Kyrgyzstan ranks third most vulnerable to climate change impacts in Central Asia

BISHKEK (TCA) — Recent climate resilience research has shown that Kyrgyzstan is the third most vulnerable to climate change impacts in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, primarily due to the sensitivity of its agricultural systems to climatic change. Impacts such as climate temperature change could cause altered precipitation patterns and more frequent heat extremes, leading to increased incidence of aridity and drought, particularly in the mountain pastures. Since Kyrgyzstan’s land area is 90% mountainous, it is increasingly important to build resilience to these climate changes and to enable communities to continue thriving.

The University of Central Asia’s (UCA) Mountain Societies Research Institute (MSRI) conducted household surveys to measure climate resilience trends. They developed case studies of villages in the Naryn, Bazar-Korgon and Batken regions, which are categorised by the World Food Programme as having high recurrences of poverty and high or medium risk of natural climate change shocks, relative to the rest of the country.

MSRI’s used a new tool for household surveys, which uses generalised and shock-specific subjective resilience measures to evaluate households, and take into account different contexts and demographics. “This new measuring tool has been designed using a subjective approach to question design, which emphasises the power of local people to understand, and communicate their own resilience capacities without the need for long and complex surveys,” said Lira Sagynbekova, MSRI Research Fellow.

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