At the 17th session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (COP17), taking place in Ulaanbaatar, Central Asian countries advocated for expanded international cooperation, attraction of new financial mechanisms, and joint measures to restore degraded lands.

Countries in the region presented various approaches to addressing a common problem — land degradation, exacerbated by climate change.

Tajikistan: New Financial Mechanisms for Land Restoration

During the ministerial dialogue on innovative financing mechanisms for land sustainability and drought combat, Tajikistan called for more active use of new financial instruments to counter land degradation and its consequences.

Bahodur Sheralizoda, Chairman of the Committee for Environmental Protection under the Government of Tajikistan, emphasized the significance of the country’s global initiatives in the field of glacier protection, climate, and water resources.

He noted the need for further strengthening of international and regional cooperation in combating land degradation, desertification, and drought, emphasizing the interconnection of these processes with climate change, the state of water resources, and ecosystem resilience.

Special attention in the statement was devoted to glacier conservation as crucial sources of fresh water, rational and sustainable use of water resources, restoration of degraded lands, and protection of mountain ecosystems.

Furthermore, on August 24 at the ministerial dialogue on innovative financing mechanisms, Tajikistan advocated for expanded application of new financial instruments.

Together with Egypt, Côte d’Ivoire, Kyrgyzstan, and Bangladesh, the Tajik side called for the use of green bonds, debt-for-nature swap mechanisms, guarantees, insurance mechanisms, and payments for ecosystem services.

According to dialogue participants, the annual financing deficit for addressing land degradation, desertification, and drought problems is estimated at approximately $278 billion.

Tajikistan also emphasized the need to find additional sources of financing, since traditional government funds are insufficient for implementing large-scale land restoration projects and increasing resilience to climate risks.

A Common Challenge — Different Solutions

Kazakhstan presented the “Green Shield of Central Asia” initiative and called on countries in the region, international organizations, and financial institutions to unite their efforts for its implementation.

The initiative provides for the creation of protective forest barriers, restoration of degraded lands, and coordination of actions by countries in the region to prevent and reduce the consequences of transboundary dust and sand storms.

Nazgul Khatepova, Vice Minister of Agriculture of Kazakhstan, stated that preserving soil fertility and increasing agricultural resilience to climate risks are strategic tasks for the country.

Kazakhstan also reported on internal measures: the area of lands where water-saving technologies are applied exceeded 500 thousand hectares by the end of 2025, and approximately 15 million hectares of unused agricultural lands were returned to the state.

Kyrgyzstan advocated for the creation of a special financial mechanism to increase the resilience of mountain lands and river basins.

Additionally, Bishkek proposed creating a regional data verification center for land degradation. Such a mechanism, in the view of the Kyrgyz side, would make it possible to combine satellite data with national observations of pasture conditions, soil salinization, mobile sands, and other indicators.

Kyrgyzstan also supported the development of unified monitoring systems and data exchange between countries in the region.

Uzbekistan presented a number of regional initiatives aimed at combating desertification and land restoration.

Among them are the creation of an Asian network of centers to combat desertification, the launch of the Samarkand Climate Dialogue for arid regions, the formation of a regional monitoring and early warning system for sand and dust storms, the international program “Green Aral,” the Regional Concept for Green Development of Central Asia, as well as the initiative of Uzbekistan and Mongolia on sustainable pasture management.

Turkmenistan, in turn, paid special attention to the problem of stabilizing mobile sands and preventing further spread of desertification processes.