Infrastructure

Two main objectives:

• Communities and government authorities apply enhanced land use planning and adopt sustainable pasture, livestock and natural resources management for effective risk reduction
• Local communities have access to and make use of livelihood oppor-tunities and hazard risk reduction solutions for increased resilience to natural disasters

Risultati principali attesi:  

• Land Use Plans (LUP) (6) and Pasture and Livestock Management Plan’s (PLMP) (6) are developed and under implementation in (6) target clusters;
• Specialized trainings for (4) local specialists on GIS, remote sensing, flood modelling, and hazard risk mitigation and GIS-based land use maps developed (6);
• Community capacity on LUP and PLMP is built; NRM (20), IGA (15), and mitigation projects (21) are implemented;
• Summer university is conducted with the University of Central Asia (UCA/MSRI) and University of Bern (UNIBE) (2);
• National level roundtables conducted to share project lessons and challenges for policy level intervention (3).

Risultati fasi precedenti:  

Switzerland has funded three phases of the project in 2009-10, 2011-13 (co-funded by DFID) and 2013-2015 (co-funded by JICA and US Gov’t), totaling 5.05 mln CHF. During project phases I/II, some 200 existing remote hazards were assessed and inventoried; 49 communities are better prepared to possible flash floods and glacial lake outbursts. Under phase III a more integrated approach was selected, including both local and remote hazards for a better risk informed development. Today, 90 villages in Shugnan and Roshkala valleys, covering about 75’000 people, are better protected from natural disasters due to 49 structural mitigation and natural resources management projects implemented, 10 functioning Early Warning Systems, 2 new medical stockpiles placed in strategic locations and 20 Community Emergency Response Teams retrained. The 90 villages take decisions based on their Village Development Plans which include DRR elements and local authorities in 9 Districts apply hazard risk maps in development planning. 60 families have increased income due to new business such as bakeries, carpenter’s shop or food processing and marketing. To ensure sustainability of the results, the new phase as part of the interventions’ exit strategy, will apply a holistic cluster approach. The focus will be on empowerment of the local communities/actors/authorities beyond administrative boundaries in sub-watersheds to conduct advanced risk assessments linked with designing and implementing sustainable land, pasture and livestock management planning for increased resilience to natural disasters.

Committee of Emergency Situations, Head Department of Geology, GBAO provincial and district authorities, CBOs, UCA/MSRI and UNIBE

Close collaboration with other SDC-funded DRR Program partners (UNDP, Caritas Switzerland and Helvetas Consortium) as well as with other Swiss (SDC and SECO) - and other donor funded projects in the project area.

Fase 4 01.08.2016 - 31.03.2020   (Completed)