Dr. Abdushukur Hamzaev, Vice-chairman of State Committee on Forestry and Director, Forestry Research Institute, Republic of Uzbekistan a delivered Congratulatory address on the behalf of Mr. Bakirov Nizomiddin, Chairman of State Committee on Forestry, Republic of Uzbekistan. He acknowledged the great support of the National Institute of Forest Science, Republic of Korea, and Asia Pacific Association of Forestry Research Institutions for their financial support and to the Department of Environment and Forest Engineering, National University of Mongolia for their excellent arrangements and organization. He warmly welcomed all participants to Uzbekistan. Also, he briefly introduced the state of forestry and state committee on forestry of the Republic of Uzbekistan and strongly pointed out that no similar International Workshop had been organized in Tashkent within the last 10-years.

A general Introduction to the Agenda of the Workshop, Field trip and previously organized series of annual Workshops was introduced by Prof. Nyam-Osor Batkhuu, National University of Mongolia and he moderated the whole Workshop activity.

Valuable information and insights on Central and Northeast Asian forests, their ecological importance, conservation and restoration experiences were shared by speakers and who described conditions in their home countries, challenges and opportunities in Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Mongolia. The final minutes of the Workshop were dedicated to Panel discussions where all participants and speakers were actively involved and shared their knowledge and experience in the field of Silviculture, Forest Restoration, Forest genetic resources conservation and future possibly collaborations among countries and institutions.

The two-day field trip on 17-18 October, 2018, featured a visit to Galliya-Aralskiy forest experimental station which is located 360 km to the south of Tashkent city in the territory of Galliya-Aralks district, Djizak region. Specifically, the location is 8 km in the north of Aktash village with annual precipitation of 250-300 mm and is 730 m asl. Galliya-Aralks experimentation-demonstration plot was established under Mirzachulsk forest-experimental station according to a Decree of the Uzbekistan Academy of Agriculture on 25 October, 1957. Since establishment of the station, several experiments on selection of woody species were started and a 50 ha arboretum was established where 80 different species of woody plants were planted. Beginning in the 1980’s, Pistachio plantation and provenance trails for selection of genetically superior varieties were established on the experimentation-demonstration station.

1. Rationale and background
Forests in drylands (arid and semi-arid regions) play a significant role in conserving biodiversity, harboring unique and endemic species that are particularly adapted to extreme ecological conditions and providing ecosystem goods and services that are essential for people’s livelihoods and well-being. If dryland forests are well managed and properly valued, they have the potential to help tackle such global challenges as poverty, climate change, erosion, land degradation and desertification.

Yet dryland forests are caught in a spiral of deforestation, fragmentation, degradation and desertification, driven by interrelated and complex factors such as adverse land-use, poor governance and a general lack of understanding of the importance and vulnerability of these ecosystems, coupled with a lack of investment in their sustainable management and restoration. Moreover, along with desertification, climate change-related phenomena are a huge, and growing concern in drylands. The decrease in rainfall and increase in extreme weather conditions predicted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change will lead to severe water scarcity and are likely to cause a vicious circle of land and forest degradation, leading to unsustainable livelihoods in rural areas.

The continuous economic development and population growth resulted in degradation of ecosystems due to increasing pressure on natural resources. These problems are more intense in arid and semi-arid areas, which, in spite of their aridity, are of global importance for biodiversity, and rural communities are often dependent upon such ecosystems for fuels, fodder and other resources; hence, the applied unsustainable practices have negative impacts on biodiversity, soil fertility, water availability as well as on livelihoods of local people.

Land use and governance systems have changed dramatically over the last century in Central and Northeast Asia. Development of large-scale irrigated agriculture, establishment of the mining industry to extract oil, natural gas, iron, copper, and complex ores, and related industrial enterprises have taken their toll on the natural environment. Many countries in the region were affected by the dissolution of the Soviet Union, which was accompanied by privatization of land that has allowed a variety of resource exploitation, such as overgrazing of pastures, forest logging, and unsustainable use of water resulting in the erosion and salinization of soils. Much of the area of Central and Northeast Asia has been affected by some degree of anthropogenic desertification that will be exacerbated by future changes in climate.

Restoration actions in drylands could range from on-the-ground activities such as habitat protection, sustainable natural resource management, assisted natural regeneration, sand-dune stabilization, seeding and planting of trees, shrubs and grasses for multiple purposes, to policy improvements, the provision of financial incentives, capacity development, and continuous monitoring and learning.

The Workshop of invited international experts was held in Tashkent, Uzbekistan in 15-19 October 2018, co-organized by National University of Mongolia, the IUFRO Working Party 1.01.13, Forestry Research Institute, Republic of Uzbekistan and sponsored by National Institute of Forest Science (NIFoS) of the Republic of Korea and Asia Pacific Association of Forestry Research Institutions (APAFRI). It was one of the series of annual workshops followed by the years of 2014 (Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia), 2015 (Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan), 2016 (Beijing, China), and 2017 (Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia). The 2018 workshop this year aimed to identify and promote approaches for the sustainable management of dryland forest ecosystems, by researching ecosystem restoration techniques using native species of economic value and how restoration of degraded lands can be achieved in a way that will mitigate the effects of unsustainable land use practices and contribute to conservation of biodiversity, in ways that support the development of rural livelihoods according to the ecosystem approach.

2. Objectives
The main objectives of this workshop were:
i. providing a platform for sharing of knowledge and experiences on dryland forest ecology and forest restoration in respective countries,
ii. identifying key elements of success and failure to improve effectiveness in forest restoration of drylands; and
iii. identifying of specific areas of cooperation in forestry field in the future.

3. Participants
Participants from each country upon invitation only, namely from 1) Kazakhstan, 2) Kyrgyzstan, 3) Mongolia, 4) Tajikistan, 5) Uzbekistan and 6) Peoples Republic of China, 7) Republic of Korea were invited to attend this Workshop. Invited participants were practitioners active in developing and implementing programmes/projects on afforestation and forest restoration in drylands and Experts from forestry departments, seed tree centres, private sector, research institutions, development agencies, etc.

4. Date and Venue
The Workshop was held in 15-19 October, 2018 in the City Palace Hotel (Amir Temur street, 15, Tashkent, Uzbekistan, 1000000), Tashkent, Uzbekistan (https://citypalace.uz/en/).