Nature Conservation in Uzbekistan - Succow Foundation consolidates cooperation

On the occasion of the participation in the International Conference on the protection of the cold winter deserts of Central Asia, the Succow Foundation, together with the CADI Coordinator of the University of Greifswald, Christian Welscher, and the IUCN Director for the Eastern Europe and Central Asia Region, Boris Erg, met with the state committee of the Republic of Uzbekistan on ecology and environmental protection.

In addition to acknowledging jointly achieved successes in the current year, such as the successful UNESCO nomination of the first biosphere reserve according to the Seville Strategy in Uzbekistan and the handover of two injection rifles for the resettlement of Bukhara deer (both with funding from the International Climate Initiative (IKI) and WWF Russia), future goals of the cooperation were discussed.

In particular, the great progress made in establishing protected areas in the border triangle of the Ustyurt Plateau is in focus here. In the future, the countries of Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan want to work together on cross-border cooperation and the removal of migration barriers.

In recent years, the CADI project in particular has observed some unexpected species records that point to more intensive migration movements between the countries. In addition to the re-discovery of wild kulans in Uzbekistan, a living Persian leopard was found in Kazakhstan for the first time, having migrated from Turkmenistan.

A cooperation agreement on cooperation in the biodiversity sector was therefore also agreed between the presidents of Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan this autumn.