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Erosion in the Vakhsh Valley: How Soil Disappears into Rivers
The Vakhsh flows swift and muddy through its gorges, carrying soil from slopes high above into its depths: a river of dust, rock, and memory. From the ridges of the Pamirs down toward the lowland plains, erosion is never distant; it breathes in every valley, slips through every side stream, and tests every patch of…
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The Fann Mountains: Tourism, Ecology, and Pressure
The Fann Mountains rise like a sudden wall from the Zeravshan Valley, their jagged limestone peaks and turquoise lakes drawing both mountaineers and local families during the brief, luminous summers. Tucked in northwestern Tajikistan between the Zeravshan and Gissar ranges, this compact but dramatic mountain system has become one of the country’s primary destinations for…
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Wetlands for Migratory Birds
In southern Tajikistan, along the lower reaches of the Panj and Amu Darya, there are marshy patches, reed belts, and seasonally flooded meadows. To wander through these wetlands in spring is to step into one of the great migratory highways of Central Asia: a place where birds pause to rest and refuel before continuing across…
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Women and Water: Gendered Geographies of Labor
In many Tajik villages, the sound of water is inseparable from women’s daily lives. At dawn, before the heat rises, women walk to canals, springs, or village taps with buckets and plastic containers, chatting softly as they queue. Later, they return to wash clothes at stream edges, irrigate kitchen gardens, or clean tools. These scenes…
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Riverine Fisheries: Decline and Adaptation
On the lower reaches of Tajikistan’s rivers, as spring runoff gives way to summer flows, fishermen gather at dawn along the banks with nets, handlines, and aging wooden boats. Their activity is both timeless and newly fragile. Riverine fisheries, which once was an abundant, integral part of local livelihoods and riparian ecosystems have been steadily…
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Mountain Biodiversity Corridors: Linking Reserves
In Tajikistan’s mountains, biodiversity persists in unexpected places: along narrow valleys, across wind-swept ridges, and in the steep transition zones between ecological belts. These landscapes are more than isolated habitats- they form corridors that allow species to move, adapt, and survive in a changing environment. In recent years, scientists and conservationists have turned their attention…
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Cotton Landscapes: Water, Monoculture, and Soil
In the lowland plains of Tajikistan, cotton fields stretch in orderly rows toward the horizon, green leaves shimmering against pale loess soils under an unforgiving sun. These landscapes are both entirely human-made and deeply geographical. Cotton here depends on a massive redirection of water, the reshaping of soils, and a social-ecological system built around monoculture.…
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Agroforestry Practices: Between Tradition and Modernity
Across Tajikistan’s valleys and foothills, trees grow not only in forests but also in fields, canalsides, and village gardens. This blending of trees with crops and pastures is part of a long agroforestry tradition that shapes both landscapes and livelihoods. In recent decades, changing climate patterns, land-use reforms, and development programs have introduced new methods,…
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Glacial Permafrost Thaw in the Pamirs
High in the Pamirs, where the landscape folds into sharp ridges and cirques, ice is not confined to glaciers alone. Much of it lies hidden within the ground, frozen into the soil and rock. This is permafrost: a perennially frozen ground that has shaped Pamiri landscapes for millennia. Now, under a warming climate, that frozen…
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