A co-evolutionary perspective on the adoption of sustainable land use practices: The case of the amu darya river lowlands, uzbekistan

Abstract

Using the example of the Amu Darya River lowlands of Uzbekistan, I analyze land degradation problems, and rehabilitation options, and their implementation constraints within a framework of coevolving socio-ecological systems, which emerged in ecological economics. Cotton export income substantially contributes to Uzbekistan’s economy. To reach cotton targets, farmers initiated unsustainable land management practices, resulting in degradation of vast areas of land. This has had reciprocal effects on the wellbeing of the population: declining yields in crops and shrinking incomes. One option for improving land can be afforestation. However, such land use is not practiced due to path dependencies, interdependencies, and goal dependencies. Farmers’ uncertainty regarding costs and benefits and their perceptions of land use, shaped by a history of agricultural policies and practices, make them unreceptive to planting trees on marginal croplands. This cotton cultivation lock-in is a result of high investments in cotton production policies, institutions, and infrastructure. Establishing tree plantations on marginal croplands may change the implementation and later formation of agricultural policies and alter relations between agricultural policy and production actors, which are all highly interdependent in the current cotton-centric configuration. Understanding these dependencies is necessary for understanding the constraints affecting sustainable natural resource management systems. Only then can policies be derived that may lead to the adoption of innovative sustainable land uses.