BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 28. Turkmenistan and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) have launched a five-year project to promote nature-friendly practices in agriculture and strengthen the sector’s resilience to climate change.
This was reflected in a press release published today by the press service of the Turkmen government.
The initiative is being implemented by Turkmenistan’s Ministry of Environmental Protection in cooperation with FAO, the Green Climate Fund (GCF) and the Regional Environmental Centre for Central Asia (CAREC), under a signed memorandum of understanding.
According to the press release, during the project presentation in Ashgabat, FAO Subregional Office Lead Technical Specialist Ivetta Zenina and project experts outlined plans to introduce technologies for monitoring carbon footprints, including smart equipment, laser water meters and precision weather modelling for dayhan farms (local private family-run farms).
The Lebap region’s Charjew district has been selected as a pilot area for testing the environmental technologies. The project will cover the Hajjiyev, S.A. Niyazov and J. Hekimov dayhan associations, the report added.
Planned activities include establishing a tree nursery to develop shelterbelts that protect farmland from wind erosion, restoring saline soils and planting salt-tolerant vegetation.
The project will also assess the ecosystems of the Repetek Biosphere Reserve and the wetlands of the Yerajy sanctuary. The findings are expected to support the preparation of an application to include the Yerajy lake ecosystem in the international Ramsar List of Wetlands of International Importance.
According to the report, the project aligns with Turkmenistan’s updated National Climate Change Strategy and the United Nations’ approach to nature-based solutions.
Meanwhile, climate change and land degradation pose direct risks to Turkmenistan’s agricultural productivity and food security. According to a 2026 World Bank study, more than 4.9 million hectares of land in the country are degraded, with the area projected to reach nearly 6.3 million hectares by 2050 if current trends continue. The study estimates that inaction on land degradation could cost the country an average of nearly $667 million annually over 2024-2050, through lost crop and livestock production, damage to infrastructure, and declining ecosystem services. Water availability is another major concern, as agriculture depends heavily on irrigation and faces mounting pressure from soil salinization and inefficient water use.
These challenges explain the importance of measures that help preserve soil productivity and use water more efficiently. Windbreaks can reduce wind erosion and limit the movement of sand across agricultural land, while restoring saline soils can help recover areas where excess salt restricts plant growth. Salt-tolerant vegetation can also support the stabilization of degraded land. More precise water measurement and weather forecasting can help farmers make better-informed irrigation decisions, reducing avoidable water losses and helping protect yields under increasingly difficult climatic conditions.
The project’s research component also covers ecosystems that illustrate how plants and wildlife survive in Turkmenistan’s harsh natural conditions. The Repetek Biosphere Reserve, established in the Karakum Desert in 1927, protects desert landscapes and extensive black saxaul vegetation, which provides habitat for wildlife, including goitered gazelles and desert birds. Repetek is also known as the hottest place in the former Soviet Union: a temperature of 51.8°C in the shade was recorded there in 1983, according to the Turkmen government. The reserve’s purpose is also to protect and study the species and ecological processes that sustain life in an extremely arid environment.
The Yerajy sanctuary, established in 1977 and managed as part of the Repetek reserve system, protects a different but related environment: the Yerajy lake and surrounding areas, including saxaul groves and habitats used by waterbirds. The contrast between these wetlands and the surrounding desert makes the area important for understanding how water availability shapes local ecosystems. In 2023, the Repetek and Yerajy desert ecosystems were included in UNESCO’s World Heritage List as part of the transnational nomination “Cold Winter Deserts of Turan,” submitted jointly by Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Research into these protected areas can help improve understanding of how fragile desert and wetland ecosystems respond to environmental pressures, complementing efforts to maintain productive agricultural land and strengthen the country’s resilience to climate change.
