Technical Note: Pasture Condition Maps in Kyrgyzstan

A large part of Kyrgyzstan’s land area serves as pasture for its 1.7 million cattle and 6.3 million sheep and goats. Many pastures are subject to degradation caused by overgrazing and exacerbated by climate change. Statistics on pasture conditions at country level are outdated. 

This technical note presents a study that compared the average pasture conditions of the periods of 2000–2004 and 2016–2020 in Kyrgyzstan using remote sensing imagery. The note presents the maps and statistics, and explains how pasture conditions in Kyrgyzstan were assessed. The results show that large areas of pasture were degraded between the start of the century and 2016–20. The maps have been used to inform climate policy. IFAD-funded projects and other donor or state-funded programmes can use the maps to identify priority areas for pasture rehabilitation.

Read the Technical Note on IFAD website, where it was originally published.