Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, June 20
By Huseyn Hasanov – Trend:
Deserts occupy 80 percent of the territory of Turkmenistan, and both cultivated and uncultivated lands are subject to various degrees of desertification, the Neutral Turkmenistan newspaper reported June 20.
The National Institute of Desert, Flora and Fauna of the State Committee of Turkmenistan for Environmental Protection and Land Resources is addressing these issues in the country.
Aman Babaev, leading research fellow at the institute, said in an interview with the Neutral Turkmenistan that desertification is aggravated by natural factors – mudflows, dust storms, fluctuations of the level of the Caspian and Aral seas.
Turkmenistan was one of the first countries to ratify the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification in 1996, starting a year later to implement a national action plan.
Rational use of pastures, forestry development, afforestation, and improvement of irrigated lands are among the main aspects of this action plan.
When monitoring desertification processes, special attention is paid to a region bordering the Aral Sea.