There is a pressing need to evaluate the trade-offs on abandoned Soviet croplands between food production, the provision of ecosystem services and biodiversity conservation (see Nature 504, 342; 2013). Kazakhstan should be included in these assessments because, along with Russia, it commands some of the largest agricultural land reserves worldwide.

Trends in recultivation vary across the former Soviet Union. Reclamation in western Russia is only just starting, whereas Kazakhstan has reclaimed more than half of its abandoned cropland since 2000.

This intensified agricultural production is good for rural development and poverty alleviation (see M. Petrick et al. World Dev. 43, 164–179; 2013). The implications for ecosystem services and biodiversity are less clear, however. Evidence is growing for biodiversity recovery (see, for example, J. Kamp et al. Biol. Conserv. 144, 2607–2614; 2011) and for increased carbon sequestration on land depleted by intensive agriculture across the former Soviet Union.