The Ministry of Environmental Protection of Turkmenistan held a meeting to discuss issues related to the preparation of the nomination of the Koytendag (Turkmenistan) and Surkhan (Uzbekistan) state nature reserves as a transboundary UNESCO World Heritage Site. This was reported on the website of the ministry.

The meeting was held in a hybrid format and was attended by representatives of the Michael Succow Foundation for Nature Conservation (MSF, Germany), Conservation X Labs (CXL, USA), the Slovak Speleological Society, the Ministry of Ecology, Environmental Protection and Climate Change of Uzbekistan, the Surkhan State Nature Reserve, the Secretariat of the National Commission of Turkmenistan for UNESCO, the National Institute of Deserts, Flora and Fauna, as well as national experts – executors of the CXLs project.

During the meeting, the Declaration of Intent for Joint Cooperation and the Roadmap were discussed, and the criteria of the UNESCO World Heritage Convention for evaluation were presented.

The text of the Tentative List, under the new title of "Kugitang Karsts, Caves and Canyons", was also discussed and the next steps for its submission to the UNESCO World Heritage Centre were agreed upon.

Turkmen experts will continue to work together with international consultants from the M. Zukkov Foundation and Uzbek colleagues, taking into account the new requirements of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, the source notes.