FOWECA/TP/4 Forestry Outlook Study for West and Central Asia (FOWECA) Thematic paper Non Wood Forest Products in Central Asia and Caucasus Prepared by the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) Program, Rome, 2006 The designations employed and the presentation of material in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. Applications for such permission, with a statement of the purpose and extent of the reproduction, should be addressed to the Director, Information Division, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Viale delle Terme di Caracalla, 00100 Rome, Italy. © FAO 2006 Thematic Study on Non-wood forest products in Central Asia and Caucasus iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT .............................................................................................................................. v 1 INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................ 7 2 Forests of Azerbaijan and a problem of non-wood forest products use ..................... 9 2.1 The main forest formations of Azerbaijan on dominating races....................... 10 3 Forests of Armenia and a problem of non-wood forest products use ....................... 17 4 Forests of Georgia and a problem of non-wood forest products use......................... 23 4.1 The description of types of forests in Georgia and their tendencies.................. 24 4.2 Special natural protected areas of Georgia.......................................................... 32 4.3 Use of Non-Wood Forest Products ....................................................................... 35 5 Forests of Kazakhstan and a problem of non-wood forest products use .................. 39 6 Forests of Kyrgyzstan and a problem of non-wood forest products use................... 53 7 Forests of Tajikistan and a problem of non-wood forest products use..................... 74 8 Forests of Turkmenistan and a problem of non-wood forest products use .............. 84 9 Forests of Uzbekistan and a problem of non-wood forest products use ................... 92 TABLE OF TABLES Table 1 Area covered with wood on prevailing forest races.............................................................................. 9 Table 2 Data on walnut collection in forest enterprises - period 1990-2005.................................................. 14 Table 3 Data on almond nuts collection in forest enterprises - period 1990-2005 (units of ton) ................... 14 Table 4 Data on edible chestnut collection in forest enterprises - period 1990-2005 (units of ton)............... 14 Table 5 Data on medicinal and food plants collection for the period 1990-2005 (units of ton)..................... 15 Table 6 Various types of forests of Georgia ..................................................................................................... 24 Table 7 Biodiversity of Georgian forests .......................................................................................................... 29 Table 8 Data of forest resources of Georgia on Autonomous Republics and regions, in thousand ha .......... 32 Table 9 Data of forest resources of Georgia on type of trees in 2000 year..................................................... 32 Table 10 Dynamics of regeneration of forests, hɚ.............................................................................................. 35 Table 11 Basic forest forming races, their store and age structure................................................................... 40 Table 12 Forest covered lands and store of wood on administrative ranges (01.07.2003)* ............................ 43 Table 13 Special protected areas of Kazakhstan Republic guarding forest ecosystems, across landscape zones 47 Table 14 Industrial stores of some beneficial species of plants in Kazakhstan ................................................. 49 Table 15 Dynamics of number and extraction of the hunting species of animals.............................................. 51 Table 16 Users of forest lands, their submission and functions. Information about owners of State forest resources of country ................................................................................................................................................. 59 Table 17 Parameters of extraction of game in Kyrghyzstan (average in one year) .......................................... 70 Table 18 Special protected areas in Tajikistan................................................................................................... 78 Table 19 Information on the forest lands............................................................................................................ 82 Table 20 Information on Non-Wood Forest Products in Tadjikistan................................................................. 83 Table 21 Allocation of forests on the types in Turkmenistan (1998).................................................................. 89 Table 22 Non Wood Forest Products and their use in Turkmenistan ................................................................ 90 Table 23 Presence of the forest enterprises in Republic Uzbekistan 1.12.2005 - (according to decree of the Cabinet of Ministers from 10.08.2005 for ʋ 191) .................................................................................................. 99 iv CAREC Table 24 Modern system of special protected areas of Uzbekistan ................................................................. 100 Table 25 Non-wood forest products in Uzbekistan (statistical data 1990-2005) ............................................ 101 Table 26 List of the medicinal and food plants collected in forest enterprises of Republic Uzbekistan......... 101 Table 27 Parameters on forest resources of countries of region ..................................................................... 103 TABLE OF FIGURES Figure 1 Map of forests in Georgia .................................................................................................................... 23 Figure 2 Dynamics of reproduction of forests in terrain of forest resources in 1992 - 2003 years ................. 44 Figure 3 The area of forest lands in the countries of Central Asia and Caucasus – the general area of forest fund (blue colour) and the area covered with woods (dark pink colour) ............................................................. 107 Thematic Study on Non-wood forest products in Central Asia and Caucasus v ABSTRACT This study was conducted by Programme of the Ecosystem Management of CAREC in cooperation with national CAREC branches in Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. In the preparation of report the following national experts from countries of Caucasus and Central Asia were involved: Mr. Butkov, Ye.A., analysis, forestry expert; Mr. Salmanov, Sadik Khasan Ogly, Azerbaijan; Mr. Dzamukashvili, George, Georgia; Ms. Utyasheva, Tatyana, Kazakhstan; Mr. Vorobiev, George, Kyrgyzstan; Dr. Akhmadov, Khukmatullo, Tajikistan; Mr. Atamuradov, Akmurad, Turkmenistan; Ms. An Elvira, Uzbekistan Final text prepared by Dr. Ye. A., Butkov, Dr. Elena Kreuzberg-Mukhina; Mr. Sanzhar Mustafin, Ms. Nina Medvedeva. Thematic Study on Non-wood forest products in Central Asia and Caucasus 7 1 INTRODUCTION Non-wood forest production (NWFP) is the object of collateral use of all forests. It includes any sort of uses in forests and in the lands of forest fund which are not covered with a wood, excepting cutting of wood, turpentine and secondary wood stuffs. Secondary use of the forests is the mowing and grassing of cattle, accommodation of beehives and apiaries, collection of arboreal juices, preparation and the collecting of wild-growing fruits, nuts, mushrooms, berries (baccas), medicinal plants and technical raw material, hunting for valuable fur-bearing mammals and birds, fishery and production of different non-metallic minerals concerns to collateral use of a wood. Forests of Caucasus and Central Asia keep the rich pantry of wild-growing fruits, berries, nuts. These valuable alimentary and medicinal raw materials are a source of vitamins, carbohydrates, proteins, organic acids, aromatic, mineral and other materials necessary for the human well-being. Caucasus is the one of the richest in the world regions which demonstrates the center of the species and races diversity of the wild-growing fruits. In the forests of Caucasus over 260 species of fruit plants from 37 genera occur. In river valleys and on the banks of the Caucasian rivers there are extensive cornel bushes and wild quince and alycha thrickets, the underwood here presents by the currant, raspberry, gooseberry and many other eatable plant species, the forest is formed by a chestnut, a hazel nut, a walnut, an apple, a pear, a merry (cherry-tree) and so forth. Wild-growing fruit trees in Central Asia are considerably distributed, but on a species composition they concede to Caucasus. Here 212 species from genera are presented with non- uniform (uneven) diffusion on