Publication Name

Environment and Security

joint transboundary assessment to setting up demonstration

projects in local communities. Cooperation will be strength-

ened between ENVSEC and specific parallel initiatives in

the land and water sector (for example the Swiss-financed

Integrated Water Resources Management in the Ferghana

valley) as well as work of the International Fund for Saving

the Aral Sea.

In the

industrial and waste cluster

, with the support of the

Italian Ministry of the Environment and Italian industry,

ENVSEC will make a detailed analysis of environmental

and health risks at four industrial sites: the Khaidarkan and

Kadamjai mining and processing plants in Kyrgyzstan, the

Ferghana oil refinery in Uzbekistan, and the Kanibadam

dump for obsolete pesticides in Tajikistan. The project

will also help improve organization of risk management

in local industry. Under the leadership of NATO’s Security

Through Science partners and in coordination with IAEA,

ENVSEC will also help strengthen local analytical capacities

for radiation measurement, and then carry out a detailed

risk assessment at selected uranium mining sites such as

Shekaftar (Kyrgyzstan), Degmay and Taboshar (Tajikistan),

and Yangebat (Uzbekistan).

Addressing

cross-cutting concerns

, UNDP will help authori-

ties and local communities to improve management of risks

related to natural disasters such as landslides, mudflows,

floods and drought. To increase the impact of work, par-

ticipants have agreed that these initiatives should be linked

to those undertaken on industrial locations and radioactive

wastes sites. The project will map out hazards in greater

detail than is currently available (looking, among others, at

possible impacts on industrial facilities), and then contribute

to greater local preparedness. As with other local projects,

results if successful can be transferred to other locations.

Safety of dams is another possible dimension of ENVSEC

interest yet to be investigated.

In our view ENVSEC contributes significant added value by

strengthening institutions and transboundary dialogue and

cooperation

. Accordingly, in addition to working with local

communities and industry, we will involve key players such

as Government, civil society and mass media.

Governments

have always been ENVSEC’s primary coun-

terparts and we will continue to rely on a network of national

focal points from both the Environmental and Foreign Affairs

parts of the administrations. Following the success of the first

meeting of provincial environmental committees from Kyr-

gyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan in Osh in 2004, ENVSEC

will continue to support such meetings and a transboundary

dialogue between local environmental authorities in general

One important outcome of ENVSEC consultations

in Osh in December 2004 has been the re-estab-

lishment of a dialogue between environmental

authorities from the provinces (oblasts) of the three

countries constituting the Ferghana valley. Heads

of environmental committees from the Batken, Osh

and Jalal-Abad oblasts in Kyrgyzstan, Sogd oblast

of Tajikistan, Andijan, Namangan and Ferghana

provinces of Uzbekistan met for the first time after

a long break in an event organised by ENVSEC on

December 7, 2004 at Osh Public Environmental

Information Centre.

Environmental authorities within the region every day

face common problems and challenges. But also

every day their managers experience difficulties and

challenges of direct regular cross-border communi-

cation. The full-day meeting gave the participants a

highly appreciated opportunity to discuss common

issues face-to-face: and not only the ENVSEC as-

sessment and work to follow, but also many other

burning concerns shared by the neighbours.

Facilitating dialogue among environmental authorities of the Ferghana valley provinces

��

This will hopefully give start to a strengthened collaborative

network of local authorities, as well as institutions and indi-

viduals in the region altogether. The next series of meetings

has been planned to take place in Tajikistan (Khujand) and

Uzbekistan in 2005.

Source: UNEP, UNDP, OSCE, NATO, 2005