According to statistics, there are 8,4 million heads of sheep and goats in the Republic. Given
the total area of pastures and total quantity of sheep and goats, 6,5 heads of sheep and goats (3
times more) fall to 1 ha of winter pasture land, and 20,5 heads of sheep and goats (3,5 times
more) to 1 ha of summer pasture land. At present, in the country current situation of the
pasturelands, hay lands and pasture farms and their productivity are poorer than their capacity.
This does not fit with increased demand of livestock, especially sheep farming, and affects the
development of livestock-raising. Whereas, average productivity of semi-desert winter pastures
equals to 3-5 hundred kilograms per hectare, and productivity of summer pastures equals to 8-
10 hundred kilograms of dry grass on average. Sheep and goats existing in the country are
provided with winter pastures for 45,8% and with summer pastures for 37,9%.
Unlike water and air, soil is a more complicated and complex system. Therefore, when polluted
its restoration requires longer time and bigger economic investments. Over the last 150-160
years, soil cover in the Republic of Azerbaijan was subject to more pollution. Pollution sources
can be classified as follows: industry, transport and agricultural activities and activities in
residential areas. It is revealed that industry and agriculture are the major sources. Throughout
long years, oil extraction and transport, mining works carried out especially in Absheron (16
thousand ha), Gobustan (5,5 thousand ha) and South-East Shirvan (12,5 thousand ha), also in
Lesser Caucasus led to pollution and degradation of soil at a greater extent Over the last years,
numerous industrial areas especially in Sumgait, Shirvan, Baku, Ganja and Mingachevir cities
has polluted soil with effluents and solid wastes.
According to estimations, in our country, area of such lands is larger than 98 thousand hectares.
6 thousand ha of such lands are recorded in Sumgait and 5,5 thousand ha in Qaradagh-Alat
area. Soil pollution in agriculture occurs in various ways, in particular with employment of
mineral fertilizers and pesticides and irrigation waters. Larger land plots were subject to such
type of pollution in the Kura-Araz lowland, Ganja-Gazakh sloping plain, Lenkoran, and Samur-
Shabran flatlands and Ganikh-Ayrichay valleys. Currently, in particular, the warehouses and
landfills, where fertilizers and pesticides were stored in Soviet times play the role of potential
pollution source. Such pollution sources existed in all administrative areas, railway stations and
transport networks. Indigenous biodiversity of such areas is perished; they were replaced by
organisms resistant to these substances. Therefore, solution of this issue is priority for the
country.
Transportation also has a significant impact on soil pollution. These may include oil product
residues in filling stations, loss of chemicals in transpiration and toxic emissions from the
transport. In our country, such pollutions are more visible in densely-populated areas.
Domestic wastes are considered to be the second large source of pollution in the monitored
areas of cities. According to estimations, in our country, over a year 250-300 kg of domestic
wastes and about 300 kg of effluent fall per capita in cities with the population exceeding 50
thousand people. Soil cover of our country is subject to degradation, as the result of up to 5%
contamination of various degrees.
2,54 million. ha or 29,31%- of lands spread in the country were subject to surface and ravine
erosion. Lands in the uplands were subject to water, and lands in flatland zone near the Caspian
Sea and north costal area of Absheron peninsula to wind erosion. Depth of local erosional
conformity, inclination degree and aspect of slopes are among the major factors generating
water erosion. Intensive erosion process is related to granular composition of the soil cover and
buffer rate of the soil, density degrees of vegetation on the slopes, anthropological factors,
incompliance with correct pasturing system of summer pastures, trampling of pastures, draught
reoccurrence every 3, 5, 25 years, decline in production of grass context and decrease of the
buffer rate of the soil, etc. Due to non-observance to irrigation intensity and norms when
cultivating lands under irrigation conditions, in the foothill regions irrigation erosion is more
widely spread.
The soils in those areas underwent weak, medium and severe erosions. It is known that, erosion
process, especially surface and ravine erosion is considered to be the worst natural condition
for the soil cover. Wind erosion is basically caused by the winds with 15m/s speed and by
frequent winds and lands subject to such types of erosion process are not widely spread in the
territory of the country.
Information on the eroded lands in the territory of the country is summarised in Table 6 below.
Table 6: Information on erosion rate of the soils of the Republic of Azerbaijan
Seq.
number
Agricultural
and plots
Area
(hectares)
Erosion rate (hectares)
Eroded
Weekly
eroded
Medium level
erosion
Severely
eroded
1
Sown
1613147
1606049
4033
2258
807
2
perennial
58752
46961
5664
4594
1533
3
Rested
172294
166746
3584
1447
517
4
pasture
107919
82785
11385
7781
5968
5
pastureland and
meadow
2562361
1913571
24449
280066
124275
6
Total agriculture
areas
4514473
3816112
269115
296146
133100
7
Other soils
4127033
-
-
-
-
Total for the country
8641506
7632224
538230
592292
266200
Land degradation is being further exacerbated by the weak regulation of building and
construction activities in Azerbaijan, as well as the limited capacity for effective controls on
mitigating the environmental impacts of industrial developments. In many cases residential
building and other facilities are constructed according to the decisions of local governing
bodies without consultation with relevant organizations on land use zoning and/or mitigating
impacts. Some houses and other facilities are built without compliance with environmental and
sanitary norms in the protection zones of oil and gas pipelines, water mains, underground
communications, high-voltage power lines, Caspian Sea and other water features.
Large-scale use of fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides has also degraded arable lands. This
has been mainly caused by uncontrolled imports of these chemicals into the country, as well as
the poorly-informed use of these chemicals by local farmers.
1.3.2 Habitat fragmentation
The alteration and depletion of forest resources has historically had severe ecological impacts
in Azerbaijan. In some parts of the country (e.g. on the slopes of the Talish mountains) forests
are being still further fragmented as economically valuable timber species (such as nut and oak)
are being illegally harvested. Total area of forest fund is 1213, 7 thousand ha, out of which
1021 thousand ha is covered with forest and it constitutes 11, 8% of the total area (refer to
Figure 1 below). Per capita forest area is approximately 0.13 ha in the country and it is
approximately 4 times less (0, 48 ha) than the average figure accepted internationally. In spite
of intensive measures taken for forest conservation, forests cover the north-east of the country,
especially south-west of Guba, Gusar, Shabran, Siyazan, Khizi administrative areas; and
reduction of forests is observed in the south-west of Khizi area. The woodland in the south
macro-slope of the Greater Caucasus in the territory of Shamakhi area is restored and extends
till Georgian border. Seeds were sawn in 92.28 hectares of seed-plots, 3282,47 thousand