Years of fruitful cooperation between and

Seven years have passed since the time when close fruitful joint scientific cooperation formed between scientists of the Institute of Botany and Landscape Ecology of the (https://botanik.uni-greifswald.de/en/) and the Department of Biodiversity and Bioresources Faculty of Biology and Biotechnology of the Al-Farabi Kazakh National University (http://www.kaznu.kz/), one of the leading universities of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

On the part of Kazakhstan, thanks to the great professionalism, scientific knowledge and great teaching experience of the Doctor of Biological Sciences Professor Sabyr Nurtazin, as well as a great passion for the scientific activities of his students, young and ambitious scholars, contributed to the promotion of further fruitful cooperation between universities initiated by scientists of the University of Greifswald and the Michael Succow Foundation for the Protection of Nature (http://www.succow- stiftung.de/home.html).

Over the years, not only research projects were carried out jointly, but also a large number of graduate (diploma) works of both undergraduate and postgraduate students were being prepared from both sides. It is worth noting the annual exchange of students in the framework of past and ongoing projects, as well as within the academic mobility of students.

Through the time an international team of scientists from the University of Greifswald and al-Farabi KazNU has grown and expanded due to later having also joined scientists from the World Agroforestry Centre located in the University of , (http://www.worldagroforestry.org), and the Leibniz Institute for Agricultural Engineering Potsdam-Bornim e.V. (http://www.atb-potsdam.de/).

One of the topics of the projects related to Kazakhstan that the group of scientists is working on together is focused on the reed in Kazakhstan, on the study of the ecosystem services related to reed, its resource assessment and further search for ways of medium and high-tech utilization in order to solve the problems of sustainable use of plant resources, producing high-value products from it and direct contribution to the development of rural areas against the background of reduction of water resources in arid regions of Kazakhstan.

The recent pilot project, which passed the first stage of research and observation and as a result unites in the project implementation group not only scientists but also representatives from various business industries of both countries have great potential and prospects for further development of cooperation for both the scientific and business environments. All partners agreed for involvement in the next project are eagerly awaiting the successful submission of a project application for expertise commission for further funding and are set to further fruitful cooperation.