Uzbekistan became the 92nd member country of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the first state to join the union among the countries of Central Asia, the press service of the State Committee for Ecology and Environmental Protection said.

“We are pleased to celebrate the Uzbekistan’s accession to the IUCN and look forward to expanding cooperation with the State Committee on Ecology and Environmental Protection and other partners in the country,” said Boris Erg, Director of the IUCN Regional Office for Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

“Some of the potential areas of cooperation that we are jointly exploring include environmental policy, expansion and quality assurance of the national network of protected areas, development of Red List indices, integrated land management and ecosystem restoration,” he said.

As noted on the website of the Union, IUCN will continue to support Uzbekistan in achieving sustainable use of natural resources, including the conservation of biodiversity and restoration of ecosystems, which will help achieve national environmental goals, while contributing to mitigation and adaptation to climate change.

Last week, a delegation of Uzbekistan led by Deputy Chairman of the State Committee for Ecology Zhusipbek Kazbekov visited the IUCN headquarters in Gland (Switzerland), where they met with the global director of the IUCN development group, Enrique Lamann. The parties discussed, among other things, future joint grant projects.

IUCN was created in 1948 at the initiative of UNESCO. The union includes 120 state organizations and (with the accession of Uzbekistan) 92 countries. Participation in the union will allow Uzbekistan to attract grant funds for environmental projects from the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and the Green Climate Fund (GCF) (IUCN is an accredited agency of these organizations), as well as apply IUCN international standards when developing strategic documents in the field of nature conservation.