NATIONAL STRATEGIES AND ACTION PLANS ON BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION SHOULD BE DEVELOPED TAKING INTO ACCOUNT ECOSYSTEM APPROACH AND CLIMATE CHANGE

9-14 March 2009 a practical workshop on preparation of National Strategies, Action Plans and National Reports on Biodiversity Conservation took place in Ramsar, Iran.

As we reported earlier the 4th report of Kyrgyzstan on biodiversity was recognized by the Secretariat of CBD as one of the most successful reports among member countries and the team leader for preparation of the report Farida Balbakova recived personal invitation from Secretariat to take part in the workshop as an expert.

The workshop focus was the progress of countries in preparation of 4 th National Report and implementation of a National Strategy and Action Plans. During the workshop Senior Programme Offcier of the UN CBD Secretariat David Cooper congratulated Kyrgyzstan on the successful preparation of the 4NRBD.

Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Armenia are on the final stage of preparation.

As Farida Balbakova told CARNet, participants discussed the problems concerning implementation of National Strategies and Action Plans on Biodiversity Conservation. It has been noted that all CA countries have common problems that should be taken into account when developing NBSAP till 2010.

National Strategies and Action Plans should be ready before the meeting of parties of CBD and should be consistent with the 2010 Targets and taken into account ecosystem approach, climate change, desertification. Most importantly NBSAP should contain implementation mechanism into national and sectoral development plans.

Source: CARNet , 25.03.2009

SWITZERLAND ALLOCATES US$3M TO SUPPORT AGRICULTURE ENTERPRISES IN UZBEKISTAN

The Governments of Uzbekistan and Switzerland signed an agreement "On allocation of financial contribution for project on support of agriculture enterprises".

The document was signed within the visit of Swiss delegation led by director of Federal Finance Administration of Federal Finance Department (Finance Ministry) Peter Sigentaler on 21-24 March.

In line with the document, Switzerland will issue grant for US$3 million to realization of project on support of agriculture enterprises, realized in Uzbekistan at assistance of the World Bank.

The grant will be used to strengthen Association of Water Consumers (AWC) and services on support of the AWC, as well as improvement of technologies on irrigation and drainage.

Switzerland allocated over US$30 million to realization of projects in Uzbekistan.

Source: CARNet , 25.03.2009