Protecting nature and the environment has always been important for the state and society. Work in this direction has become especially relevant in the current conditions when environmental problems concern the world community.

The IUCN Regional Conservation Forum for Europe, North, and Central Asia (RCF) was held in Bruges. The Uzbekistan delegation, led by Deputy Minister of Ecology, Environmental Protection, and Climate Change I. Qutbiddinov, also participated in it.

During the forum, experts from Uzbekistan met with the Director General of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Grethel Aguilar, Director of the IUCN Regional Office for Eastern Europe and Central Asia Boris Erg, and Director of the Regional Office of the IUCN for Eastern Europe and Central Asia Oliver Avramovski.

The IUCN Director General highlighted the active policy pursued by Uzbekistan in the environmental field internationally, including the organization of global summits and high-level meetings. In particular, the 14th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS COP14), held in Samarkand in February this year, was noted, and the ecological and tourism potential of Uzbekistan was highly appreciated.

In turn, attention was paid to further accelerating IUCN’s activities in Uzbekistan and Central Asia, improving the effectiveness of grant projects, expanding the collection of projects, and attracting additional grant funds from the Global Environment Facility and the Green Climate Fund to accelerate the process of opening the IUCN Representative Office in Tashkent.

Following the meeting, a Memorandum of Understanding in environmental protection, as well as a Grant Agreement for $1.1 million for the implementation of the project “Land Use and Restoration of Degraded Ecosystems and Biodiversity in Uzbekistan” was signed with IUCN.

Mukhayyo Toshqorayeva, UzA