Tenure and Transition:

1. Tenure and Transition: Kyrgyz Pastoral Land Management and the Soviet Legacy Jake Fleming UW - Madison April 2008

2. 100 mi

3. Jumgal region, Kyrgyzstan

4. summer site winter site

5. CIA 1982

6. Kyz Art Kochkor Chaek Song Kol area 20 km Jumgal Kochkor Naryn

7. Kyz Art Kochkor Chaek sovkhoz firma firma firma firma Song Kol area 20 km Jumgal Kochkor Naryn

11. Land reform – mid 1990s to present “The task, therefore, as in other states, was to privatize, put land in the hands of individuals, and make farms responsible for their economic activity.” Bloch & Rasmussen 1998 • Open competition among all interested citizens, administered by village, rayon, or oblast’, depending on pasture location • Individuals lease a pasture for 5 to 49 years, receive documentation, and pay rent annually to government land registry • 2005-2008: Chemonics project “Land Reform and Market Development” - “the use of transparent auctions and tenders has stimulated land market activity”

12. Land reform – mid 1990s to present “The task, therefore, as in other states, was to privatize, put land in the hands of individuals, and make farms responsible for their economic activity.” Bloch & Rasmussen 1998 • Open competition among all interested citizens, administered by village, rayon, or oblast’, depending on pasture location • Individuals lease a pasture for 5 to 49 years, receive documentation, and pay rent annually to government land registry • 2005-2008: Chemonics project “Land Reform and Market Development” - “the use of transparent auctions and tenders has stimulated land market activity” THIS DOESN’T HAPPEN MUCH

13. Informal extralegal pasture management and a local Soviet legacy INSTEAD • Government plays little role in land management – no auctions, no mapping, no documentation, no rent • Some local officials choose not to enforce the laws • Persistence of Soviet arrangements – the same shepherds in the same places • Spatial organization of herding...

14. 1 1 2 3 4 1 2 2 3 3 4 winter site 1 summer site 1 Grazing at Kyz Art

15. Informal extralegal pasture management and the local Soviet legacy INSTEAD • Government plays little role in land management – no auctions, no mapping, no documentation, no rent • Some local officials choose not to enforce the laws • Persistence of Soviet arrangements – the same shepherds in the same places • Spatial organization of herding... • Not static, but change is driven by local needs, not land reform: ancestral land claims, kinship links, tourism

16. Comrade, come join our collective farm! 1930

17. “The link from village to capital...was tenuous, perforated by long distances, bad roads, poor communications, and grievous misunderstandings of what it meant to rule in a communist way.” KateBrown, A Biography of No Place 2004, p 38

18. Jeffrey Sachs Joseph Stalin

20. Acknowledgements Matthew Turner, Leila Harris,Robert Kaiser, Karl Zimmerer University of Wisconsin-Madison Center for Russia, East Europe, and Central Asia (CREECA) Ak Jol Bazarov, Aida Jumasheva, Myrzabek Ozubekov, Aidai Osmonalieva, the herders of Kyz Art and Kol Ukok

21. The End