Countries in Central Asia are increasingly under threat from climate-exacerbated hazards, which is harming landscapes, living conditions, infrastructure, livelihoods, and agricultural productivity. In the Kyrgyz Republic, these hazards, compounded by the country’s mountainous landscape, make it highly prone to extreme weather events, including floods, mudflows, and landslides. Mudflows, exacerbated by climate change and land degradation, endanger critical infrastructure, houses, orchards, and other economic assets in downstream communities and degrade landscapes by eroding soils and removing vegetation.

With support from GFDRR, the Kyrgyz Republic has been looking to nature-based solutions (NBS) to help the country and its people build resilience to these challenges.

A key focus for the facility has been to support analytical work that is expected to inform the Kyrgyz Republic’s agenda for NBS for resilience, including in the context of the Kyrgyz Republic Resilient Landscape Restoration Project, which the World Bank supports.

Preliminary findings from a technical assessment of the country’s Kara Darya Basin and an NBS planning pilot in Cholpon Ata in Issyk-Kul oblast, both of which GFDRR supported, have informed a range of potentially suitable NBS options, including slope stabilization, riverbank and riverbed protection, gully stabilization, reforestation, and terracing. Drawing on in-depth site visits, the assessment has provided considerations for each of the NBS options. For example, with regard to flood protection measures, it emphasized the need to conduct comprehensive topographic surveys and hydraulic studies to confirm the viability and suitability of such measures. Meanwhile, with regard to the slope stabilization, the assessment emphasized that maintenance requirements would likely demand constant attention to vegetation health.

Drawing on the facility’s global expertise in NBS, the assessment also emphasized that applying a mix of NBS, gray solutions, and hybrid solutions will be likely to be more effective and more sustainable than simply applying gray solutions downstream. It also highlighted the importance of going beyond site-specific NBS interventions by creating networks of measures that bring cumulative resilience benefits at scale.

The assessment helped strengthen the business case for investing in NBS as part of a broader effort to build resilience. For instance, the assessment examined flood and mudflow risk in three sub-basins of the Kara Darya Basin: Aravan Sai, Changet Sai, and Kara-Unkur— where communities and infrastructure face substantial threats from frequent flood mudflow events. Using a combination of hydrological and hydraulic modeling, the project assessed flood hazard levels for 10-, 50-, and 100-year events and visualized spatial flood extent depths affecting large areas of farmland, built-up regions, and key infrastructure. High-intensity precipitation, along with snow and glacier melt, excessive sediment erosion, and glacial lake outburst floods were identified as the main mudflow triggers.

These findings have informed the design and ongoing implementation of NBS and conventional gray infrastructure measures under the Kyrgyz Republic Resilient Landscape Restoration Project, which is being supported by a $45 million financing commitment from the International Development Association (IDA). The project is part of the regional Central Asia Resilient Landscape Restoration Program, which was formed in 2019 to provide Central Asian countries with a regional framework to increase resilience.

Planned NBS under the project include protecting riverbanks through vegetation, terracing, and construction of flood retention ponds and other nature-based flood and erosion management interventions, which will capture eroded sediment and slow flood peaks. Findings from the GFDRR-supported assessments are expected to help the Ministry of Emergency Situations plan, design, and implement NBS in the Kara Darya Basin and other parts of the country.

A workshop and a training activity are being planned in fiscal year 2025 with the aim of disseminating the findings and building capacity on NBS to relevant government agencies in the Kyrgyz Republic.