Farming and Environmental Conservation in Asian Cold Deserts: A Review

Asian cold desert, which includes Gobi desert, Iranian desert, Takla Makan desert, Turkestan desert and Trans-Himalayan desert, has an extremely inhospitable climate and terrain. It has been neglected both by the scientists and development practitioners for a long time. The region is highly heterogeneous in terms of farming practices, biodiversity, ecosystem services and livelihoods.  Efforts for understanding the dynamics of climate, land use-land cover, biodiversity and livelihoods, by and large, focus on macro-scale, with serious gaps in knowledge and understanding about local environmental, economic and social processes. Unlike many other areas, this region has escaped extensive transformation of natural ecosystems and loss of biodiversity. The studies reviewed here provide insights into the ways and means of avoiding environmental degradation and promoting environmental conservation and sustainable livelihoods. There is a need for further enhancing and consolidating scientific knowledge on multiple dimensions of farming, food security and environmental conservation through national and international interdisciplinary endeavours to maximize global benefits from this unique ecoregion which is highly sensitive to global climate change.  Research is needed to demonstrate the potential of biodiversity/environmental conservation for sustainable agriculture and food security and vice-versa.