CONCLUSIONS

Central Asian countries are embracing new economic and infrastructural development initiatives, including mining and energy projects. These projects require environmental assessments based on compatible and up-to-date indicators and spatial datasets. Conservation of endangered and migratory species, preservation of cross-border ecosystems, and protection of the Aral Sea and of regional water resources depend on timely and open environmental data exchange. Improved regional data and knowledge on climate change and hazardous waste and tailings help to assess and address local and cross-border vulnerabilities and contribute to mitigation efforts.

Three years of fostering modern approaches to environmental information management in Central Asia following the principles of the Shared Environmental Information System have demonstrated clear advantages of the chosen approach, notably in terms of improved cooperation and sharing of lessons learned.

The one-UN approach by linking capacity-building with national projects, and by pooling together financial resources and expertise of different UN projects to finance capacity-building brings viable synergies, better results and stronger impact on the ground.

Fostering Regional cooperation by inviting representatives of other culturally close countries, both within and outside of Central Asia, to attend national workshops and to share experience, while at the same time benefitting from training themselves, is productive, cost-effective and culturally enriching.

Combining awareness and promotion of SEIS principles with hands-on technical training on such topics as environmental assessment, reporting, methodologies of environmental and SDG indicators and environmental-economic accounting brings the long-term vision of SEIS on a par with everyday life.

Facilitating dialogue about sharing environmental data and information and making them broadly available to the public in line with principles of open access to information not only brings close the future of SEIS in Central Asia, but also contributes to improved e-governance and eventually good governance at large.

Both international organizations and the countries of Central Asia look forward to continue this mutually rewarding partnership.

References

The following key references were used in addition to expert analyses and consultations

United Nations Economic Commission for Europe. Current state and development of the Shared Environmental Information System (SEIS). Republic of Kazakhstan. Geneva, 2019

United Nations Economic Commission for Europe. Current state and development of the Shared Environmental Information System (SEIS). Kyrgyz Republic. Geneva, 2019

United Nations Economic Commission for Europe. Current state and development of the Shared Environmental Information System (SEIS). Republic of Tajikistan. Geneva, 2019

United Nations Economic Commission for Europe. Final review report on the establishment of the Shared Environmental Information System (SEIS), 2021. Available at: unece.org/sites/default/ files/2021-04/2104042E.pdf

United Nations Economic Commission for Europe. Joint Task Force on Environmental Statistics and Indicators. Revised Guidelines on the Application of Environmental Indicators (October 2021): unece.org/statistics/events/joint-task-force-environmental-statistics-and-indicators-1

United Nations Economic Commission for Europe and United Nations Environment Programme (2022). Europe’s Environment. The Seventh Pan-European Environmental Assessment. Available at: unece.org/sites/default/files/2022-10/2210919_E_pdf_web.pdf

Zoї Environment Network, Regional Environmental Centre for Central Asia, Environmental Agency Austria. The State of the Environment in Central Asia. EU FLERMONECA, Geneva — Almaty, 2015 zoinet.org/product/soe-ca

Zoї Environment Network, United Nations Environment Programme. Environmental information scorecards for Central Asian countries. Geneva, 2018

Zoї Environment Network, United Nations Environment Programme. Development of the Shared Environmental Information Systems in Central Asia. Regional synthesis. Geneva, 2018 Also consulted were:

• websites of project partners in the countries, such as environmental authorities and statistical offices

• available materials from SDG development processes in Central Asian countries (including national SDG websites), the latest Voluntary National Reviews of Kazakhstan (2019), Kyrgyz Republic (2020), Tajikistan (2017), Turkmenistan (2019) and Uzbekistan (2020)

• recently completed or drafted Environmental Performance Reviews of Central Asian countries unece.org/environmentpolicy/environmental-performance-reviews

• websites of international organizations including UNEP, UNECE, UN Stat

• websites of regional organizations and portals, including CAREC, SIC ICSD, SIC ICWC, Living Asia