The Forests of Rural Kazakhstan

In rural Kazakhstan, forests are more than landscapes; they are sentient, interspecies learning communities that intertwine human, vegetal, and animal life. These forests, particularly in mountainous areas, have long served as vital spaces where generations of families come together to live, harvest, and pass on knowledge about the land. This relational bond between people and forests reveals the forest not as a passive backdrop but as an active participant in community life, where different natures, cultures, and values meet and are sustained.

Historically, elders in the community recall a forest that once stood proudly in the valley, lush and full, until a flood devastated the land, erasing most of the forest from that particular area. The disappearance of the forest reflects more than just environmental change; it represents a collective memory of loss and regeneration. In its place, a different forest now thrives, one where locals gather to pick berries like strawberries and sea buckthorn, which serve both economic and cultural functions. The berries are harvested for selling in local markets and used to make jams stored for the winter, linking this natural abundance with cultural traditions and seasonal practices. This seasonal cycle—berry-picking and preparing for winter—becomes a way for families to reconnect with ancestral practices, reinforcing the forest’s role in community well-being. People’s seasonal nomadic movements during the summer reflect deep historical connections to the land, bringing them into closer relationships with the forest. These nomadic practices are imbued with both practicality and spirituality, allowing communities to live alongside the forest, moving in harmony with its rhythms.

For younger generations, the forest remains a place of wonder and play, but it is also a sacred space where the lines between the human and more-than-human blur. Children grow up playing in these forest valleys, creating new memories while standing on the foundations of the old ones, reaffirming the place’s importance as a site of intergenerational knowledge creation. The forest, for these children, is a living classroom, where they learn not only how to forage but also to appreciate the rhythms and cycles of life, death, and regeneration. Kazakhstan’s forests also serve as a point of intersection for different ways of knowing—where traditional ecological knowledge meets modern economic necessity. The act of harvesting berries becomes both a cultural practice rooted in survival and a contemporary economic activity, linking the past and present in meaningful ways. Here, the forest is not just a resource to be exploited; it is a place of regeneration and reimagining. The berries, much like the forests themselves, symbolize resilience—after the flood wiped out the original forest, new growth emerged, just as community members continue to adapt and thrive.

These forests are also sites of storying, where memories, language, and the landscape are inseparable. The older generation’s stories about the vanished valley forest preserve an oral history that keeps the landscape alive in the imagination, while the younger generation’s play and interaction with the forest continue this narrative. This continuous cycle of interaction with the land turns the forest into a space of healing—not only for the earth itself but for the people who draw on its resources, knowledge, and
history.

Thus, the forests of rural Kazakhstan, particularly those nestled in the mountains, embody many of the qualities of sentient, interspecies communities. They are places where human and more-than-human worlds meet, creating an environment rich in memory, healing, and renewal. By inhabiting these spaces, communities are able to regenerate both physically and spiritually, reconnecting with (and redefining) their traditions and ways of being.