BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 12
By Jeila Aliyeva - Trend:
United Nations Environment Organization (UNEP), and Turkmenistan have talked over the Aral Sea protection issue, Trend reports with reference to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan.
The Aral Sea is on the border of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. In the early 1900s, the Aral Sea was the fourth largest inland lake in the world, providing a wealth of important ecosystem services to communities, including fishing stocks and preservation of surrounding water and soil quality.
In 1918, policymakers from the former Soviet Union decided to divert fresh water from the Syr Darya and the Amu Darya for irrigation. With its major inflows being diverted for irrigation, the Aral Sea began shrinking in the 1960s. By 2005, it had lost more than half of its surface area, exposing nearly 30,000 km2 of lake bed, and nearly three-quarters of its volume. The formerly thriving fishing industry collapsed as the freshwater influx declined and salinity increased, leading to the disappearance of 60,000 jobs linked to the Aral Sea fishery.
The representatives of the United Nations Environment Programme, as well as the specialists of the organizations authorized in the field of nature protection and the Ministries of Foreign Affairs of the European Union countries, Turkmenistan, United Kingdom, Algeria, Lithuania, Peru, Serbia, Georgia and Canada took part in the session.
The Turkmen side was represented by members of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment of country.
High rank officials of Turkmenistan have told to the representatives of the United Nations Environment Organization (UNEP) about the main directions of the state environmental policy, implemented under the leadership of country’s President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov.
One of the main topics of discussion was the medium-term strategy of the United Nations Environment Programme for the period from 2022 through 2025. The discussions also touched upon the initiative put forward by Turkmenistan in the field of environmental protection; in particular.
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