18 March 2024 — the AFoCO Secretariat signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Republican Forest Selection Seed Center of the Forestry and Wildlife Committee of the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the public foundation Ulan Plus for the project titled: Technology and Capacity Enhancement for Massive Production of Quality Planting Materials to Support National Forestration Goals in Kazakhstan (AFoCO/044/2024).
The project aims to enhance its capacity to supply high quality seedlings to achieve their national target of restoring 1.5 million hectares of degraded forest and increase its forest cover to 14.5 million hectares by 2030, addressing the pressing issue of forest loss by wildfires and desertification in Kazakhstan. To be specific, the project has four objectives:
- Develop technical documents, involving laying the groundwork for the establishment of nurseries and the development of necessary documentation to ensure their success;
- Establishing mechanizes nurseries, equipped with modern technologies to enhance efficiency and productivity;
- Empowering local stakeholders through training and research to ensure the sustainable management of nurseries and afforestation activities;
- Creating protective plantings (wind breaks) around the city of Shchuchinsk.
During the signing ceremony, the Vice Executive Director of AFoCO congratulated Kazakhstan side in sucessfully launching the project, and emphasized that the project marks the journey towards forest restoration, enhancement of capacities, and promotion of environmental socio-economic benefits for forest stakeholders in Kazakhstan.
The MoU signing ceremony was followed by the Project Inception Meeting (PIM) and the 1st Project Steering Committee (PSC) Meeting, where the Project Implementation Plan (PIP) Matrix, the multi-year budget plan, Rules of Procedure (RoP) of the PSC, and the 2024 annual work and budget plan was reviewed and discussed together during the meeting. The Implementing Agency (IA), the Republican Selection and Seed Center (RSSC) will begin its activities with designing the modern nurseries, where construction will commence from the 4th quartor of 2024.
