In Samarkand, blue is everywhere: on the tiled domes, in the sharp June sky and in the turquoise shirts of the Silk Road Caravan team. But in Central Asia, blue is more than a color. It is water — scarce, unevenly shared and essential across a region where more than 80 per cent of the land is deserts and steppes, and where drought affects over 26 million people.
Samarkand, historically crossroads of trade and ideas, became the Caravan’s gateway to Central Asia — a region where land degradation, drought and water scarcity increasingly shape livelihoods and landscapes.
Across Central Asia, at least 20 per cent of land is degraded and around 80 per cent is used for pastoralism, making rangeland health central to food security, livelihoods and resilience. This June, as it hosted the Eighth Assembly of the Global Environment Facility, Samarkand became another kind of meeting point: a place where debates on drought, rangelands and land restoration connected directly to the realities on the ground — in pastures, pistachio plantations, tugai forests, plant nurseries and university labs. At the official Caravan welcome, Aziz Abdukhakimov, Advisor to the President of Uzbekistan on environmental issues and Chair of the National Committee on Ecology and Climate Change, placed the journey in the longer history of the Silk Road. The Caravan revives the spirit of friendship, cooperation and shared responsibility for our land and environment, he noted.
These realities shaped the discussions at the GEF Assembly, where the NCCD brought attention to drought finance, rangelands and pastoralist livelihoods — issues that define much of Central Asia’s environmental future. One of the most relevant announcements for Uzbekistan was the launch of “Carbon Farming for Climate Resilience and Sustainable Land Management in Uzbekistan,” a three-year initiative supported by the Russian Federation and implemented by the UNCCD Global Mechanism. The project will test carbon farming practices to support land degradation neutrality, climate resilience and improved soil health, while establishing baseline data across 5,000 hectares and engaging 1,000 smallholder farmers, pastoralists and foresters
The urgency is clear: more than 152 million hectares of land in Central Asia are currently under drought, affecting over half of the region’s population. The Assembly also brought concrete investment opportunities to Uzbekistan and the wider region. Ahead of the Samarkand meeting, approval was announced for USD 5.4 million for the regional “Mountain Ecosystems of Central Asia” project, to be implemented with the World Bank, along with the launch of the USD 26 million “Central Asia Water and Land Nexus” regional programme. These investments were part of a broader financing landscape: under GEF-8,
USD 618 million has been allocated to land degradation, a 30 per cent increase over GEF-7. For Uzbekistan, those global priorities are already visible in national policy.
Through Yashil Makon, the President’s national greening initiative, the country aims to plant 200 million trees and shrubs every year and increase green areas by 2030. Erkin Mukhitdinov, Director of Uzbekistan’s Agency for the Expansion of Forests and Green Zones and Combating Desertification, described the scale of the ambition clearly: “ Our goal is to increase the share of green areas in Uzbekistan to 30 per cent by 2030, up from 15 per cent today,”. We understand that it will be more difficult to achieve this alone, so we are engaging international organizations in this work.”
Amankutan: pasture as a living calendar
At Amankutan, in Samarkand Region, the Caravan visited pastures where recovery is being managed through seasonal grazing, species selection and tighter control of access.
At the Bahri section of the Urgut forestry enterprise, the land covers about 1,600 hectares. Around 700 hectares fall within the forest contour and the rest is used as pasture. The challenge was familiar across Central Asia: excessive grazing pressure, thinning vegetation and soils losing their capacity to retain water.
The work here is gradual. Almond trees and fodder grasses are planted in dry areas where they can survive with little water. Some places are rested for three or four years before livestock returns. Higher mountain pastures are reserved for seasonal grazing. Gates, cameras and forestry staff help control access, so animals from outside do not compromise the recovery work.
Small earth ridges and terraces slow rain and melting snow, keeping moisture near young trees — a practical method rooted in older land management traditions. The species are chosen for the site: almond, acacia, elm and other hardy trees with deep roots and low water needs.
The mobile apiaries make the link between recovery and livelihood especially clear. They move where flowering plants are more abundant. Bees pollinate grasses, shrubs and trees, helping vegetation regenerate. Honey sales bring income back into the forestry enterprise.
For the Caravan participant Harouna Abarchi, a pastoralist from Niger, president of the A2N herders’ association and IYRP focal point for West and Central Africa, the common ground between the Sahel and Central Asia was apparent. The lesson, he said, was not to copy models but adapt what works. “ “What I saw here — selecting plants adapted to specific places and planting them where they are needed — is an experience we can share at home,” he said.. “What I saw here — selecting plants adapted to specific places and planting them where they are needed — is an experience we can share at home, using plants adapted to our own context.”
