Adaptation of pastoral cattle farming of Lepsy local community to the climate change (CBA/KAZ/SPA/09/03)

Project Details & Results

The project will involve the local community of Lepsy Village located in the area of northern deserts, southern edge of sand massif Saryishikotrau. The local community number 3100. Their main livelihood is livestock products. Cattle farming is based on pasture forage. The community owns 2265 heads of cattle and 4700 heads of sheep and goats. The total land are maintained by the local community contains 6379 ha including hayfields (72 ha) and pastures (6307 ha).The potential pasture productivity is estimated at 500 kg/ha. The current productivity of the grazing lands does not exceed 150 kg/ha. The main reason of degradation is the improper use of pastures.
The degradation of pastures in Lepsy tends to grow. The pastoral conditions are worsened by Jun-gar Gates located across the project site that are known to generate strong hot dry winds coming from Takla-Makn Desert (China) thus having additional adverse impacts that are going to be manifested more intensively under the climate change conditions and the existing land tenure practices.

The project proposed is directed on prevention of the adverse consequences of climate change at the sand pasture ecosystems of Semirechye through 1) restoration of the traditional seasonal pastoral management as the method to adapt to the climate change and 2) building of the LC capacity of resisting the climate change risks.

The above objectives will be accomplished based on the project outcomes as follows:
1.Environmentally sound grazing loads on the pastures that will be reduced by 35-40% as com-pared to those recommended;
2.Expansion of the existing pastures by optimizing water management;
3.Employment of the new rangelands that are currently unused and arrangement of seasonal pasture rotation.

Notable Community Participation
The project will involve on a full-time basis the owners of 300 heads of cattle and 2000 heads of sheep and goats to be moved to the remote rangelands (25-30 km away from the village). The community members to be involved in the project starting from the concept formation through completion will ensure the transparency of the project activities and the internal evaluation of progress by the cattle owners.

Capacity - Building Component
Capacity building component that will be realized within the series of trainings ands workshops for different group of stakeholders will significantly strengthen participants’ capacity in addressing LD and CC adaptation problems.

Emphasis on Sustainable Livelihoods
The community will benefit from the more sustainable farming practices through the rational pastor-al lands tenure and conservation of the yield of pastoral ecosystems dependent on the climate change. The proposed activities will enable to reduce such vulnerability and reach the sustainable traditional cattle farming at the project site. The optimal practices to be identified in order to reduce the climate change impacts on the sandy rangelands will be used for replication in adjacent areas and other sand massifs of Kazakhstan totaling 31.2 million ha.

The project will contribute to increasing of percentage of the population dependent on natural resources that have access to the al-ternative or additional livelihoods - 10% of able-bodied population will have access to the sustainable pastoral grazing practices. Besides, the local community will get 10-12% growth of live weight of the alternatively grazed cattle as compared to the existing pastoral management practices.

Gender Focus
Women and men will participate in project realization on equal base.

Promoting Public Awareness of Global Environment
Information campaign that will be conducted within the project will help local community members and other involved parties to understand the importance of LD and climate change adaptation problems. Also it will motivate them to participate in above problem resolving on local level.

Expert visit on project site	VRA conducting	Non control grazing practice	halaxylon bushes