JUNE 25 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Kazakh government is considering changing the name of its ministry for environmental protection to the ministry of environment and water resources, media reported. This is important as it underlines how vital water is for Kazakhstan and the wider Central Asia region.
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(News report from Issue No. 141, published on July 1 2013)
JUNE 21 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The UN has decreed the Pamir Mountains in Tajikistan a World Heritage Site, media reported, giving the Tajik tourist industry a boost but also potentially making development in the area more difficult. The Tajik National Park, which covers 18% of the country and most of the Pamir Mountains, is Tajikistan’s first World Heritage Site.
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(News report from Issue No. 140, published on June 24 2013)
JUNE 14 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — At a meeting in Tashkent, Uzbek President Islam Karimov and Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev called for the UN to investigate the potential environmental impact of proposed dams in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Water is a sensitive subject in Central Asia and can aggravate inter-country relations.
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(News report from Issue No. 139, published on June 17 2013)
JUNE 13 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Perhaps looking to both its green credentials, the Kazakh authorities said they want to introduce bicycle-taxis from 2014, media reported. The first German-designed bicycle-taxis will trial in Pavlodar, north Kazakhstan, before appearing in Astana and Almaty.
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(News report from Issue No. 139, published on June 17 2013)
JUNE 5 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan will spend roughly $3.2b a year until 2050 on developing alternative green energy sources and reducing its dependence on coal-fired power stations, energy minister Nurlan Kapparov told media. Coal-fired power stations produce roughly 80% of Kazakhstan’s power.
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(News report from Issue No. 138, published on June 10 2013)
APRIL 26 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Sturgeon, fish native to the Caspian Sea that produce roe which is better known as caviar, are under threat.
According to Kazakhstan’s deputy Prosecutor-General, Andrei Kravchenko, there will be no sturgeon in the Caspian Sea with four years.
In the last three years, the number of sturgeon in the Caspian Sea has fallen from 3 million to 1.3 million, the Tengrinews website quoted him as saying.
“At a similar rate,” he said. “Sturgeon will be on the brink of extinction in four to five years.”
He blamed energy companies, poachers and official corruption for the drop in numbers.
Caviar is valuable for the Caspian region. Prices in Europe for the delicacy hit thousands of euro for a kilogram.
A few days before Mr Kravchenko’s statement, deputy foreign ministers of the Caspian Sea littoral countries met in Tehran for one of their regular meetings on protecting fish stocks. It’s a talking-shop. The next meeting is scheduled for Baku in September.
Perhaps Mr Kravchenko’s comments were aimed at the deputy foreign ministers.
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(News report from Issue No. 133, published on April 29 2013)
APRIL 26 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Poaching will kill off sturgeon in the Caspian Sea within four years, media quoted the Kazakh deputy Prosecutor-General, Andrei Kravchenko, as saying. Sturgeon roe is more commonly known as caviar and is a lucrative commodity.
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(News report from Issue No. 133, published on April 29 2013)
MARCH 10 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – Nearly 500,000 public sector employees in Turkmenistan picked up shovels and headed out to the desert to plant trees as part of their annual anti-desertification strategy. Turkmenistan has been pursuing an anti- desertification programme since the late-1990s.
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(News report from Issue No. 127, published on March 15 2013)
NOV. 29 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Villagers in south Kyrgyzstan have attacked and set fire to a camp used by geologists working for a Russian gold mining company, Reuters reported, dealing another blow to foreign investor confidence. Local people have previously attacked foreign mining operations, blaming them for environmental damage.
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(News report from Issue No. 115, published on Nov. 30 2012)
APRIL 6 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Heavy snow has cut off villages and destroyed vital pasture in rural parts of Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, already Central Asia’s poorest countries, triggering a potential humanitarian crisis.
Local news agencies in Tajikistan quoted officials describing the winter as the heaviest for 50 years. In Kyrgyzstan, officials said that in one area in the south of the country a third of the livestock has already died.
Both Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan are mountainous and heavy winters can trigger major logistical problems for rural communities which have only fairly basic standards of living.
They are also already both net receivers of aid, which, as ever, comes with a political undertone.
Russian president Dmitri Medvedev has ordered aid to be flown to Tajikistan and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported that in January and February Tajikistan received aid worth $6m, mainly from Russia, Egypt and Iran.
Moscow has also strengthened relations with Kyrgyzstan last year since Almazbek Atambayev won a presidential election. Deputies in the Kyrgyz parliament have called for urgent help, a call sure to be answered by Russia and other neighbours such as Kazakhstan and possibly China.
The situation is made worse because the price of fodder to feed cattle has risen in the past few months and the government faces a shortage of airplanes and helicopters.
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(News report from Issue No. 082, published on April 6 2012)