Ashgabat hosted a conference within the framework of the joint project of the Ministry of Agriculture and Environmental Protection of Turkmenistan (MAaEPT) and the Michael Zukkov Foundation for Nature Conservation (MSF, Germany) "Central Asian Desert Initiative - Conservation and Sustainable Use of the Deserts of Turkmenistan" (CADI / CADI). This was reported by the "Turkmenistan: Golden Age" edition.

The participants, together with international experts, discussed the five-year "Reserves Management Plan", which is a necessary component of the nomination dossier "Turanian Deserts of the Temperate Zone".

Among the conference participants were representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture and Environmental Protection of Turkmenistan and its subordinate structures, as well as specialists from the Secretariat of the National Commission for UNESCO in Turkmenistan.

A joint project of the Ministry of Agriculture and the Michael Zukkov Foundation has been successfully implemented in Turkmenistan since 2018. As part of it, in the three desert reserves Bereketli Garagum, Repetek and Gaplangyr, complex expeditions were organized to inventory biodiversity to update data and obtain reliable scientific material in the preparation of the serial transnational object "Turanian Deserts of the Temperate Zone" and its nomination to the UNESCO World Heritage List.

To strengthen the potential of the departments of science and protection, the effectiveness of scientific research, to conduct regular monitoring, desert reserves were provided with additional technical equipment, field equipment. The project has created and equipped the Information Visitor Center "Nature of the Karakum" in the Scientific Experimental Center Calysh Bereketli of the Garagum State Nature Reserve.

In January 2022, the project will end with the submission of the nomination dossier of the serial transnational site "Turanian Deserts of the Temperate Zone" for nomination to the UNESCO World Heritage List, the source said.