Change in land use practices

2.6. Change in land use practices

Until the last century, the nomads in Kazakhstan have used the broad areas of grass land especially for extensive pastoralism. Practices of pasture use were determined by nature conditions such as biomass amount to feed by animals and water availability in the steppe.

The amount of fodder in the natural pasture is strongly predicted by climate, especially by 21

precipitation. As annual precipitation in the Kazakh grassland shows a high variability, the livestock also varies following the precipitation variations. Frequent drought years rash reduced the amount of animals. A kazakh term which refers to massive animal death is

“dzhut”, and this is the word that stands for the mean misfortune of the nomadic peoples.

During a “dzhut” various nomadic tribes fought for better pasture land. Because of hunger, dhzut years also reduced the population.

In years with normal or abundant precipitation, the use of grassland pastures was strongly determined by rules which predict migratory routes of herds and the time of migration. Thus, stock wintered in sandy desert pastures (such as Moyinkum or Sary-Esik-Otyrau in the south of Kazakhstan) due to their low snowfall and shrubby vegetation. These areas have dunes, the south slopes of which have a fast snow melt, and provide shelter from storms. The summer stock spent in the steppe and in the semi-desert of mid Kazakhstan (Karaganda oblast). Autumn and spring were spent in Djaylau,- mountain pastures,- along the rivers (Chu river just south of the study area) or in clay deserts (Betpak-dala). This way of pastoralism used the whole complex of the pasture resources and avoided a possible overgrazing and was the best method for a sustainable existence of the population in accordance with the nature conditions. These rules of land use practices were in force during the last thousand years (with the exception of dzhut years).

In Soviet times, the migration of herds was shorter and animals only went as far as mid of Karaganda oblast in the semi-desert zone. This was due to the establishment of new state farms in the region of the former summer pastures and ploughing up wide areas in the steppe zone. On these new farms shorter migration took place, animals moving within the farm boundaries or to designed seasonal pastures nearby. The grazing organization was harshly altered after the 1930s, as the collectivisation had been finished and numerous state farm with a stock of 2,000-60,000 sheep each were created. Many of these farms blocked migratory routes. Pastures which formerly would have been used shortly during migration periods started to be used for a long time. The frequency of pastures change was reduced.

The new form of organisation caused a massive increase of livestock and its production in Kazakhstan and in the study area. The goal of livestock production was to produce maximum meat (or wool) yields per hectare of pasture. Due to winter and summer (in drought years) provision the former major cause of animal death was essentially eliminated.

Animal movements and herd sizes were determined by administrators of state farms. The individual herder had no free choice as to where and how grazing was organized.

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After abolishment of the centrally planned system in 1991, state farms collapsed or were sold to private farmers. The process of privatisation has been accompanied by a considerable reduce of livestock. The livestock amount in mid of 1990s became equal to that in 1900-1910s, the period preceding the collectivisation. In accordance with that change, the grazing practices again sharply altered. Large state farms with a livestock of many thousand sheep each were replaced by a numerous private stock owners, the largest amount of them have no more than 500 sheep. Most of the new private stock owners neglect the old rules of pastures change and do not migratory routes that have been existed before the Soviet period.

The shepherds today tend to graze their animals all year round in the same place nearby the permanent stands for herds. These places are located in the winter or autumn pastures. Only few shepherds who have many animals do still conduct limited migrations.

Socio-economic factors were the major causes for the rapid change of grazing practices after the end of the centrally planned system. The former customs of nomadic pastoralism were destroyed during the Soviet period when the Kazakh nomads were forced to settle down and to inhabit new settlements organized in form of state farms. The former nomads became “settled nomads”. This means that the most of Kazakh peoples lived in permanent rural settlements and did not have a possibility to rove through the land with their herds. Only few Kazakh people worked as shepherds at state farms and lead a nomad way of life, but their migratory routes and time were determined by administrators of kolkhozes and sovkhozes. All other former Kazakh nomads worked as drivers, combine operator, milkmaid etc. Many of them have moved to cities and became engineers or workers in industry. After 1991, the Kazakh people could theoretically have been returned to the former nomadic way of life, but this was not possible. The customs and practices of nomadic life were lost and only insignificant part of the Kazakh people wish they were nomads again.

Therefore, there is a tendency for shepherds to graze their animals all year round in the same place, namely around the permanent settlements where the shepherds with their families live. This tendency was promoted by the fact that the pastures now are either ungrazed, or grazed by a tiny fraction of the animals which would previously have used them (Robinson et al., 2002). Sheep numbers in Karaganda oblast dropped by more than two-thirds between 1991 and 2000, the herd sizes are also greatly reduced. The area of grass pastures increased, because numerous crop fields are abandoned since 1991 and may be now used for grazing.

Today, the stock number in the grassland is very low, considerably under the carrying capacity of the grass ecosystem. This furthers a recovery huge parts of grassland pastures had been degrading in 1950-1990.

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