Sustainable Development In Central Asia

This book is the result of a pioneering conference held in Ulaan Baatar in September 1994. The first Conference on the Sustainable Development of Central Asia brought together government officials, development professionals, academics, activists and religious representatives from Central, South and East Asia and the West. The full range of perspectives from this diverse group is presented here on how Central Asia can find paths of development which really serve its long term interests, and what the rest of the world can learn from Central Asians about living in harmony with the environment.

Greater Central Asia encompasses a vast area that includes deserts, natural grasslands, steppes, shrublands and alpine regions. Many of these land types are degraded and productivity is falling at a time when human populations and livestock inventories are on the rise. Ecosystem stability and biodiversity are under threat and there is an urgent need to develop more sustainable land management regimes. This book uses an integrated regional approach to provide a comprehensive exploration of sustainable land development in Central Asia. An interdisciplinary team of experts analyses the economic, ecological, sociological, technological and political factors surrounding sustainable land and water management in the region, sharing potential problems and solutions. As international concern about desertification grows, the book concludes by asking how the region is likely to develop in the future. This book will be of value to scholars, students, policy makers and NGOs with an interest in sustainable development in Central Asia.

This book offers the first multidisciplinary overview of water resources issues and management in the Aral Sea Basin, covering both the Amu Darya and Syr Darya River Basins. The two main rivers of Amu Darya and Syr Darya and their tributaries comprise the Aral Sea Basin area and are the lifeline for about 70 million inhabitants in Central Asia. Written by regional and international experts, this book critically examines the current state, trends and future of water resources management and development in this major part of the Central Asia region. It brings together insights on the history of water management in the region, surface and groundwater assessment, issues of transboundary water management and environmental degradation and restoration, and an overview of the importance of water for the key economic sectors and overall socio-economic development of Central Asian countries, as well as of hydro politics in the region. The book also focusses on the future of water sector development in the Basin, including a review of local and international actors, as well as an analysis of the current status and progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals by Basin countries. The book will be essential reading for those interested in sea basin management, environmental policy in Central Asia and water resource management more widely. It will also act as a reference source for decision-makers in state agencies, as well as a background source of information for NGOs.

Sievers draws on his experience of Central Asia to take on the task of explaining the remarkable economic declines of the post-Soviet Central Asian states (Kazakhstan, Kyrgystan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan) in the past decade, and the turn of these states towards despotism.

This annual report lists and describes the World Bank Group's portfolio of projects designed to improve or protect the environment, all of which were under implementation during fiscal year 1996 (July 1, 1995 to June 30, 1996). The first part of the report discusses significant environmental issues for each sector and region and describes the environmental activities of various parts of the World Bank Group. Boxes, tables, and figures supplement the narrative. A useful bibliography of World Bank publications on environmental topics closes the section. The second part consists of reports on environmentally targeted projects; World Bank and International Finance Corporation (IFC) projects that required a full environmental assessment because of their potential impacts; investment operations supporting projects launched by the Global Environment Facility; and projects designed to help developing countries comply with the Montreal Protocol--a multilateral treaty that controls the production and consumption of ozone-depleting substance.

This atlas brings together a wealth of information related to living and nonliving natural resources in the five countries of Central Asia---Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. It contains an array of maps based on geographic information systems and remote sensing images, numerous photographs, tabulations of important data, and extensive descriptive text that together illustrate and describe the region's bountiful natural resources, its diversity of peoples, and their progress toward sustainable development. Highlights include geographic and climatic features; environmental, economic, and social profiles; energy, minerals, and water resources; ecoregions and ecosystems; major fauna and flora; agriculture and fisheries; peoples and cultural traditions; and economic and social statistics.

Climate change, non-sustainable land management and the insufficient participation of the local population leads to land degradation problems in parts of the Altai Region, which includes China, Kazakhstan, Mongolia and the Russian Federation. This book presents important aspects of environmental security and sustainable land use in general and in particular for Central Asia, i.e. the environmental consequences of climate change; sustainable land use and regional development; sustainable development in mountain and steppe regions; beyond borders: Transboundary Biosphere Reserve "Altai" as an approach for regional development; landscape planning as an integrative tool for sustainable development; challenges and threats for environmental stability in Central Asia. A final recommendation in the area of sustainable development and land use as well as the proceeding efforts towards the establishment of the Transboundary Biosphere Reserve "Altai" and the implementation of landscape planning were set in the book as some of the main results of the meeting.