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USAID Information:
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Environmental Protection Project Brings Tajik Communities Together
Recently, USAID’s Peaceful Community Initiative, implemented by Mercy Corps, completed a project to plant 4,400 new trees in public spaces in Hurmi and Sughd Oblasts, regions, torn by years of conflict over thinning orchards. The orchards were decimated in the years following Tajikistan’s independence, as residents cut down fruit and other valuable trees to heat their homes and cook. This practice has remained a source of conflict between residents of neighboring villages and between communities and government bodies, most notably the Ecology and Forestry Departments. Furthermore, the lack of trees
in a jamoat (cluster of villages) contributes to the increasingly destructive landslides in the area, destroying arable land and damaging homes.
Over 3,000 of the newly planted trees were provided by Hurmi Jamoat and community members. The trees were panted in a community event, known as “hasher” in Tajik, along roads and in orchards to protect the land from erosion and to provide a source of income for the residents. A second hasher, planned by the USAID project, will clean garbage and debris in the area. Government officials and other specialists will follow-up with seminars and brochures on environmental preservation, the adverse effects of over-grazing and cutting down trees, and will establish a joint community-government commission to oversee environmental protection in the jamoat.
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Community members donated the trees and participated in their planting
Photo Credit: Peaceful Community Initiative |
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