The Forest Protection and Reforestation Project will develop cost effective and sustainable environmental rehabilitation, and management of forest lands and associated rangelands, with a focus on the Irtysh pine forest, the dry Aral Seabed, and saxaul rangelands. To this end, the project components include the following. The first component within the Irtysh pine forest, includes contingencies and support by the Global Environment facility (GEF), towards improved reforestation, including seedlings, and as feasible, directly seeded hectares, through the reestablishment of seed production areas to ensure quality, and applied research on cost-effective nursery, planting and direct seeding technologies, e.g., greenhouses, containers, seed pelleting. Flexible, performance based budgeting and contracting will be used. This component will also support improved fire management and other forestry activities, as well as the development of forest partnerships. The second component for the environmental amelioration in Kyzylorda, includes planting on the dry Aral seabed, through an accelerated expansion of the vegetative cover, planting areas with seedlings, and as feasible, through seeded lands, using cost-effective nursery and planting technologies, and developing cost-effective direct seeding techniques. In addition, thirty pilot demonstrations of a participatory saxaul rangelands program, will aim at demonstrating rangelands' rehabilitation, and increased access to water for grazing animals. Finally, the third component, capacity building of national institutions, will improve policy and public expenditure analysis, information facilities, human resource development, and organizational management leading to improved policy and budget decisions, public consultation, inventory, planning, monitoring, staff knowledge and skills, and, organizational effectiveness. A competitive grant fund for innovative forest development subprojects, such as timber usufruct sharing to address illegal logging incentives, ecotourism, value added processing of birch, involvement of local people in reforestation or environmental education, private plantations, protection of tungai floodplain protection, among others, will be financed.
