A meeting for program match-up and exchanges on “saline soils improvement and demonstration area construction on the dried bottom of the Aral Sea” was jointly organized by the International Program Office of ANSO Green Aral Sea Science Initiative (ANSO IPO) and the Embassy of Uzbekistan in China on March 8, 2022. About 20 relevant principals and key scientific researchers attended the meeting online or offline, including representatives from the Uzbek Embassy in China, the Uzbek Ministry of Innovation and Development, the Uzbek Ministry of Investment and Foreign Trade, the Aral Sea International Innovation Center under the President of Uzbekistan and the Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography (XIEG), CAS.
At the meeting, XIEG’s Director Zhang Yuanming detailed the progress of cooperation between the Institute and Uzbekistan in ecological environment management of the Aral Sea, especially the priority research areas of the Green Aral Sea Science Initiative and the Green Aral Sea International Science Plan issued by the Institute in collaboration with 26 Chinese and foreign scientific research institutions and international organizations. In the meantime, he provided concrete suggestions on the technical demand for ecological management of the Aral Sea at the request of the Uzbek Embassy.
Representatives from the participating Uzbek ministries and International Innovation Center of Aral Sea expressed their support for the ANSO IPO, their recognition and gratitude for the achievements of cooperation with XIEG over the years, and their hope for strengthening cooperation in the future. The two sides reached consensus on deepening collaboration in the near future, establishing corresponding working mechanisms and jointly preparing a road map for comprehensive cooperation in the next five years.
The event is one of the exchange meeting held by the ANSO IPO since its establishment in 2021. In the future, by making full use of the platform of the IPO as the supporting agency for China-Central Asia cooperation on the Aral Sea issue, XIEG will work to strengthen communication and coordination, jointly organize international conferences, program applications and capacity-building activities, gradually promote the implementation of the Green Aral Sea Science Initiative and enhance ANSO’s influence in the region.
Background of the meeting:
The ecological management of the Aral Sea has attracted international attention. In view of the environmental, social and economic threats faced by the Aral Sea region, the government of Uzbekistan has actively taken a series of comprehensive control measures, hoping to alleviate the impact of the Aral Sea ecological disaster. With the establishment of the United Nations Multi-Partner Trust Fund for Human Security for the Aral Sea Region (MPHSTF) and the unanimous adoption of the resolution of the United Nations General Assembly on declaring the Aral Sea region as a zone of environmental innovation and technology on May 18, 2021, Uzbekistan urgently needs innovative technology, more effective coordination mechanism and international resources to work together to mitigate the disastrous consequences caused by the Aral Sea crisis.
In this regard, XIEG has accumulated rich experiences and scored important achievements in ecological environment management in arid lands. On the basis of Central Asia’s years of cooperation with XIEG, the Uzbek Embassy in China sent a letter on behalf of relevant departments of Uzbekistan, hoping that the Institute can apply China's existing mature technology and experience to the ecological management of the Aral Sea and help Uzbekistan establish a pilot demonstration area for salt-drought-resistant crops and shrubs cultivation in the Aral Sea region, provide innovative technologies and approaches in sustainable use of water resources, vegetation restoration, degraded land improvement and animal husbandry development.
Source: QIAO Jianfang - XIEG, CAS
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Email: anso-public@anso.org.cn
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