Land & Ecosystems – GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY OF TAJIKISTAN

GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY OF TAJIKISTAN

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19

Sep

Land & Ecosystems

GeoSociety

Habitat Corridors for Snow Leopards

High above the tree line, where scree slopes fade into cloud and silence, the snow leopard still moves. In Tajikistan, these elusive cats—Panthera uncia—are more than a symbol of wilderness. They are indicators of landscape health, a measure of whether the mountains still connect. Yet even the most agile climber cannot leap across fragmentation. As
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9

May

Land & Ecosystems

GeoSociety

Cotton’s Retreat: Land Use Change

For much of the twentieth century, Tajikistan’s lowlands were white in summer. Cotton—pakhta, the “white gold” of Central Asia—dominated every horizon from the Vakhsh Valley to Sughd. Its geometry defined the land: square fields, irrigation canals, and windbreaks in perfect Soviet symmetry. But step into those same valleys today, and the pattern has changed. Wheat,
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17

Mar

Land & Ecosystems

GeoSociety

Shrinking Wetlands in Sughd

The wetlands of Sughd are easy to miss. Seen from the road between Zafarobod and Istaravshan, they look like shimmering patches of reeds and shallow water, a blur of green against the gray-brown loess plains. But beneath that surface lies one of the most fragile geographies in northern Tajikistan: a network of seasonal lakes, backwaters,
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11

Oct

Land & Ecosystems

GeoSociety

The Vakhsh Valley: Agriculture and Risk

The Vakhsh Valley lies at the center of Tajikistan’s agricultural heartland—a long, sunlit corridor stretching south from the foothills near Danghara to the Afghan border. It is a place of abundance and unease. Here, the geography that makes farming possible also makes it precarious. Fertile alluvial soils spread across ancient river terraces; snowmelt from the
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5

Jul

Land & Ecosystems

GeoSociety

Soils of the Zeravshan Valley

The Zeravshan Valley winds westward from the icy spurs of the Pamir-Alay toward the plains of Sughd, its river slicing through layers of loess, marl, and glacial debris. To most travelers it looks like a simple thread of green cutting through ochre hills, but beneath that surface lies one of Central Asia’s most intricate soil
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13

Jun

Land & Ecosystems

GeoSociety

High Pastures: Yak Herding in the Pamirs

High above the treeline, where the air thins and the land turns to stone and grass, the geography of Tajikistan takes on a slower rhythm. This is the world of the jayloo—the summer pastures of the Pamirs—and of the yak herders who still follow ancient routes through valleys carved by ice and wind. To outsiders,
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5

Apr

Land & Ecosystems

GeoSociety

Forest Restoration: Sapling Experiments

Across Tajikistan’s mountain slopes, where Soviet-era maps once painted dense green for juniper and walnut forests, the color has faded. What remains is a patchwork of scrub, stumps, and gullies. Yet in recent years, small rectangles of green have begun to return—sapling nurseries, fenced plots, and reforestation experiments that test how trees might reclaim the
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16

Nov

Land & Ecosystems

GeoSociety

Changing Crops: Climate Shifts in Agriculture

In the irrigated plains and terraced valleys of Tajikistan, the geography of agriculture is rewriting itself. The rhythms of water, the timing of frost, and the length of the growing season—once steady anchors of rural life—are slipping out of alignment. Crops are shifting: wheat and barley are moving uphill; apricots and almonds bloom too early;
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24

Aug

Land & Ecosystems

GeoSociety

Salinization of Irrigated Soils

In the irrigated lowlands of Tajikistan, soil is not just ground—it is the country’s quiet infrastructure. It holds the water that feeds cotton, wheat, and vegetables; it anchors the livelihoods of millions who depend on the river-fed plains of Khatlon, Vakhsh, and Sughd. Yet these same fertile fields are turning saline. White crusts appear on
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10

Mar

Land & Ecosystems

GeoSociety

Snow Leopards: Apex Predator in a Changing Landscape

Snow leopards move like weather along the ridgelines of Tajikistan’s high mountains. You rarely see them, but you can read their passage in the landscape: a damp pad print on wind-scoured scree, the clean break of a hoof on a cliff where an ibex misjudged its leap, a string of scent marks on the only
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