BAKU, Azerbaijan, Sept. 4
By Klavdiya Romakayeva - Trend:
An ecotourism center for 300 places is being built based on the Burchmullinsky forestry in Uzbekistan based on a public-private partnership, Trend reports with reference to UzA.uz national information agency.
President of Uzbekistan at the video-conference noted the issues of the development of forest lands with the involvement of the private sector as well as the expansion of horse breeding, animal husbandry, seed production, and tourism sectors.
Over the past three years, special attention has been paid to the accelerated development of forestry in Uzbekistan. The total area of the country's forest fund has been brought to 12 million hectares.
On the dried-up bottom of the Aral Sea in Uzbekistan, 1.2 million hectares of protective forests have been created. Some 10,000 hectares of retired forest lands were mastered, 5,500 hectares of walnut plantations, and 4,000 hectares of food crops and medicinal plants were planted. For the first time in the forestry of Uzbekistan, 64 biological laboratories have been created.
The possibility of creating another 50,000 hectares of forest plantations and the organization of walnut, pistachio, and almond plantations in Jizzakh, Navoi, Samarkand, Surkhandarya, Kashkadarya, Namangan, and Tashkent regions was indicated.
Since furniture enterprises import 90 percent of raw materials from abroad, it was instructed to allocate land for them to grow paulownia and other trees suitable for making furniture using the cluster method.
To increase the fodder base of sericulture, this year it is planned to plant mulberry seedlings on 2,000 hectares in farms, and 2,500 hectares next year.
Last year, the area of plantations of medicinal plants increased to 2,000 hectares. At the meeting, it was noted that it is necessary to bring this figure to 5,000 hectares this year and bring the volume of the harvest to 8,000 tons.
Measures have been identified to implement projects of beekeeping, livestock, and poultry farming on the lands of the forest fund with the involvement of the private sector, providing employment and strengthening food security.
The forests also attract visitors. Last year, 1 billion soums ($97,389) were received from ecological and hunting tourism. The new system in the Bostanlyk region showed the presence of a huge reserve for the development of tourism in forest areas.
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