ABSTRACT
The state-subsidised livestock systems in Kazakstan as in other Central Asian regions successfully met the meat and wool needs of the Soviet Union. However in the mid-1960s and 1970s the central planners in Moscow perceived the need both for increased production from the livestock sector and improved living standards for local herders. The resulting push for yet more intensive production may have instigated a long, slow decline in pasture productivity and ecosystem sustainability. It is likely that unsustainable land use practices and a significant shift in climate patterns in the 1990s also contributed to the demise of the livestock system.
