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Biodiversity Forum discussed results of conservation strategic planning in Turkmenistan
Awaza, January 30, 2015. The two-day forum devoted to the issues of biodiversity and its strategy preparation
took place in the picturesque place of Awaza, Turkmenbashi. It was organized under the project of the
Ministry of Nature Protection, UNDP Turkmenistan and Global Environmental Facility «National Biodiversity
Planning to Support the implementation of the CBD 2011-2020 Strategic Plan in Turkmenistan” with financial
support from and participation of the European Union project "Forest and Biodiversity Governance, including
Environmental Monitoring (FLERMONECA)", implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale
Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH in all Central Asian countries.
The forum gathered more than 50 representatives of
production sectors of the economy, academic and
scientific circles. The production sector included oil
and gas production, construction and transport. The
agricultural sector was presented by ministries of
agricultural and water, state committees on tourism
and fishery. The environmental sector was presented
by forestry, protected areas and departments of
nature protection of the ministry of nature
protection.
Picture 1. Participants of the Biodiversity Forum
The main objective of the forum was to present
results of the biodiversity conservation planning process, discussed the latest draft of biodiversity strategy and
action plan for the country. During plenary sessions, the participants of the forum discussed the methodology
of mainstreaming of biodiversity conservation during the planning process, ways of the introduction of the
economic valuation of ecosystem services into conservation. During working group sessions, the participants
reviewed the biodiversity strategy goals and activities, proposed the sectoral performance indicators for
biodiversity conservation, reviewed the financial and
institutional mechanism for the implementation of the
biodiversity conservation strategy in the country.
The biodiversity conservation planning process in
Turkmenistan started in the early 2013 in response to
requirements of the Convention on Biodiversity, signed by
the country in 1996. Under the process, the country has
developed national biodiversity conservation targets,
responding to the global Aichi targets, analyzed the
planning process for environmental protection in the
country and defined the scope of mainstreaming and
biodiversity finance in production sectors.
Picture 2. The working group reviews targets, discusses
innovative financial mechanisms and institutional setting for
implementing biodiversity conservation strategy.
Picture 3. Leader of the working group on economic valuation (Ministry of
agriculture) describes results of the ESVAL study
The draft strategy and the action plan were
developed with the involvement of the
relevant economic sectors affecting the
biodiversity in their actions. The whole
process was coordinated by the working
group consisting of nine key sectors. The
group developed national strategy goals and
related documents, coordinated work of
hired experts and their scientific outputs.
Special sector planning meetings were then
organized to develop specific actions to
achieve the national biodiversity
conservation goals.
The biodiversity forum is the second forum
gathering of the wider stakeholder community. The first forum, taken place in Ashgabat in May 2014, was
aimed at the discussion and approval of national targets and further steps to develop the strategy.
This forum was aimed at developing the vision on how the conservation of the countries nature could be
embedded into the sectoral planning and development. Among other, it has to involve the better
understanding of the value of the biodiversity for the country. Therefore the special plenary was devoted to
the study “The assessment and valuation of ecosystem services in Turkmenistan”(ESVAL), performed by the
inter-sectoral working group on economic
valuation within this planning process. The
study was aimed at identification of the
important ecosystem services and defining
their economic values. The ESVAL included
the intensive capacity building effort, which
allowed training government specialists and
academicians, adapting the best available
knowledge and implementing the valuation
by learning-by-doing exercise. As the
result, the rapid assessment of the
ecosystem services in Turkmenistan
showed the value of more than 2 billion US
dollars or more than 2% of the national GDP Picture 4.Representatives of the tourism sector present potential
or more than 20% of agricultural GDP of the mechanisms of implementation and financing biodiversity conservation
activities within the sector
country. The participants of the forum
became familiar with the results of the study, learnt about available financial mechanisms for biodiversity
conservation and discussed ways of introducing those mechanisms into productive sectors.
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EU FLERMONECA project manager Andre Fabian explains
the strategy of technical assistance in Central Asia
Finally, the forum participants got familiar with potential
cooperation with regional and national programmes. EU
FLERMONECA project manager Andre Fabian has
presented GIZ experience in other Central Asian
countries and ways of cooperation with biodiversity
strategy aroused real interest of participants of the
forum. The introduction of the ecosystem services
approach, developing innovative financial mechanisms
and providing the assistance in biodiversity
mainstreaming into productive sectors of the economy
were among the particular topics of the discussion.
The Second National Biodiversity Forum adopted the
resolution, which acknowledged the current biodiversity, thanked the country’s leadership for support of
biodiversity conservation and welcomed the technical cooperation efforts to develop and implement the
strategy and action plan by adapting the best international experience. The participants agreed to continue to
contribute to and be a part of this process.
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