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Exploring the human-nature nexus towards effective nature-based solutions: the Aral Sea case

Alikhanova, Shahzoda, Milner-Gulland, Eleanor Jane, Bull, Joseph William (2024) Exploring the human-nature nexus towards effective nature-based solutions: the Aral Sea case. Land Use Policy, 139 . Article Number 107073. ISSN 0264-8377. (doi:10.1016/j.landusepol.2024.107073) (KAR id:104687)

Abstract

Incorporating societal challenges and values into the design of locally appropriate nature-based solutions (NbS) is an integral strategy for ensuring benefits for both communities and the environment. But how are human-nature relations impacted when the environments containing resources which are valued and relied on, undergo dramatic and sustained change on decadal timescales? To explore this interplay, we selected Muynak as a case study, once a thriving town on the shores of the former Aral Sea in Uzbekistan. We conducted a social survey among the residents to identify the use of natural resources and the values they assign to the most common and yet highly degraded resources in the area (wetlands, rangelands, afforested areas, the Aral Sea, and wildlife). The survey was complemented with expert interviews. Our study suggests that grasslands are the most frequently used of the resources under study, while wetlands and wildlife are generally more valued. Overall, resources were more culturally valued than financially, historically, or recreationally. The majority of respondents perceived a degradation in most natural resources over the past decade, particularly wetlands (79 %), followed by grasslands (48 %), and the Aral Sea (42 %). Wetlands were reported to be in a state of ongoing degradation by 79 % of respondents, which negatively affected the livelihoods of almost half of the households in the survey area. Afforested areas were the only resources reported to have a positive perceived change in both status and their effect on well-being. The vast majority of respondents (83 %) felt that human well-being was linked to environmental conditions. This study lays the foundation for future interventions to develop nature-based solutions to benefit both people and nature, and highlights the continuing value placed on nature by residents of an area that has suffered substantial anthropogenic degradation.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1016/j.landusepol.2024.107073
Projects: Darwin Initiative’s Resurrection Island: enterprise, conservation and development around the Aral Sea project (28-003, country of implementation: Uzbekistan).
Uncontrolled keywords: Aral Sea; Uzbekistan; natural resource use; nature-based solutions (NbS); human-environment interrelations; drylands
Subjects: H Social Sciences
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Human and Social Sciences > School of Anthropology and Conservation
Divisions > Division of Human and Social Sciences > School of Anthropology and Conservation > DICE (Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology)
Funders: Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (https://ror.org/00tnppw48)
SWORD Depositor: JISC Publications Router
Depositing User: JISC Publications Router
Date Deposited: 22 Jan 2024 11:02 UTC
Last Modified: 01 May 2024 09:00 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/104687 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

University of Kent Author Information

Alikhanova, Shahzoda.

Creator's ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1646-7820
CReDIT Contributor Roles: Formal analysis, Writing - original draft, Investigation, Conceptualisation, Visualisation, Data curation, Methodology
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