Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Box 13.2
Political change, desertification and population dynamics in Central Asia
The break-up of the USSR provides important insights
into the links between the changing political control over
natural resource management, population dynamics
and desertification. Drylands form a large proportion of
the newly formed Central Asian republics and southern
Russia (Table 13.2).
Extensive environmental degradation exists in
these areas, particularly salinisation, wind and
water erosion, deteriorating pasture quality, and
water pollution. Data for four of the areas (Table
13.3) reveals the spatial extent of these
processes.
Table 13.2
Dryland areas in the Central Asian countries and southern Russia
republics.
Source:
Glazovsky and Shestakov 1996.
Degradation of the natural resource base as a
consequence of state-controlled planning is exemplified
by the situation around the Aral Sea basin. State planners
diverted significant amounts of water from the Amu Dar'ya
and Syr Dar'ya, the rivers that feed the Aral Sea, to irrigate
land for cotton production. The resulting reduced water
flows into the Aral Sea have caused severe shrinkage in
terms of volume and areal extent. Salinity increased from
around 12-14 per cent in the early 1970s to 23 per cent in
the late 1980s, and the subsequent decline in
phytoplankton has propagated itself through the food
chain. Of particular economic importance is the fact that
only five of the twenty fish species that existed in this once
important inland fishery remain. Relict and endemic plants
in the floodplain forests are threatened with extinction.
Lake sediments contaminated with untreated waste,
fertilisers, and organochlorine and organophosphate
pesticides, herbicides and defoliants have, as the lake has
dried out, deflated and posed severe health problems in the
adjacent areas. For example, child mortality in the Bazataus
Rayon in Karakalpakstan exceeds 110 per 1000, and over
60 per cent of children examined have medical abnormalities.
The wider socio-economic and demographic relevance
of these data lies in the responses of the 33 million
inhabitants of this region to desertification. Glazovsky and
Shestakov (1996) argue that the acute nature of
degradation in the region has led to a serious decline in
food production and the number of domestic animals,
land-use changes, modified employment profiles,
increased infant mortality, and population migration. The
migration of 'environmental refugees' from the region is
the end-result of the environmental degradation process.
Demographic patterns that existed prior to the break-up of
the USSR and the migration patterns
