Azerbaijan, Baku, May 15 / Trend K. Zarbaliyeva /
The Azerbaijani Ministry of Ecology jointly with the UN Development Programme (UNDP) will launch a project for sustainable management of winter and summer pastures, and forestry, Ecology Minister Huseyngulu Bagirov said at a press conference on Saturday.
He said that about 11 percent of land belongs to the forest fund, 56 percent - to the State Land Fund in Azerbaijan. These territories are given to farmers on the basis of lease contracts.
He said that raising livestock, farmers engaged in sheep and cattle are subjected to land degradation.
He said that there are more than eight million heads of sheep and more than three million heads of cattle in Azerbaijan. The number of sheep and cattle per one hectare is much higher than the permissible norm. So, more than 40 heads fall to Goygol region per hectare, in Goranboy - more than 16, in Beylagan - 15, Samukh - 13, he said.
"According to the standards adopted during the Soviet period, one or two sheep fall to 1 hectare, and in the mountains - two or three. Upon these standards, excluding the occupied lands, it is possible to pasture 1.9 million on Azerbaijani winter pastures, 2.8 million heads of sheep on summer ones, " minister said.
UNDP intends to apply to the Global Environment Facility to finance the project, Acting Resident Coordinator of UN Development Program Nura Khamlachi said. The project will be implemented in several regions next year. In case of achieving positive results, the project will be implemented in other parts of the country.
Farmers, dealing with cattle-breeding and sheep-breeding, should support to execute the project, Khamlachi said. The purpose of the program is to achieve sustainable forest management, summer and winter pastures to prevent soil degradation due to excessive use of agricultural land.
UNDP implements programs to prevent land degradation in 45 world countries.
The Azerbaijani side will be provided with the necessary equipment for the project, the project expert Jeffrey Grifin said.
"The project will help to preserve and renew the purity of natural pastures and forests, prevent the excessive use of pastures and soil erosion, expert said.