At the end of October 2022, Uzbekistan delegation consisting of FAO specialists, the State Forestry Committee, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Investments and Foreign Trade of the Republic of Uzbekistan visited Türkiye to get acquainted with the forest practice of Türkiye and further develop cooperation on the conservation of forest biodiversity and reforestation.

Members of the delegation met with the FAO Subregional Coordinator for Central Asia, Viorel Gutu, in Ankara. The Chairman of the State Committee of the Republic of Uzbekistan on Forestry, Nizomiddin Bakirov, highly appreciated the effectiveness of the projects implemented by FAO in Uzbekistan and proposed to enhance cooperation.

The parties agreed on the need to develop and subsequently implement new projects to develop human resources for forestry and biodiversity conservation, as well as to restore the landscapes of the Aral Sea.

Further, the Uzbekistan delegation took part in the third Uzbekistan – Türkiye conference on forestry.

Following the meeting, an agreement was reached on the implementation of joint projects in the above areas for $2 million. The Turkish Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry donated two mini-excavators worth $300,000 to create mountain terraces in Uzbekistan’s degraded and eroded forests.

UzA