UK’s expert: The adoption of the resolution reaffirms the global importance of the Aral Sea region and its potential as a flagship and testing ground for the ecological and social restoration of degraded lands in drylands

21.05.2021 13:29

LONDON, May 21. /“Dunyo” IA/. “I have been working on the problems of the Aral Sea region for 30 years with a particular focus on the Critically Endangered saiga antelope, in collaboration with the Institute of Zoology of the Academy of Sciences of Uzbekistan and Goskomekology”, told the Tasso Leventis Professor of Biodiversity at the University of Oxford in the UK Eleonor Jane Milner-Gulland to “Dunyo” IA correspondent.

- In the last 15 years my colleagues in the Academy of Sciences and I have worked together in the Aral Sea region to provide ecological education for school children and to support anti-poaching activities, protected area management, and monitoring of the saiga population, as well as working with community leaders to understand their needs for ecologically sustainable development. We have also engaged with gas companies and infrastructure developers working in the region.

I am very pleased to see that the UN General Assembly has just passed a resolution declaring the Aral Sea region a zone of ecological innovations and technologies and supporting ongoing efforts to promote the development of the region in an ecologically and socially sustainable way. This is an exciting development and is also a validation of the global importance of the Aral Sea region and its potential to act as a flagship and testbed for ecological and social restoration of degraded lands in arid regions.

From my research and observations over the last few years, I see a huge opportunity for ecologically-focussed and innovative interventions in the Aral Sea region which provide sustainable livelihoods for residents and new opportunities for sustainable economic development. These can be based on ecologically-focussed tourism and smallscale locally-run enterprises, as well as larger-scale investment by government and industry in line with the UN's Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Global Biodiversity Framework and the Sustainable Development Goals.

I am personally committed to supporting the Government of Uzbekistan and the whole region to realise this potential. We already have projects ongoing which support the vision of the Resolution and hope to continue to expand our engagement over the next few years. I look forward to working with you!

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