DUSHANBE, March 14, Asia-Plus -- In an effort to help reduce land erosion in Tajikistan, the OSCE Center in Dushanbe is supporting a week-long project starting on Friday March 14 that will see 25,000 trees planted in rural parts of the country. 

            “Though many, the trees are not enough to save all of the country from land erosion,” said Bess Brown, Economic Officer of the OSCE Center.  “Tajikistan needs millions of trees to be planted in order to save the little arable lands it has.”

Rukhshona Nazhmidinova. Senior Press and Public Information Assistant, the OSCE Center in Dushanbe, noted that the plantings, carried out by about 10,000 participants, are part of a year-long project in which the Center is cooperating with the local authorities.  Chairpersons of Khatlon’s Shahritus and Nosiri Khusrav districts were also present at the tree-planting week opening ceremony. 

The Nosiri Khusrav chairman Hokimjon Karimov noted: “These days, especially when the severe winter has destroyed so many trees in Tajikistan, every newly planted tree should count.” 

According to the OSCE Center in Dushanbe, every year, Tajikistan loses 50,000 hectares of productive land because of erosion, posing a serious threat to the economy of the country and making it more vulnerable to natural disasters.