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Good practice Imported

Kyrgyzstan's 2009 Pasture Law — Community Pasture Users' Unions and Fee-Funded Rangeland Management

Kyrgyzstan · Bishkek · See the Kyrgyzstan profile · See the Bishkek profile

Evidence: Observational / pre–post Top 89% 27/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

Kyrgyzstan's 2009 Pasture Law replaced fragmented leases with 454 community Pasture Users' Unions that collect use-fees to fund rotational grazing and rangeland restoration across ~9 million hectares, though a peer-reviewed 2015 study found studied committees collected under half

454 PUUs
Pasture Users' Unions represented by Kyrgyz Jayity (as of source)
~9 million hectares
Rangeland under PUU oversight (as of source)
52,640 hectares
Restoration target by 2030 (target for 2030)
under 50 % of fees due
Pasture fees collected by studied committees (2012)
4.9 million EUR
GIZ district pilot co-financing (2018-2023)
Kyrgyzstan's 2009 Pasture Law — Community Pasture Users' Unions and Fee-Funded Rangeland Management

Details

Maturity
Established
Promoter
Kyrgyz Jayity (national Pasture Users' Union federation) and Kyrgyz Ministry of Agriculture, supported by GIZ and IFAD pilot projects
Period
2009–present
Keywords
rangeland management, pastoralism, community governance, mountain ecosystems, land tenure reform

Context

After Kyrgyzstan's 1991 independence, Soviet-era collective pastures were privatised and leased out in a fragmented way that encouraged overgrazing near villages while remote pastures went unused; by the 2000s, up to 75% of pastures and forests in some districts were degraded. The 2009 Pasture Law returned all pastureland to state ownership and devolved its management to local communities.

Activities

The law established one Jayit (Pasture) Committee in every region and enabled villages to form Pasture Users' Unions (PUUs). Communities use revenue from pasture-use fees, paid into PUU accounts, to fund rotational-grazing infrastructure, boundary demarcation and pasture improvement. A parallel GIZ-funded project (€4.9 million, 2018-2023, implemented with Unique Land Use GmbH and the CAMP Alatoo Foundation) piloted a refined pasture-and-walnut-forest co-management approach with a pasture-monitoring app in the Bazar-Korgon and Aksy districts of Jalal-Abad region.

Results

The national PUU federation, Kyrgyz Jayity, now represents 454 PUUs (with 14 staff and 158 volunteers) with formal management oversight of roughly 9 million hectares of rangeland, according to the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration's initiative registry, which lists a 52,640-hectare restoration target for 2030.

Conclusions

An independently evaluated, peer-reviewed 2015 study in the journal Pastoralism found a real gap between the law's design and practice: the pasture committees studied managed to collect less than half of the pasture fees due in 2012, weakening the reinvestment mechanism the whole model depends on; quantified outcome data from the GIZ district pilot are not yet public.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Medium (€50k–€500k) — Community-level operations are funded through pasture-use fees paid into PUU accounts; a parallel GIZ-funded district pilot in Jalal-Abad region totalled €4.9 million (2018-2023).
Time to results
Long (> 3 years) — The Pasture Law was enacted in 2009; the PUU federation and 454 unions were operating as of the sources reviewed; the GIZ pilot ran 2018-2023; the UN Decade registry lists a restoration target for 2030.
Staffing & skills
Kyrgyz Jayity (national PUU federation, 14 staff, 158 volunteers), Kyrgyz Ministry of Agriculture, Local Pasture Users' Unions / Jayit Committees in every region, GIZ, Unique Land Use GmbH and the CAMP Alatoo Foundation (district-level pilot)

Conditions for success

  • Legal devolution of pastureland from fragmented private leases back to state ownership managed by local community unions
  • Use-fee revenue reinvested locally into rotational-grazing infrastructure, boundary demarcation and pasture improvement
  • A national federation structure (Kyrgyz Jayity) providing oversight and support across 454 unions
  • Supplementary donor-funded pilots (GIZ) refining co-management approaches with digital tools such as a pasture-monitoring app

Common failure modes

  • A 2015 peer-reviewed study found studied committees collected under half of pasture fees due in 2012, weakening the reinvestment mechanism the whole model depends on
  • The reform was externally initiated and top-down in origin, risking a mismatch with local capacities and demands, per the source description
  • Quantified outcome data from the GIZ district pilot are not yet public

Where it fits

Governance type
national law devolving management to community pasture-user unions
Scale
national, 454 unions across roughly 9 million hectares
Income level
lower-middle-income (Kyrgyzstan)

Commonly funded by

National / regional programmes Own resources / municipal budget

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Data sources

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