Study site description: Djanibek, Russia

Table of Contents

1. Responsible partner
2. General information
3. Bio-physical description
   1. Climate
   2. Resources
   3. Topography
   4. Soils, groundwater and natural vegetation
   5. Forest belts
   6. Desertification processes
4. Socio-economic description
5. Institutional and political setting
6. Relevant end-users / stakeholder groups
7. Past and on-going projects

Forest belts

Along the transport roads in the region there are belts of artificial forest suffering from lack of fresh groundwater. Special experimentations during 60 years to introduce long forest belts (49°24' N, 46°48' E) in this region with the aim to protect large field areas from the wind, tracking of snow by wind, offer protection from wind and water erosion and to harvest snowmelt (one of the technologies used in the steppe area to stop land desertification) were successful (Fig. 9). Unfortunately, developing these belts at a large scale was considered very costly due to the need for regular maintenance of the trees.

Fig. 9: Artificial forest belts at Djanibek experimental forest station. (left) Inside the forest belt. (right) Google map of forest experimentation area.