Countries in Central Asia and the Caucasus will showcase their efforts and achievements on forest monitoring and landscape restoration at the UNECE/FAO Forest Congress, which kicked off in the Issyk-Kul region of Kyrgyzstan yesterday.
In recent years, countries have achieved significant progress in developing national forest monitoring systems and have committed to implement large-scale forest landscape restoration, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
The Forest Congress, which goes through May 31, has reportedly brought together around 60 representatives from five Central Asian and three Caucasian countries to reflect on how to progress in highlighting and prioritizing forestry issues on national, regional and international agendas. The efforts build on the Astana Resolution and the commitment of the region to restore over 2.5 million hectares of forests by 2030 under the Bonn Challenge. This commitment is a forest-related milestone for the region.
The United Nations recently declared 2021–2030 the Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. This offers unparalleled opportunity to create jobs, address climate change, and improve food security.
Another factor that can enhance ecosystem restoration in these countries is China’s Belt and Road Initiative – an infrastructure project linking China to Central and South Asia and onwards to Europe – which brings investments here. The initiative pursues a vision of green development, potentially bringing investment to infrastructure and ecosystem restoration, including watersheds, forests and grasslands.
Three recently published reports were presented at the Congress and, in parallel, at the United Nations headquarters in Geneva.
The State of Forests of the Caucasus and Central Asia study is the first publication to provide a full report of forest resources and the forest sector in the region, including major challenges faced by the sector and possible policy responses.
Practical tools needed to advance the monitoring of forests are set out in the Guidelines for the Development of a Criteria and Indicator Set for Sustainable Forest Management, which incorporate key aspects of the forest sector and provide a practical support in developing national monitoring systems for forests.
The Forest Landscape Restoration in the Caucasus and Central Asia study analyses key drivers of forest degradation and assesses the potential for forest landscape restoration in the region.
Representatives from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan are participating in the Forest Congress this week.
Together, UNECE, FAO and the International Union for Conservation of Nature have important roles as a platform of collaboration for governments and other stakeholders while assisting member states in shaping integrated policies to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.
According to the UN FAO, 2.9% or about 410,000 ha of Tajikistan is forested. Of this 72.4% or roughly 297,000 is classified as primary forest, the most biodiverse and carbon-dense form of forest. Tajikistan had 101,000 ha of planted forest.
Between 1990 and 2010, Tajikistan reportedly lost an average of 100 ha or 0.02% per year. In total, between 1990 and 2010, Tajikistan gained 0.5% of its forest cover or around 2,000 ha. Tajikistan's forests contain 3 million metric tons of carbon in living forest biomass.
