Today, Ashgabat hosted a meeting of the local Coordination Council on the assessment of the recently launched project “Conservation and Sustainable Management of Land Resources and Natural Ecosystems of the Aral Sea Basin”.
The project is implemented jointly by UNDP and the Ministry of Agriculture and Environmental Protection of Turkmenistan, funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF).
The meeting was attended by representatives of the ministries and departments of Turkmenistan involved in the implementation of the project, including the Ministry of Agriculture and Environmental Protection, State Committee for Water Management, Parliament, Ministry of Finance and Economy, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, State Committee on Statistics, State Commercial Bank “Dayhanbank”, Hyakimliks of Lebap and Dashoguz velayats and the Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs of Turkmenistan.
The participants discussed a number of issues related to the implementation of the project, including the goals and objectives of the project, the monitoring and evaluation process, the proposed composition of the Project Board and the appointment of the National Project Coordinator.
Rovshen Nurmuhamedov, Head of the UNDP Program Department in Turkmenistan, noted:
“This project is expected to support the efforts of the Government of Turkmenistan to increase the resilience of selected pilot regions of Turkmenistan to the environmental and socio-economic consequences of the Aral Sea crisis.”
The project “Conservation and Sustainable Management of Land Resources and Natural Ecosystems of the Aral Sea Basin” aims to help neutralize land degradation, restore and improve the use of land and water resources, as well as preserve biodiversity in the impact zone of the Aral Sea crisis in Lebap and Dashoguz regions to increase the sustainability of local population and conservation of globally significant ecosystems. The project will also support the initiatives of Turkmenistan within the framework of the International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea.
The cost of the project is 4.6 million US dollars, according to a UNDP press release.
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