Oleg KugaevThe 10th and last CADI Newsletter is available!
The CADI project ends this July. In the 6 years of CADI, we have implemented a huge package of measures for the conservation and sustainable use of the cold winter deserts in our main target countries Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan.
Among the many outcomes of the project are the establishment of new protected areas, the nomination of the Cold Winter Deserts of Turan as a World Heritage Site, the establishment of Farmer Field Schools to strengthen the capacities of farmers for a sustainable use of deserts, the support of young scientists within the CADI Fellowship programme, or the generation of many new baseline data and knowledge about the vulnerable and endangered ecosystem of cold winter deserts.
We would like to thank all partners, supporters and friends of the project for your engagement, interest and incredible efforts over the past six years in implementing this important project, even in such difficult times as during the pandemic. A special thanks to the International Climate Initiative (IKI) for their support over many years.
The current newsletter is also available for download in our media library, where you can subscribe to CADI Newsletter.
On June 9, 2022, the Regional CADI Secretariat held a Regional Workshop in Tashkent within the framework of the CADI (Central Asian Desert Initiative) project. It was organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the State Forestry Committee of the Republic of Uzbekistan in cooperation with the University of Greifswald (Germany) and the Michael Succow Foundation.
Representatives of international organizations, development agencies, national partner ministries and members of the National CADI Secretariats from Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan participated in this event. The regional workshop helped to discuss a status as NGO, organizational structure and statutory document of the Regional CADI Secretariat; finetune its Program of Work; and explore resource mobilization opportunities for the Regional CADI Secretariat.
Abduvohid Zakhadullayev, head of the department of international relations and ecotourism development of the State Committee on Forestry of the Republic of Uzbekistan, noted the successful work of the project and expressed hope that the future work of the Regional Secretariat will contribute to the implementation of the UN Conventions adopted in Rio de Janeiro in 2012 – Convention to Combat Desertification, Convention on Biological Diversity and the Framework Convention on Climate Change.
Temurbek Reymov, Coordinator of Interim Regional CADI Secretariat, said that the CADI Regional Secretariat is expected to be a successor of all CADI activities in Central Asia and noted that the Secretariat is open to other countries wishing to support the initiative to conserve unique ecosystems of global significance.
Foto: FAO
Online-Article on uzdaily.uz from 10 June 20222 (in Russian)
On 28 January 2022, the States Parties Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan submitted their documents for the nomination of the Cold Winter Deserts of Turan as a UNESCO World Natural Heritage Site.
On 9 February 2022, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) held a virtual workshop with experts from Freiburg University on Integrated Land Use Management Systems (ILUMS) in Uzbekistan.
The workshop was organized in order to present the research work carried out within the CADI project to the national partners from Uzbekistan. Representatives from the State Forestry Committee of Uzbekistan and graduate and postgraduate students from local universities participated in the workshop.
During the workshop, participants discussed advanced agroforestry practices, evaluated the current state of integrated land use management systems in the region and exchanged potential ideas for future collaboration between organizations. Representatives of academic institutions from Uzbekistan expressed interest in future academic collaboration through joint postgraduate programs to strengthen the capacity of local specialists.
Professors from the University of Freiburg discussed the potential of agroforestry as a profitable area in Uzbekistan, providing detailed information on the challenges of cooperative management agreements and recommendations for future work.
In addition, the researchers presented recommendations for joint management in agroforestry, including the establishment of a control system with regard to forest conservation, restoration and reproduction, the creation of an accounting and monitoring system, and an integrated system for planning and monitoring the production and management of various types of forestry products.
M. PestovThe 9th CADI Newsletter is available! Here we keep you informed about the ongoing activities and results of our project.
The current newsletter is also available for download in our media library, where you can subscribe to CADI Newsletter.
At the 26th UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, the Michael Succow Foundation presents the CADI project as part of a side event on “Climate change and biodiversity in Uzbekistan.”
The side event will present various projects and strategies to address the challenges of climate change and biodiversity loss in Uzbekistan, one of the CADI project’s target countries.
The program of the side event is available here.
The side event will take place on November 8, 3:30 pm-4:30 pm (London time), as a hybrid event (Central Asian Pavilion, PV78 Blue Zone, and Zoom). Dial-in details can be found here.
On the 26th of October 2021, within the CADI project, in collaboration with FAO Uzbekistan, a workshop on income-generating activities for rural women of Bukhara and Navoi provinces took place.
The workshop’s main aim is to engage women in alternative income-generating activities to improve their families’ livelihoods, reducing their dependence on grazing and other agricultural activities in cold winter deserts.
During three days of the workshop, women also learned sewing skills, national embroidery, and making wool blankets. The participants combined national flavor and modern fashion trends and made pillowcases, chapans, jackets, bags, and blankets during practical classes.
The workshop was attended by residents of the village Chuya of Nurata district of Navoi province and the village Durman of Karakul district of Bukhara province, 57 women. Experts conducted the classes in embroidery and traditional crafts. One of them is Matlyuba Bazarova, Vice–President of the Central Asian Crafts Support Association.
The workshop report: FAO Uzbekistan Newsletter
Capacity building in Uzbekistan has been implemented via the Farmers’ Field Schools (FFS) concept developed by FAO. On two pilot sites in Uzbekistan, the FAO project team conducted a series of FFS sessions on improved crop production. The workshops’ objective was to improve nutritional security and increase the rural farmers’ income living under harsh climatic conditions of cold winter desert through enhanced capacity.
135 participants – representatives of the district khokimiyats (administrative office), village councils, the mahalla and women’s committees, farmers, specialists and scientists, and media representatives – took part in the workshops.
The participants obtained information about practices on the cultivation of improved varieties of vegetable crops. The interactive training sessions allowed the participants to learn about cultivating vegetable crops to obtain high yields. Besides technical presentations, information booklets and brochures on vegetable production technology and 18 sets of vegetable seeds were distributed.
Uzbekistan – a country with a large history and an even larger variety of animals! Georg Schnipper, zoologist, and blogger, documented this in his new film. In 2019 George Schnipper accompanied the team of the YouTube channel “Vse Kak U Zverei” for filming in the Central Asian deserts and returned with fascinating material about the country, the daily expedition routine and the living fauna of the deserts:
The Michael Succow Foundation within the CADI project enabled expeditions to the deserts.
On 15-16 January 2019, a CADI workshop, dedicated to the determination of target parameters for the assessment of ecosystems of cold winter deserts, took place in Tashkent (Uzbekistan). The workshop was organized by the FAO Country Office in Tashkent in close cooperation with the State Committee on Forestry of the Republic of Uzbekistan.
The outcome of the workshop was the definition of the next steps to conduct an integrated inventory of deserts using GIS technology and the satellite-based tool Collect Earth. This tool allows a real-time inventory of land, mapping of various natural and socio-economic objects and the creation of a database for the planning of further activities towards sustainable use of cold winter deserts of Uzbekistan.
Members of the FAO Country Office in Tashkent, representatives of the State Forestry Committee, the Committee of Soil Resources, Geodesy, Cartography and State Cadastre of the Republic of Uzbekistan, scientific staff of the Samarkand Institute of Karakul Sheep Breeding and Desert Ecology, representatives of pilot sites in Bukhara and Navoi provinces; scientists from Karakul and Nurata as well as representatives of non-governmental organizations in Uzbekistan took part at the CADI-Workshop.
