In Central Asian countries, natural resource management is strongly centralized, which requires creating additional opportunities for involving the private sector and local people in the dialogue on the sustainable use of these resources taking into account economic, social and environmental aspects.
At the regional level, starting from 2017, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH (German Federal Enterprise for International Cooperation) has been providing expert support in the development of the Regional Environmental Program for Sustainable Development in Central Asia (REPSD CA), important for all five countries. Together with other international partners, such as the United Nations Environment Program, GIZ supported technical meetings, meetings of national working groups and the regional working group (1st: December 2018 in Almaty; 2nd April 2019 in Tashkent; 3rd April 2019 in Almaty).
The meetings helped to reveal the national priorities of each of the countries participating in the Interstate Commission on Sustainable Development (ICSD). Only those topics that were of interest to two or more countries were submitted for discussion by the regional working group in order to ensure the regional nature of meetings. Numerous remote and personal discussions made it was possible to reach a consensus of the parties and to prepare draft REPSD CA, which was adopted in October 2019.
Региональное сотрудничество программы GIZ с Научно-информационным центром МКУР было положено в январе 2016 г. Команда программы оказывала содействие в The regional cooperation of the GIZ Program with the ICSD Scientific Information Center was established in January 2016. The Program team assisted in the development of a systematiс organizational process to strengthen the overall management and role of the ICSD among the founding countries; the capacity of ICSD bodies; the information policy and the workflow system, mechanisms and tools of external and internal communication; providing technical assistance to SIC branches according to their needs..
In 2016-2017, at the request of the Regional Program, SIC ICSD prepared a situational analysis of climate change in Turkmenistan.
When designing projects and regulations to the Law on Pastures, the Program team together with the international expert Dr. Sarah Robinson and local experts held regular meetings with members of the working group on improving pasture legislation in Ashgabat (the most recent meeting was held in March 2019). There were also field meetings and consultations with all stakeholder: local authorities, private cattle herders, the local community in the Dyanev district of the Lebap region and the Baharly district of the Akhal region (the most recent meeting was held in June 2018).