The ESA Global Development Assistance (GDA) Forest Management activity is supporting the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in the preparation of the Conservation and Afforestation for Resilient Ecosystems (CARE) project in Kyrgyzstan. This collaboration aims to use satellite Earth Observation (EO) to strengthen the evidence base for biodiversity conservation, restoration, and management of the walnut forests in four State Forest Enterprises of the Forest Service of Kyrgyzstan in the Jalal-Abad region. By delivering high-resolution, consistent, and up-to-date information on land cover and forest type distribution, ESA GDA is helping the ADB to prepare for the CARE project while supporting the Forest Service of Kyrgyzstan to make better-informed decisions for forest conservation and sustainable land management.
This story highlights the initial EO developments undertaken. The first phase included producing baseline geospatial products for the CARE project area in the Jalal-Abad region; the second phase delivered land cover and forest type maps for the years 2019 and 2024. The third phase analysed land cover changes of the forests over a five-year period, looking for forest gains, losses, and signs of degradation. These datasets will be tested and refined with user feedback, paving the way for operational uptake by the Forest Service of Kyrgyzstan and the Ministry of Emergency Situations, which monitors hazards such as fire and landslides.
World’s largest natural walnut forest under threat
Nestled in the Jalal-Abad region of south-western Kyrgyzstan, the walnut-fruit forest belt in the Western Tien Shan is among the world’s most ecologically significant ancient, naturally surviving nut and fruit-bearing ecosystems. These forests have survived for thousands of years and serve as a global genetic reservoir for walnut and various fruit species. Additionally, they support local livelihoods through traditional nut and fruit harvesting, small-scale agroforestry, and eco-tourism. Yet they face increasing threats from climate change, illegal logging, overgrazing, and unsustainable land use.
Recognising the urgency of the situation, the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic and the Forest Service of Kyrgyzstan sought ADB support for sustainable forest management and conservation in the region. The resulting EO-based products cover forest monitoring, land-use change detection, and climate impact analysis, providing the up-to-date maps of forest cover, type, and change that these goals demand.
Using EO to map land cover and forest types across the Jalal-Abad region
To support the ADB project preparation team and national counterparts, this ESA GDA Forest activity, led by unique land use GmbH with support from GISBOX, has delivered EO products in three cycles across an area of approximately 8,558 km² encompassing four State Forest Enterprises (SFEs): Toskool-Ata, Arslanbop-Ata, Kyzyl-Unkur, and Kara-Alma.
These include:
- Baseline maps: In the first cycle in 2025, the consortium collected, processed, and compiled relevant geospatial data for the project area into a central geospatial database. These maps cover key biophysical and socioeconomic features including forest types, hydrology, transport infrastructure, settlements, administrative boundaries, pastures, and forest service areas. The resulting baseline maps were organised as an atlas of thematic maps providing the ADB project team with a clear spatial understanding of the project context.
- Land Cover and Forest Type maps (2019 and 2024): The second cycle focused on producing high-resolution land cover and forest type maps for two reference years. Developed from Sentinel-2 satellite imagery and an advanced machine learning approach, these products map the six main forest types defined for Kyrgyzstan including walnut, juniper, pistachio, spruce and fir, and mixed other broadleaf forests. The maps combine these forest types with broader land cover classes such as pasture, arable land, and settlements, at a spatial resolution of 10 metres. The maps enable direct temporal comparison between 2019 and 2024, capturing changes in forest extent, composition, and landscape fragmentation.
(Credit: unique land use GmbH)
- Land Cover and Forest Change map (2019 to 2024): The third cycle examined how the forests changed over the five-year period, comparing the 2019 and 2024 maps to identify where the landscape stayed stable, shifted, or warranted closer attention, with particular focus on the walnut forests. Because the CARE project aims to safeguard these forests from threats such as encroachment, pests, overgrazing, erosion, and fire, the analysis targeted precisely these kinds of change.
Encouragingly, no major trend of forest loss or degradation emerged, suggesting that forest protection efforts are broadly working. Most changes were small-scale and concentrated around settlements, reflecting human activity. Others reflected natural processes including losses from landslides on steep slopes and shifts along riverbanks where mudflows and unstable terrain reshape the landscape over time.
The products also serve as a starting point on using EO for planning, monitoring, and reporting for forest, land use, and rural development activities in Kyrgyzstan.
Ensuring uptake
A key focus of the ESA GDA technical support is to integrate these EO-derived land use and forest products into Kyrgyzstan’s National Forest Monitoring System. The ADB project team has embedded a national Geographic Information Systems (GIS) consultant within the preparation team, who works closely with the ESA GDA Forest consortium to ensure the products feed directly into the analytics and studies shaping the project design. The team also introduced the EO products to the Forest Service of Kyrgyzstan and other geospatial stakeholders active in the region, who will help assess how the products can best inform the project.
The work in Kyrgyzstan demonstrates how EO can improve forest conservation and sustainable land management in ecologically sensitive landscapes. The EO products directly support the ten-year integrated forest and pasture management plans for the State Forest Enterprises, while enabling cost-effective, high-resolution, and frequent monitoring throughout the implementation period. By documenting how forests and pastures change over time, they support evidence-based planning, improve carbon reporting, and ultimately strengthen climate resilience.
In the coming months, the consortium will refine the products based on user feedback and support the Forest Service of Kyrgyzstan in embedding EO into its day-to-day forest management. Although the use case is rooted in project preparation, the approach is designed to scale up to the national level to enable continuous monitoring of forest change and hazards such as fire, pests, landslides, and erosion. Kyrgyzstan’s exceptional relic forests now have a foundation for long-term, evidence-based protection.
