Watershed Health Analysis and Skills Enhancement of National Staff in Tajikistan

The ‘Watershed Health Analyses and Skills Enhancement of National Staff in Tajikistan’ subactivity provides technical support to the Caritas Switzerland (CaCH) led initiative on watershed restoration and sustainable management in Muminabad district, Tajikistan. In previous project phases CaCH developed and implemented various Sustainable Land Management (SLM) practices in four different watersheds in the target area. After several years of successful CaCH project implementation the newly developed ‘Watershed Health Analyses and Skills Enhancement of National Staff in Tajikistan’ sub-activity will reevaluate the project’s implications on the target watersheds’ surface hydrology.

Three interconnected activities will be undertaken: i) Analysis of soil health and identification of attribution to improved soil (watershed) health stemming directly and indirectly from CaCH project related activities; ii) Workshop and training of national staff (CaCH; Tajik government) and university students on contemporary soil sampling strategies within watershed and analysis; as well as hydrological analysis of watershed health related to disaster risk reduction iii) Report outlining lessons learnt and outcomes attained from activity (i) as well as recommendations for how to effectively scale out contextually relevant approaches uncovered and successful in reducing the potential incidence of disasters from natural causes (landslides, mudflows, flooding).

The evaluation and quantitative assessment of CaCH rehabilitation effects on soil, water and vegetation - to be used as indication for the watershed health status and its resilience to land degradation, in addition to awareness raising and capacity development of local staff and stakeholders, will contribute to the enhancement of local experts’ capacity to support quantification and documentation of potential impacts of the Sustainable Land Management (SLM) practices implemented by the Caritas Switzerland (CaCH) led initiative on watershed restoration and sustainable management in Muminabad district, Tajikistan. It will also serve as evidence to support efficacy in research and development for broad uptake (scaling up and out) of contextually relevant SLM practices and as support to effective policy dialogue on sectoral reform and promulgation of new policies contributing to the improvement of well-being within rural communities in Tajikistan.