Climate Change Mitigation and Sustainability: On Rural Development in Kyrgyzstan

Since its independence, Kyrgyzstan, a landlocked country in the middle of Central Asia, continues to experience diverse social, economic, environmental, and political changes. Over the course of the ‘development’ and ‘modernization’ of the region, climate change, ecological issues, and environmental concerns continue to pose various challenges. Regional changes with uncertainties of globalization, global trends, and shocks, continue to impact climate mitigation efforts. Yet, peripheral regions have been important sites for various sustainability related ecological projects, rural development initiatives, and social-economic activities in diverse fields. Environmentally oriented solutions, initiatives, and projects play an important role because they contribute to climate mitigation efforts and sustainability. The scope of the current study is to understand some of the outcomes and ongoing solutions revealed in those projects by various environmentally concerned individuals, groups, and environmental activists. Although sustainability and coping with environmental issues remains a broad challenge and ongoing process in many areas, in what areas do those projects and initiatives make informative changes in their respective cases, and what challenges are confronted there? At the nexus of rural development and climate mitigation, this study focuses on environmentally oriented projects, their objectives and outcomes as well as results with flexible means of data collection.

Daler Kaziev is a Ph.D. student at the Wissenschaftszentrum Umwelt, Augsburg University. Contact: daler.kaziev@uni-a.de