Representatives of international organizations, development agencies, national partner ministries and members of the National CADI Secretariats from Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan participated in this event.

     The CADI project, funded by the German government, is being implemented since 2017 by the University of Greifswald, the Michael Succow Foundation and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). Along with Uzbekistan, the target countries of the Central Asian Desert Initiative are Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, which are also known for their unique landscapes and vast deserts with rich wildlife. Within the framework of the CADI project a large-scale work was carried out to preserve deserts’ biodiversity, expand saxaul plantations and create transboundary protected areas, and, most importantly, to support the population, which is engaged in the development of agriculture in the harsh conditions of temperate deserts.

     «The Central Asian Desert Initiative is one of the successful regional projects in which we are participating in partnership with FAO. I express the hope that the further work of the Regional Secretariat will contribute to the implementation of the UN Conventions adopted in Rio de Janeiro in 2012 – the Convention to Combat Desertification, the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Framework Convention on Climate Change», – said the head of the department of international relations and development of ecotourism of the State Forestry Committee of the Republic of Uzbekistan Abduvohid Zakhadullayev.

     In December 2021, the office of the Interim Regional CADI Secretariat was officially opened in the building of the State Forestry Committee of the Republic of Uzbekistan.

     “The Regional CADI Secretariat is expected to be a successor of all activities implemented by the CADI project in Central Asia. Its mission is to support biodiversity conservation and sustainable utilization of the temperate deserts’ ecosystems. There are three Central Asian member countries so far, but the doors of the Regional Secretariat are open for other countries willing to sustain these unique ecosystems of global importance”, – said Temurbek Reymov, Coordinator of Interim Regional CADI Secretariat.

     The regional workshop helped to discuss a status as NGO, organizational structure and statutory document of the Regional CADI Secretariat; finetune its Program of Work; and explore resource mobilization opportunities for the Regional CADI Secretariat.