On March 30, the Green Central Asia Programme organized the first official working group meeting on glacier monitoring, modelling – coordination and cooperation among the five Central Asian partner countries. The following institutions were represented: for the Republic of Kazakhstan - Ministry of Emergency Situations, Ministry of Ecology, Geology and Nature Resources, Central Asian Regional Glaciological Center; for the Kyrgyz Republic - Hydrometeorological Service under the Ministry of Emergency Situations, "Tien Shan High-Mountain Scientific Center" under the Institute of Water Problems and Hydropower of the National Academy of Sciences, "Hazardous Exogenic Hydrogeological Processes" of the National Academy of Sciences, Central-Asian Institute for Applied Geosciences; for the Republic of Tajikistan - Hydrometeorological Center under the Committee of Environmental Protection, State Scientific Center on Glaciers under the National Academy of Sciences; for Turkmenistan - Hydrometeorological Center; for the Republic of Uzbekistan - Hydrometeorological Centre Uzhydromet under the Cabinet of Ministers, State Committee for Ecology and Environment Protection.
The regional working group plans to meet regularly and as a first step will draft a joint workplan to elaborate a regional glacier monitoring and modeling methodology in close cooperation with Central Asian representatives, regional and national experts as well as the Green Central Asia implementing partner organisations Helmholtz Centre Potsdam - German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ) and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK).
This action is one of the priority projects included into the Joint Regional Action Plan 2021 to 2024 as agreed to by the Central Asia countries within the framework of the Green Central Asia Initiative of the German federal government, which is open to all national, regional and international stakeholders operating in Central Asia. It is also supporting the implementation of the Aral Sea Basin Programme 4 of the International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea (IFAS) and will continue monitoring activities that started in the Berlin Process. Close coordination is agreed with the activities glacier monitoring and modeling in Central Asia of UNESCO and the Swiss Development Cooperation.
