On the 30th Anniversary of the “General Plan to Combat Desertification of Black Lands and Kizlyar Pastures”

Abstract

This paper reviews the main historical stages of the development and implementation of the largest environmental project of the late 20th century—the “General Plan to Combat Desertification of Black Lands and Kizlyar Pastures.” The goal of this project was to implement a scientifically grounded set of measures to stop desertification processes, improve the economic state of pastures, increase their fertility, and protect lands. The implementation of the general plan has led to the performance of agroforestry works in an area of more than 7000 km², the fixing of more than 4000 km² of mobile sands, and the restoration of more than 2500 km² of pastures. According to the forecasts, if all of the measures stipulated by the general plan were observed, the area of the ecological disaster zone would decrease and then completely disappear. A study conducted with Landsat satellite images showed that this forecast has partially come true: the area of open sands that was recorded in the test plot in 2016 (27.3 km²) is only 1% of the open sands area recorded in 1975, which is a consequence of the implementation of the general plan, a number of environmental measures, and favorable climate fluctuations.