Addressing global change challenges for Central Asian socio-ecosystems

Central Asia is one of the most vulnerable regions on the planet earth to global climate change, depending on very fragile natural resources. The Soviet legacy has left the five countries （Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan） with a highly integrated system but they are facing great challenges with tensions that hinder regional coordination of food and water resources. With increasing climate variability and warming trend in the region, food and water security issues become even more crucial now and, if not addressed properly, could affect the regional stability. The long-term drivers of these two most critical elements, food and water, are climate change; the immediate and probably more drastic factors affecting the food and water security are land uses driven by institutional change and economic incentives. As a feedback, changes in land use and land cover have directly implications on water uses, food production, and lifestyles of the rural community in the region. Regional and international efforts have been made to holistically understand the cause, extent, rate and societal implications of land use changes in the region. Much of these have been understood, or under investiga- tion by various projects, but solutions or research effort to develop solutions, to these urgent regional issues are lacking. This article, serves as an introduction to the special issue, provides a brief overview of the challenges facing the Central Asian countries and various interna- tional efforts in place that resulted in the publications of this special issue.

Understanding livestock production and sustainability of grassland ecosystems in the Asian Dryland Belt

Background:Companioned by economic development,a dietary shift toward higher meat consumption is seen in developing countries and transitional economies,where the demand for livestock production has been increasing in response to such a dietary shift.In the Asian Dryland Belt,approaches to meet this demand have focused on grazing intensification,cropland conversion for animal feed,and supplemental feeding.With the scarcity of water,energy,and food in the region,a key question is whether or not the current approaches are sustainable.If not,what are the pathways to increase livestock production while protecting the region’s environment for a sustainable future?We provide our reviews and discuss current approaches in response to these dietary shifts and assess their environmental resilience with a focus on the grassland ecosystems in the Asian Dryland Belt.Results:While current approaches alleviate the urgent need for short-term livestock production,they lead to longterm vulnerability in food security.Trade-offs between short gains and long-term losses,between food for humans and for animals,and between agricultural intensification and environmental degradation need to be holistically examined for the sustainable development of the region.A grassland water,energy,and food nexus framework is proposed with specific recommendations to increase livestock production while considering other ecosystem services of the dryland grassland ecosystems in the Asian Dryland Belt.Conclusions:Current practices to increase livestock production are likely to lead to long-term,large-scale ecological degradation of the grassland ecosystems in the Asian Dryland Belt and are thus unsustainable.By considering the trade-offs in the nexus of water,land,food,and livelihoods,sustainable pathways were articulated and recommended.Future pilot studies are needed for validation and adoption.