Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, Aug. 31
By Huseyn Hasanov – Trend:
The UN Special Program for the Aral Sea Basin (UN SPAS) was presented at the headquarters of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), Trend reports referring to Turkmen Foreign Ministry.
Turkmenistan’s initiative was announced at the sixth session of the Committee on Disaster Risk Reduction.
A Turkmen delegation met with Deputy Executive Secretary for Sustainable Development at UN ESCAP Kaveh Zahedi during the event.
Turkmenistan presides over the International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea (IFAS).
With the founding from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, IFAS was established in the 1990s with the aim to finance joint projects and programs to save the Aral Sea and improve the environmental situation in the Aral Sea region.
IFAS obtained the observer status in the UN General Assembly in December 2008.
The special attention is paid to improving the regional action plan for environmental protection in Central Asia and accelerating the process of accession of the regional countries to the Framework Convention on Environmental Protection for Sustainable Development in Central Asia within IFAS.