Kyrgyzstan - Forest

The following normative legislative acts should be pointed out: Forest Code, 1993 (with amendments and additions, 1997); Law "On Nature protection", 1991; Law "On particular protected territories", 1994.

According to the forest legislation all forests on the territory of Kyrgyzstan belong to the first group of forests, that is it is prohibited to cut them down with commercial purpose of obtaining wood.

The National Forestry Committee implements the national policy of forest resources. It is aimed at restoration and protection of national forests. Forestry management is carried out by forestry authorities.

They are responsible for forest protection, have arboretums of their own and their processing enterprises. Forestries have production, deal with cattle breeding and agriculture. There is a well-developed forestry practice in the republic.

Arboretums usually occupy from 6 to 10 hectares and contain various kinds of planting material, which is transplanted in forest cultivated areas by open root manner. Level of plantation preservation greatly depends on rain amounts, which are often insufficient and on forest plantations protection from damage caused by cattle grazing as well.

Forestry research and forest protection from vermin and diseases are carried out by the National Academy of Sciences and three institutes: forest and nut farming institute, and the biosphere and biology institutes. The subject of scientific research is preservation and utilisation of all kinds of woods.

Forest rehabilitation in the Forest stock
Thousand hectares /Years	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999
Forest restoration	11.9	12.5	12.9	14.1	44.6
Afforestation	3	3.5	3.7	3.6	3.9

A key problem of the forestry section is forest degradation, which is caused by uncontrolled cattle grazing and an excessive exploitation of forests in the past. These actions led to exhaustion of wild nature, increased soil erosion and promoted landslides and mud-floods.

With the purpose of maintenance of forestry management it is planned out to allot funds and render technical assistance in the following components:

development of information forestry system dealing with planning and monitoring of forest resources use;
assistance in improvement of development, realisation and plan management monitoring of fir- forests in northern regions of the country;
development of a model for maintenance of multi-profiled forests and management plan of cattle grazing in fruit and nut forests of the south;
aforestation on forest-less areas;
program of training specialists.

Kyrgystan joined a Kyrgyz-Switzerland program on forestry support in Kyrgyzstan, which started in 1995. It is conducted by Swiss agency on development and cooperation "InterCooporation" There is also an intergovernmental agreement between the Kyrgyz Republic and the Turkish Republic on cooperation in the sphere of forest resources, 1998