To the Strategy of Steppes’ Conservation and Restoration and Natural Resource Use in the Area of Post-Virgin Lands

The program for the virgin and fallow lands’ development adopted in the USSR in 1954 is the largest megaproject of the 20th century, with unprecedented ecological and socio-economic consequences. Large areas of steppe landscapes of Russia and Kazakhstan (more than 43 mln ha) have been ploughed. “Power” methods of influencing natural steppe landscapes with the aim of agricultural production intensifying led to their degradation and destruction. The consequences of these policy are well known: processes of erosion, dust storms, soil depletion, degraded land abandonment, and subsequently steppes’ autoreduction in the vast expanses of the steppe zone have developed. The anthropogenic impacts generated by the irresponsible and insufficiently scientifically grounded land resources use led to the loss of valuable land areas that are of major, not only economic, but also biospheric and environmental importance. Ecological and socio-economic changes and consequences still affect the steppe landscapes’ structure and functioning and the entire economic activity of regions that have undergone a “total” plowing. The study of these problems is of great relevance, despite many years have passed. Establishing the effectiveness of the project raises many questions. It is necessary to rethink the system of interaction “steppe–society”. It demands of the formation of new approaches to the use and protection of steppe landscapes. The main scientific directions of the strategy for the steppe landscapes’ conservation, restoration, and management were determined: land reform improvement including formation of efficient landowners and the state fund of low-productive lands; cultural rehabilitation of degraded landscapes (creation of cultural landscapes); identifying steppe land use types according to various natural, ecological and socio-economic characteristics, taking into account environmental restrictions and prohibitions; legislative establishment of the type of steppe natural resource use; transition to nature-like technologies in the agricultural sector; declaration at the state and international levels steppes’ special role on carbon sequestration; wider plant resources use in medicine and industrial production.

steppe, virgin and fallow lands, steppe natural resource use, strategy of steppes’ conservation and restoration, arable land, environmental changes and consequences

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