Border change and conflict in Central Asia: the case of agro-pastoral communities in cross-border areas of the Ferghana Valley.

Abstract

This chapter examines conflicts over water and pastures between agro-pastoral communities in the Ferghana Valley, which lies along the Kyrgyz-Tajik border. The chapter provides insight into the transformative environment of the border regimes and natural resource management, since the time of Soviet collectivization up to the reforms of the modern independent states. It argues that cross-border communities have a set of specific vulnerabilities that come from the transformation of border regimes and an institutional shift from state-centric management of natural resources to governance by the users.