In the Information Center of the State Nature Reserve "Bereketli Garagum" in Ahal velayat, a seminar was held on the topic "Methods for sustainable management of desert pastures in the context of increased drought and desertification processes in the Central Karakum".
According to the publication "Turkmenistan: The Golden Age", the training was held to strengthen the knowledge and skills of the members of the Farmer Field Schools in the field of advanced technologies and sustainable management of desert pastures by methods of combined fixation of shifting sands in the Central Karakum Desert.
The seminar was attended by employees of the National Institute of Deserts, Flora and Fauna, specialists from the Bereketli Garagum and Kopetdag State Natural Reserves, members of farmers' field schools, and representatives of local communities.
The event was held within the framework of the GEF / FAO project "Integrated natural resource management in drought-prone and saline landscapes of agricultural production in Central Asia and Turkey" ("CACILM-2").
The seminar continued to train representatives of local communities in the pilot areas of the project on the methods of complex fixation of dune sands and the technologies for planting and growing various types of plants on sandy soils - such as saxaul, sand locust, Caspian willow for their further application in practice.
The speakers of the seminar made presentations on the topics: “The state of biodiversity of the Kopetdag State Reserve”, “Methods for sustainable management of desert pastures based on technologies for the combined fixation of dune sands in the Central Karakum”, “Providing the necessary information and advice to local pasture users and farmers on the optimal timing of planting, collecting seeds, watering plants, etc.
in the desert zone of Karakum”, “The need for the participation of local communities in sustainable land management (SLM) in the Dashoguz region”.