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Farming the Forest Steppe: Sustainable Land Management in Western Siberia

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Farming the Forest Steppe: Sustainable Land Management in Western Siberia FARMING THE FOREST STEPPE: SUSTAINABLE LAND MANAGEMENT IN WESTERN SIBERIA Results of the SASCHA project, 2011 – 2016 SASCHA: SUSTAINABLE LAND MANAGEMENT AND ADAPTATION STRATEGIES TO CLIMATE CHANGE FOR THE WESTERN SIBERIAN GRAIN BELT Project results 2011 – 2016 TABLE OF CONTENTS 9 Western Siberia: a hotspot of global change 10 Sustainable land management in Western Siberia 11 The changing fortunes of Siberian agriculture 14 Cultural landscapes at a crossroads 17 Climate and land-use change: closely connected 19 Biodiversity: animals and plants respond to change 21 Testing solutions to challenges in land management 23 Where there is muck there is brass: Improving manure management 27 Alternative futures: Scenario planning for sustainability Scenario 1: Intensify at any cost Scenario 2: Making ends meet in the green Scenario 3: The certified among the poor Scenario 4: Rethinking the goals 32 What will last? 33 Further reading: Scientific articles onSASCHA project results Previous page: Siberia's mires – a globally important soil carbon reservoir (Tim Wertebach). 8 WESTERN SIBERIA: A HOTSPOT OF GLOBAL CHANGE region, but also in the humus layers of the Black Earth soils. When carbon is released, First-time visitors often expect little for example by drainage or cultivation for more from Siberia than freezing tempera- agriculture, it turns into CO2 and acceler- tures and perhaps polar bears. Of course, ates global warming. Land management Siberia is much more than the European in Western Siberia has thus a vital role in stereotypes might suggest. Stretching mitigating global climate change. across several climatic zones and eco-re- gions, it has breath-taking landscapes, di- Sparsely populated, Western Siberia verse peoples and culture, and even vast has also been a safe haven for biodiversity: areas under agricultural use. Populations of plants and animals that are being depleted across Europe due to Western Siberia, situated between the intensive land use and the expansion of Ural Mountains and the Yenisei River, is urban conglomerations thrive here, reach- of global significance in several respects. ing a diversity and abundance that is long It supplies a good deal of the world's en- gone from many Western European coun- ergy through its leading role in exploiting tries. large resources of fossil fuels – the West- ern Siberian gas and oil fields stretch over However, as in many other parts of the an area half the size of Europe. The south- world, the tides are changing. Production ern parts of Western Siberia, the so-called and intensity of land use are increasing. Western Siberian grain belt, makes an People abandon the traditional villag- important contribution to global food se- es and move to the cities. Fast growth is Omsk curity: the fertile Chernozem (Black Earth) observed in the exploitation of natural soils bear rich crops for human consump- resources. The associated infrastructure tion and as livestock fodder. Western Sibe- such as a new road network allows access ria is also globally important from an en- to the last wild corners. While develop- vironmental point of view. The soils in the ment is undoubtedly good news for large area store a large proportion of the global parts of the rural human population, it soil carbon, especially in the mighty peat might also affect the environment – with layers of the huge bogs and mires of the unforeseeable consequences. Map of the main ecozones of Eastern Europe and Western Siberia. Tyumen province is outlined blue (WWF Ecozones). R U S S II A ¹ U r a l s !( !( Yaroslavl Perm !( Tyumen Ekaterinburg !( Astana !( Kazan !( Moscow Ufa !( !(Omsk Samara !( K A Z A K H S T A N 0 125 250 500 750 1,000 K A Z A K H S T A N km Forest steppe Taiga Mountain forest and tundra Borders of Tyumen province Mixed forest Hemiboreal forest Steppe Border with Kazakhstan 9 SUSTAINABLE LAND MANAGE- MENT IN WESTERN SIBERIA When Russian and German land-use researchers first met in 2009, they were Concerns about ‘unsustainable’ deve- quick in agreeing that there are ma- lopments are mounting in many regions jor knowledge gaps. How has land use of the world, and Western Siberia is no changed since the break-up of the Soviet exception. Future land use across the Union in 1991, and how will it change in Western Siberian grain belt needs to be the future? What does this change mean sustainable to minimize environmental for the Siberian ecosystems and biodiver- impacts. Sustainability, defined as the sity, for agricultural business and for the property of biological systems to remain people of the region? Will local change diverse and produce indefinitely, entails contribute to global climate change? Re- several components. Environmental sus- searchers and students from two Russian tainability in our case would mean the and five German universities and a Ger- maintenance of important ecosystem man remote-sensing enterprise teamed functions, such