25/1/2002
Conservation: Benefits of Lateral Thinking By the Aral Sea

The need to apply lateral thinking to problems of development and conservation is nicely illustrated in a part Danish funded project located on the shores of the Aral sea. The project has also be significantly helped by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) who have publicised the story.

The Aral Sea is one of those inland seas punched through the dry crust of Central Asia. Split between Kazakstan and Uzbekistan the Aral sea is fed by two once great rivers - the Syrdarya and the Amudarya - which rise in the mountain ranges that guarding the western flank of the Himalayas. However, recent droughts and the siphoning of the water for irrigation has left an Aral Sea that is rapidly shrinking

Almost two thousand kilometres downstream from its source what is left of the Syrdarya flows into the pear-shaped Aral Sea via a delta which is composed of emptying lakes that once teemed with fish. Today, however, the fish are few and far between. Some say that over-fishing is the cause, others that there has been too much drought in recent years and that it is this and the destruction of fish habitats that have destroyed the fish. Yet still the fisherman fish on, knowing that the fish stocks are in terminal decline, but feeling they have no other option if they are to feed their families.

The solution put forward by The Danish Society for a Living Sea, a European conservation NGO, was one of almost biblical simplicity: the fishermen metaphorically, if not literally, were told to cast their nets on the other side.

In this case the 'other side' was the Aral Sea itself. Moreover the Danes instructed the fishermen to catch - and the villagers to eat- a fish they had never deemed worthy in the past - the humble flounder - which, manages to thrive in relative abundance, despite the Aral Sea's own ecological problems, eating whatever it can find on the sea bottom. This lateral thinking, and the provision by the Danes of boats and nets, solved the problem of the fishermen's livelihoods. Since 1999 more than 300 have made the switch and with the pressure taken off the fish stocks in the Syrdarya Lakes, progress has been possible on the ecological issues.

With $50,000 from the UNDP Global Environmental Facility Small Grants Programme (GEF-SPG) and co-financing from local and international civil society groups and local government bodies, UNDP and its partners designed a $253,000 project to address these issues.

This, says UNDP, is helping communities to understand the problem of over fishing and the need for conservation. A conservation plan will restore the fishery on the lakes, encourage preservation of the critical ecosystems, and teach people about the importance of protecting their local environment.

"For years people have been fishing in these lakes, but they did not realise how bad the situation was," said Zhannat Makhambetova, manager of the project. "Now, with the men fishing on the Aral Sea, we can take action so that the lakes stay healthy for our children. The project protects our river and the lakes around it to preserve our unique bio-diversity," he said.