{"id":41257,"date":"2022-01-03T14:35:58","date_gmt":"2022-01-03T13:35:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/novastan.org\/en\/?p=41257"},"modified":"2023-03-30T17:17:42","modified_gmt":"2023-03-30T15:17:42","slug":"liquorice-an-endangered-commodity-in-kazakhstan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/novastan.org\/en\/kazakhstan\/liquorice-an-endangered-commodity-in-kazakhstan\/","title":{"rendered":"Liquorice, an endangered commodity in Kazakhstan"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Overexploited, even looted by poachers, Kazakh liquorice is in danger, Traffic International has warned. In a report published in April, the NGO describes a critical situation with the risk of depletion of this slow-to-harvest resource. <\/span><\/strong>This article was originally published on Novastan\u2019s <\/span>French website<\/span><\/a> on 10 June 2021.<\/span><\/strong>On 7 April, the NGO Traffic International, in association with the Association for the Conservation of Biodiversity in Kazakhstan (ACBK), released a <\/span>report<\/span><\/a> highlighting the dangers posed to liquorice reserves in Kazakhstan.<\/span>By exposing the methods of the intensive and disorderly cultivation of liquorice in Kazakhstan over several years, the authors of this report attempt to warn about the alarming decline in the quantity of wild liquorice and propose concrete solutions to remedy this environmental disaster. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Liquorice, a unique culture<\/span><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Cultivated since the 19th century in Kazakhstan, liquorice has long thrived in the wild in much of the country. Dried and then processed, liquorice root is used in around 100 different medicines, medicinal preparations or teas. Today it is the subject of ever-increasing international demand.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n

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The cultivation of liquorice requires very specific conditions. For example, experts from the <\/span>Kazakhstan Botanical Institute<\/span><\/a> based in <\/span>Almaty<\/span><\/a> established that liquorice cultivation requires breaks of 6 to 8 years, during which the fields should remain untapped in order to regenerate. On the other hand, according to the same experts, only three-quarters of the liquorice roots should be removed so that the rest of the <\/span>rhizomes<\/span><\/a> can form new shoots.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Liquorice Poachers<\/span><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

According to the Traffic International report, however, a whole wild harvest economy has developed in Kazakhstan since 2011. There, collection has become uncontrolled and illegal. The biological protocols described by the Institute of Botany are no longer being observed. <\/span>In the traditional liquorice harvesting areas, the situation now seems to repeat itself every year: wild cullenders are hired without an operating work permit. They raze entire areas and then leave the fields abandoned and looted.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Devastating extraction methods<\/span><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

These liquorice poachers use unsuitable tools that deeply affect the soil and leave little chance for root regeneration. Wild cullenders leave behind destroyed fields in which the immature roots for unsuitable liquorice remain exposed to the sun in immense furrows. Left exposed, the roots wither away when they are not capable of growing back.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\t\t\t

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