Uzbekistan will align its national biodiversity policy to Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework

Global Biodiversity Framework Early Action Support (GBF-EAS) joint initiative of the Ministry of Natural Resources of the Republic of Uzbekistan and UNDP funded by GEF

April 12, 2023

Global Biodiversity Framework Early Action Support (GBF-EAS) initiative was launched on 12 April 2023 in Central Ecopark of Tashkent. This initiative is a new joint endeavour of the Ministry of Natural Resources of the Republic of Uzbekistan and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) funded by the Global Environmental Facility (GEF).

On 19 December 2022, an Agreement was reached by 190 countries on the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF). This historic framework sets out an ambitious pathway to reach the global vision of a world living in harmony with nature by 2050. Among the Framework’s key elements are 4 goals for 2050 and 23 targets for 2030. It provides a good foundation for global action on biodiversity, complementing the Paris Agreement for Climate, paving the way towards a climate-neutral, nature-positive, and resilient world by 2050.

In adopting the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, Uzbekistan as many other countries worldwide committed to setting its national targets to implement it. The launched project will support the government of Uzbekistan in revising its National Strategy and Action Plan for the conservation of biodiversity as well as relevant policies, monitoring, and financing of nature conservation in such a way that they correspond to the agenda of the global biodiversity conservation program.

Mr. Aziz Abdukhakimov, Minister of Natural resources of Uzbekistan, noted in his address at the event that

“Uzbekistan takes a pro-active position on global integration matters, seeks to support measures and make a significant contribution to achieve of an ambitious plan to implement broad-based actions to bring about a transformation in our societies’ relationship with biodiversity and nature”.

Ms. Matilda Dimovska, UNDP Resident Representative in Uzbekistan in her welcoming speech highlighted that

“Not only the livelihoods of many people depend on natural resources and their management, but also biodiversity loss and ecosystem services can push up costs, heighten risks and cause a decrease of economic performance. We’re already seeing this play out with the drying Aral Sea, or more frequent dust storms across the country. So, the need for accelerated action is clear!”.

Some of the key global targets include restoring 30% of degraded ecosystems globally by 2030, stop the extinction of known species, and by 2050 reduce tenfold the extinction risk and rate of all species, reducing risk from pesticides by at least 50% by 2030, sustainably manage areas under agriculture, fisheries, and forestry and substantially increase agroecology and other biodiversity-friendly practices. The full list of targets can be found at the link.

For the next two years, the project will collaborate with a diverse group of national and international stakeholders, including line ministries, agencies, academia and science community, NGOs to fast-track readiness and early actions to implement the post-2020 biodiversity conservation priorities and to align national targets, monitoring, policy, and finance frameworks with the Global Biodiversity Framework.