as climate regulation or up to answer these questions. soil fertility, and the conservation of West- ern Siberia's unique biodiversity. Eco- As study region, the forest steppe in nomical sustainability would be achieved the south of Russia's Tyumen province if profitability in agriculture and other was selected, a landscape characterized land uses was guaranteed on the long by a mosaic of birch forests, grassland run. Social sustainability would be met and cropfields, and part of the massive if the living standard of the rural human Western Siberian grain belt. population stayed stable or increased rather than deteriorated. Mosaic of grassland and forest is typical for the Western Siberian forest steppe. In rural areas, people still use the landscape in diverse ways, such as these villagers who harvest wild strawberries (Immo Kämpf). 10 However, when the main research of cows in Soviet times. Livestock breed- questions were answered, the project ing was hit hard by the collapse of the team did not rest. Hands-on work on the state farm system in the 1990s, and the ground started, in order to develop farm- number of cattle and sheep crashed in ing techniques with local enterprises to Tyumen province: Declines of up to 60 % make land use more sustainable. Politi- were recorded2: hundreds of thousands cians were approached with the agglom- of animals. erated knowledge to influence far-reach- ing decisions. Different scenarios of Total sown Fodder crops potential future developments were set 1500 up and discussed widely with the public and decision makers. Total sown Fodder crops 1500 The aim of this brochure is to introduce 1000 you to the research results, and to illus- trate potential future pathways to more 1000 Area (*1000 ha) sustainable land use in Western Siberia. 500 Area (*1000 ha) 500 THE CHANGING FORTUNES OF 0 SIBERIAN AGRICULTURE 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 0 Agriculture has a long history in Tyu- men province, despite the harsh climate 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 with a short growing season. The fortunes of agricultural production in the Western Siberian grain belt were varied over the All cattle 800 Subsistence past decades: In Soviet times, state-run farms produced large quantities of grain All cattle 600 and fodder, and the surplus was export- 800 Subsistence ed to many other parts of former Eastern Bloc. Millions of cattle and sheep were 400 kept for meat and dairy production. 600 Animals *1000 Political change in 1991, with the break- 200 up of the Soviet Union into independent 400 republics, resulted in disorder in econ- Animals *1000 omy and society. The Russian economy 0 200 transitioned from a centrally planned to a market-oriented system. Farms were pri- 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 vatized and are no longer affected exclu- 0 sively by Moscow's policies, but now also Trends in the area sown for crops and livestock numbers by global markets and demand1. When in Tyumen1990 province,1995 for the2000 period 19902005 – 20152010 2015 travelling the countryside of Tyumen (Tyumen Statistics Office 2016). province today, signs of change strike the eye: In many areas, derelict livestock sta- Following page: Abandoned cropfield, now used by the bles are visible, each hosting hundreds villagers as communal pasture (Immo Kämpf). 11 Soviet-time machinery is increasingly replaced with new tractors for the large Siberian fields (Insa Kühling). Russia's livestock industry is only slow- stock breeding has been modernized, ly recovering, and beef is still imported with most cattle now kept in stables year- from Brazil and other countries despite round and fed with grain and fodder the large land resources that could be crops produced on the fields. used for grazing free-ranging herds. Sim- ilarly, many crop fields of the Soviet era are not in use anymore, especially those that are too unproductive under the new CULTURAL LANDSCAPES market conditions, or are situated in ar- AT A CROSSROADS eas difficult to access with heavy trac- tors such as waterlogged depressions3. It is not only the large-scale, industri- According to official land use statistics al farming enterprises that satisfy local about 400 000 ha of crop fields were food demand. The rural communities in abandoned across the province after Tyumen province grow more potatoes in 19912, 3 – a huge land reserve. their village backyards than all big agri- cultural enterprises together2. Half of the However, during the last decade, ag- livestock is owned by the villagers, who riculture in Tyumen province has gained keep cattle and sheep for meat and dairy momentum again2: Crop production products2. Subsistence agriculture still concentrates now in the highest-yield- plays an important role in the agricultural ing areas, Soviet-period machinery is economy in Russia. gradually replaced with the latest brands allowing to farm much more efficient- The forest steppe, this mosaic of ly, and fertilizer application is also more small birch groves, wetlands and intensive leading to higher output per fields, has been shaped by man for hectare.
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