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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. 2 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. 3