The Pamir Alai programme focuses on mountain development and sustainable land management and consists of three sub-programmes:

(1) The Pamir Strategy Project (PSP) focused on the preparation of development strategy by establishing a knowledge system on the status and dynamics of the Tajik Pamir Mountains. In addition to concrete results, the project provided conceptual and methodological approaches to strategy and sustainable mountain development.

(2) Building on the PSP results, CDE is currently involved in the realization of a two-year preparatory project entitled ‘Sustainable Land Management in the High Pamir and Pamir-Alai Mountains’. This transboundary project will develop and implement an integrated land management system for the preservation and rehabilitation of ecosystems. For this purpose, land management practices, resource dynamics, and policy frameworks are being studied, with the aim of developing a full project to be funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF).

(3) The above projects are complemented by research done in the framework of the NCCR North-South on knowledge related to the use of renewable resources, land degradation, and sustainable mountain development.
The latest study is in collaboration with the Tajik Soil Institute for Assessing the impact of sustainable land use systems for enhancing food security and mitigating climate change in the Tajik Pamirs. The project is co-financed by an adaptive grant from the Sustainable Land Management (SLM) in the High Pamir and Pamir-Alai Mountains (PALM)  project.

(4) The GEF funded project PALM started in 2009. CDE is coordinating PALM Component 1.1 and is working with two expert teams from Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan on the Pamir-Alai Transboundary Strategy and Action Plan for SLM. The activities included a field study tour for updating the information base with firsthand information from the Pamir-Alai, and two multi-level stakeholder forums to identify priorities and to collect ideas for concrete action plans. A regional stakeholder forum was conducted in Jirgitol for indepth discussion of the transboundary aspects. The Strategy and Action Plan was presented to the PALM International Steering Committee in November 2010 in Bonn.

Download the Strategy and Action Plan:English / Russian