Saraikurgan: the long economics of pistachio
In Saraikurgan, in Nurabad District, restoration takes the form of a tree that asks for patience before it gives back. Here, the project is working with degraded and low-productivity pasturelands: places with little grass, damaged vegetation and former routes of uncontrolled grazing. Now they are being prepared for pistachio plantations.
The scale reflects a wider regional push to restore degraded land while creating long-term rural income: 50,000 hectares of pistachio plantations in Nurabad District by 2036. The area already has several thousand hectares of pistachio plantations, building on decades of cultivation. The project is now being expanded with state support, drip irrigation and local labor.
Pistachio fits this landscape because it tolerates poor soils and extreme temperatures while remaining productive for decades. The social design is just as important. Before the trees begin producing, local residents are hired to dig planting pits, care for seedlings and maintain the plantations. Once the plantations mature, five-hectare plots will be leased to lower-income families so they can earn from the harvest. After eight years, a tree may yield about four kilograms per season, equivalent to around one ton per hectare, and around 10 kilograms after 12 years. The expected income was described as roughly USD 50,000, with about USD 10,000 needed for maintenance.
This makes the pistachio project more than tree planting. It is restoration designed as an economic system — turning degraded land into a productive asset while reducing pressure on surrounding rangelands. It is a poverty reduction model built around a slow crop. In principle, if 50,000 hectares were divided into five-hectare plots, the project could eventually support around 10,000 families. The land is being turned into an asset that can outlive the first generation of work.
Zarafshan: the forest follows the river
From the exposed hills, the road wound toward the cooler banks of the Zarafshan River.
Zarafshan National Nature Park protects one of Uzbekistan’s remaining tugai landscapes: riverine forests that survive along watercourses in arid regions. These forests are among Central Asia’s most valuable dryland ecosystems. In a region increasingly affected by water stress, such riverine ecosystems act as natural buffers against erosion, heat and biodiversity loss.
They hold riverbanks, soften wind erosion, cool the air and shelter wildlife, including the Bukhara deer.
Beyond the trees are heat, dust and open land; beneath the canopy are shade, birdsong and the dense green life of a river corridor — infrastructure made of roots, moisture and habitat.
For Zarafshan, conservation also reaches beyond the park boundary. Staff described outreach in local schools, work with artists who use natural materials and sell their art in the park and ecotourism in nearby villages. They give farming and village communities around the park a visible stake in the forest’s future. Conservation is more durable when it has friendly neighbors.
Arnasay: learning to live with salt
In Jizzakh Region, the Caravan encountered a different kind of resilience at the Halophyte Garden in Arnasay District.
Halophytes are plants adapted to saline soils and water-stressed environments. Salinization remains one of the most visible forms of land degradation across Central Asia, alongside erosion and declining productivity. That makes them especially important in a country where many irrigated landscapes are affected by salinization. Uzbekistan’s salt-affected soils reflect the natural realities of farming in an arid climate, the movement of groundwater and minerals, drainage problems and the legacy of large-scale irrigation, including the long dominance of cotton in water use.
The halophyte garden serves as a living laboratory to test and propagate salt-tolerant species that can survive where ordinary crops struggle. Uzbek specialists have identified more than 100 local species for saline and arid landscapes, while cooperation with the Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography in China has expanded testing with dozens of additional varieties.
The garden is both a research site and a practical response to one of the region’s toughest restoration challenges: finding the species that can hold ground under harsher, saltier conditions.
Green University: a school for the dryland century
In Tashkent, the Caravan visited the Central Asian University of Environmental and Climate Change Studies, known as Green University. After days in the field, one conclusion became clear: restoring land at scale will depend as much on knowledge and capacity as on finance.
“Without a new generation of professionals equipped to translate ecological imperatives into financial strategies, even the most sophisticated policy frameworks risk remaining on paper,” said Prof. Bakhtiyor Pulatov, Rector of Central Asia Green University.
Green University treats environmental work as a central profession for Central Asia’s future, linking classrooms to the realities of drought, biodiversity, land restoration and climate finance.
Across the border: the Caravan moves on
From Uzbekistan, the Caravan continued by land to Kazakhstan, where blue appeared again in the national flag and the vast steppe skies. Across the journey, blue became much more than the Caravan’s signature color – it became a symbol for water, resilience and the fragile systems that connect people, pastures and landscapes across the drylands.
