OVERVIEW OF TRADITIONAL KNOWLEDGE FOR SUSTAINABLE USE OF NATURE IN KYRGYZSTAN AND CENTRAL ASIA

摘要

Central Asia encompasses an area of about 4 million km~2, located at the crossroads of Europe and Asia between 35-55° north latitude and 48-87° east longitude. It includes the new sovereign states of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan,and Uzbekistan, which declared their independence in 1991 after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The population of the Central Asian subregion is more than 59 million people, with an average population density of nearly 15 people per km~2 (Anonymous 2007).