The meanings of pasture in resource degradation negotiations: Evidence from post-socialist rural Kyrgyzstan

Liechti, Karina (2012). The meanings of pasture in resource degradation negotiations: Evidence from post-socialist rural Kyrgyzstan. Mountain Research and Development, 32(3), pp. 304-312. Boulder, Colo.: International Mountain Society 10.1659/MRD-JOURNAL-D-11-00113.1

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Pasture use in the Kyrgyz
Republic has changed
significantly as a result of
fundamental political,
economic, and societal
changes following the
collapse of the Soviet
Union and the
subsequent changes in
people’s livelihoods.
Government institutions criticize current land use patterns as
unsustainable and the cause of degradation. But at the local
level, pasture quality is rarely seen as a major problem. This
article uses a qualitative approach to examine the tension
between these views and addresses current land use
practices and related narratives about pasture degradation in
rural Kyrgyzstan. By focusing on meanings ascribed to
pastures, it shows how people closely relate current practices
to the experiences and value systems of the Soviet period and
to changing identities emerging in the post-Soviet
transformation process. It argues that proper understanding
of resource degradation issues requires adequate
consideration of the context of meaning constructed by
local resource users when they make sense of their
environment.

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