Uzbekistan’s Tourism Ambitions are Driving Illegal Land Seizures

Farmers in Parkent district of Tashkent region face intimidation, unlawful land confiscations and a coordinated pressure campaign

A major tourism development planned in Parkent district of Tashkent region has triggered one of the most alarming land conflicts in recent years, revealing a disturbing pattern of intimidation, unlawful land seizures, and coordinated pressure on farmers by local government leaders, prosecutors and law enforcement officials. According to reports from Radio Ozodlik and direct testimonies collected by the local civic activism initiative “Antikorrupsiya”, the roots of the conflict lie in a sweeping 494-hectare tourism project approved at the beginning of the year. What has unfolded, however, is a much broader, unregulated and coercive attempt to confiscate as much as 3,000 hectares of cultivated orchards that do not fall within the official project boundaries.

Farmers say they were initially reassured. At the start of the year, the Parkent district hokim (head of the district administration), Sardor Isoqulov, promised that any land taken for state needs or tourism development would be fairly compensated. “They told us, if your land falls into the tourism zone,