Desertification and sustainable land management: The case of black saxaul planting on the drained bottom of the Aral Sea.

The UN experts suggest that deserts represent the most fragile ecosystems, and therefore, there is a need to develop effective approaches in dealing with the "life on the land" (Sustainable development goal 15). Sustainable land management (SLM) and sowing plants and bushes on the "drained bottom of the Aral Sea" (DBAS) are very important for preventing further desertification/land degradation and reclaiming land. Since 2008, the World Bank has funded a program entitled "Preservation of forests and increasing forest cover within the territory of the Republic of Kazakhstan". Between 2008 and 2014, this program supported planting 79,000 hectares in the DBAS region to prevent further desertification. The program supported two different approaches. One was planting seedlings of black saxaul (47,117 hectares). The second was planting the seeds of black saxaul (7,366 hectares). The purpose of this article is to evaluate the outcomes of saxaul forest planting under the program by evaluating 54,483 hectares of the covered land. First, it provides the background of the Aral Sea disaster and recent development. Second, it analyses the results of four years (2008, 2010-2012) of work on seedlings and seed planting. Third, it introduces the methodology used for this study. Fourth, it evaluates and discusses the results of the study. The main objective of this paper is to provide a scientific analysis of the survival rate of forest crops that depends on the methods used (sowing and planting) over different periods. This research analyses and identifies SLM approaches for increasing the survival rates of saxaul plantings over the years when planting technology remained the same in all plantings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]