Kazakhstan Says Afforestation on Aral Seabed Tops About 1.2 Million Hectares

Kazakhstan announced that roughly 1.2 million hectares of the former Aral Sea floor have been planted with vegetation as part of a campaign to restrain dust, salt and chemical drift from the exposed basin. Officials say the work is intended to hold down loose soil and slow winds that kick up hazardous particles that can travel into neighboring regions. Full hydrological recovery of the Aral is not considered feasible, so the government has shifted to large-scale planting as the primary way to limit further environmental harm.

The country’s effort builds on three decades of anti-desertification programs in southern Kazakhstan. The Aral Sea once covered about 68,000 square kilometers and supported coastal fishing towns along what is now the Kazakhstan-Uzbekistan border before Soviet irrigation projects diverted the rivers that fed it. During 1990–2020, authorities and international partners established more than 195,000 hectares of protective plantations in the Kyzylorda region. More recently, reforestation expanded in a five-year push that added about 1.12 million hectares between 2021 and 2025, and an additional roughly 116,000 hectares were added this year.

Planting teams say they have broadcast some 3,440 tons of seed and put in more than 53 million seedlings, mostly drought- and salt-tolerant species such as saxaul. Survival on the salty, wind-swept substrate remains low: scientific surveys put the establishment rate at about one-third of planted saplings. “Establishing vegetation here is an experimental process — the seedlings must cope with high salts, shallow water tables and sand that moves in a blink,” said a regional ecologist who works on the project. Officials are testing different seed mixes and nursery treatments to improve early survival.

There are signs of ecological recovery where stands have taken hold. Saxaul shrubs send out wide lateral roots — sometimes reaching on the order of a dozen meters — that help bind the surface and reduce erosion. As soil-building processes advance, small mammals, lizards and birds have begun to return to sections of the former seabed. Planners also hope to bolster the economic value of restored tracts by sowing forage plants inside sheltering belts with the eventual aim of opening limited pasture for local herders. Authorities have proposed creating the Aral Ormany State Forest Nature Reserve to protect more than 1.3 million hectares of rehabilitated land.

The work is being tied to broader regional initiatives aimed at curbing transboundary dust storms and land degradation. At an April summit in Astana, Central Asian governments endorsed a decade-long program to create wide green barriers and protective belts along highways and rail lines to reduce the impact of drifting salts and sand. A Central Asian policy analyst said coordinated plantings across borders could make mitigation more effective, but added that success will depend on financing and water-management cooperation among neighbors.

Despite the gains, experts warn the task remains formidable. Continued maintenance, long-term monitoring and better techniques to raise seedling survival will be needed for the belts to mature and deliver promised benefits. For now, the planting campaign represents a practical shift in strategy — from trying to restore a vanished inland sea to shaping the exposed basin into a managed buffer that limits harm to people and ecosystems across the region.