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4.1 After a short mission in the countries of the CIS and an analysis of specialized documentation, a number of conclusions can be drawn.
4.2 Over the last 40 years, the countries of the CIS have made significant progress in drylands development and management. They have carried out two main actions: (i) ploughing the steppes and (ii) the development of irrigation in Central Asia (dams, irrigation canals, etc.).
4.3 This has allowed the large-scale development of cereal and cotton cultivation, and intensive livestock farming (generally of karakuls) on lands originally used only for extensive nomad and semi-nomad animal husbandry. On these lands, the population density has increased considerably. The development of arid and semi-arid lands has also produced negative effects. Large-scale programmes endeavouring to plough the steppes and to extend the area of irrigated lands were inefficient, and the waste of land and water led to the development of the process of desertification.
4.4 Desertification in the CIS countries reaches very serious dimensions. It is essentially of human origin, and results, among other things, from large-scale management schemes for arid and semi-arid lands, often carried out in an irrational manner.
4.5 In desertification caused by human activities, scientists distinguish desertification caused by modernization, meaning the process of land degradation and the movement of dunes caused by large construction projects (canals, roads, railroads, apartment buildings, factories and others), and also by heavy off-road vehicle traffic. Desertification caused by modernization is particularly developed in the CIS.
4.6 Among all the problems related to desertification in the CIS, the most serious are those related to the drying up of the Aral Sea. During the last 25 years, land has emerged with an area larger than that of Macedonia. Very little vegetation has taken over; it is covered in large part by sand dunes or by friable salt. The drying up of the Aral Sea affects groundwater for over 100 km beyond the former shores, intensive dust-storms extend over 400 to 450 km and salty dust can be transported up to 800 km. The direct and indirect effects of the drying up of the Aral Sea endanger the entire region of Central Asia; the term «ecological catastrophe" is well-founded. Soviet and post-Soviet documentation dealing with desertification is in fact dominated by work on the Aral Sea and its region.
4.7 Scientific centres have acquired a wide experience from their studies of the natural environment and in their knowledge of the physical processes of desertification, particularly salinization. They have also developed a number of original methods of the revegetalization of arid or degraded lands, as well as methods of desalinization and sand dune fixation. The usefulness of these methods has been tested on a truly large scale. Certain of them could be applied in other countries, particularly in the closest Asian countries such as Iran, Afghanistan, China and Mongolia.
4.8 The large institutes of the Academy of Sciences are the chief research centres. The key role is played by the Institute of Deserts (Institut Pustyn') at Ashkhabad in Turkmenistan.
4.9 In recent years an ecological consciousness has developed in the CIS, especially among intellectuals. However, the collapse of the economy has led to a drastic reduction in projects to combat desertification. It is difficult at this moment to predict the consequences of the dissolution of the USSR for the future of research centres studying the problems of desertification. A greater autonomy for the institutes and easier and more direct contacts with the scientific world could be important factors for development.
4.10 It is also difficult to predict the influence of the current economic and political upheavals on desertification. There is hope that the transition to a market economy could help reduce waste and, in this way, limit desertification. The management of large-scale irrigation systems and the combat against desertification demand the cooperation between newly-independent countries. If this does not develop, or if on the contrary tensions surface or continue, ecological degradation can only get worse.