On 2–3 December 2021, an International Conference on Cold Winter Deserts took place in Tashkent. In cooperation with FAO Uzbekistan, the CADI project was organizing the Conference to assemble researchers and experts presenting their papers on biodiversity conservation, sustainable land management, ecosystem services, food security, and water use in cold winter deserts in Central Asia.
The main aim was to foster international collaboration in raising awareness of the importance of cold winter desert ecosystems. The cold winter deserts, spreading from northern Iran across Central Asia to Mongolia – are globally outstanding nature regions. Despite their ecological importance, temperate deserts are, according to a study by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), one of the least recognized biomes worldwide.
Sixty-two abstracts have been selected for the Conference, the collection of full papers will be prepared in 2022.
The Conference program is here.
The Conference report:
M. Pestov