Conservation of water bodies, monitoring of emissions into the atmosphere, adaptation to climate change and much more – during the meeting of the Interstate Environmental Council of the Commonwealth of Independent States, the participants discussed the most pressing issues of the environmental agenda. The meeting was attended by Minister of Natural Resources and Ecology of Russia Alexander Kozlov, Minister of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection of the Republic of Belarus Andrey Khudyk, Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources of the Republic of Kazakhstan Yerlan Nysanbayev, Deputy Minister of Environment of the Republic of Armenia Tigran Gabrielyan, Deputy Minister of Natural Resources, Ecology and Technical Supervision of the Kyrgyz Republic Assel Raimkulova, Deputy Chairman Committee for Environmental Protection under the Government of the Republic of Tajikistan Abdulkadir Mavlodod, Deputy Minister of Ecology, environmental protection and climate change of the Republic of Uzbekistan Zhusipbek Kazbekov.

"Our country is ready to share its experience in monitoring, conservation and restoration of reservoirs. Now we are implementing three federal projects: "Preservation of unique water bodies" – 111 million people live on our rivers, this is strategically important for us. "Preservation of Lake Baikal" is a project significant for the whole world. "Improving the Volga" is the main artery along which about 60 million Russians live. We are working on creating a single water project that will affect all major rivers of our country. Another important area is the response to climate change. The annual meeting of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change starts in just a month. Therefore, it is important to exchange data and, possibly, to develop a common position of the CIS countries for the world community," said Alexander Kozlov, Head of the Ministry of Natural Resources of Russia.

As the head of the delegation of the Republic of Belarus Andrey Khudyk noted, in difficult geopolitical conditions it is necessary to consolidate the efforts of the CIS member states to jointly overcome modern challenges and threats.

"Undoubtedly, we all put national interests at the forefront, but I am sure that we have them in common: to prevent the deterioration of environmental situations and ensure sustainable development. In my opinion, it is equally important to attract new partners to this work. In this regard, I am glad that representatives of Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan are present today. I hope that our council will soon include new members who will bring new ideas and directions for our cooperation," added Andrei Khudyk, Head of the Ministry of Natural Resources of the Republic of Belarus.

During the meeting, the participants touched upon the issues of new technical developments in the industry. In particular, a representative of the Ministry of Natural Resources of Russia said that today, as part of the digital transformation, it is planned to create at least a dozen information systems that will become part of the unified state environmental monitoring. Among them are the unified digital platform of Roshydromet, the federal system of the forest complex, the management system of the subsoil fund, the water data platform, the integrated waste management system, the management system of specially protected natural territories, the platform of state environmental control, supervision, the management system in the field of hunting and hunting resources.

The Republic of Kazakhstan also presented to the participants its developments in the issue of combating the appearance of unauthorized landfills. For this purpose, space systems are used in the country.

"A great contribution to the improvement of the ecological situation in Kazakhstan has been made by space monitoring, which allows obtaining broad information about the state of the environment. There has been a lot of experience in recent years in terms of tracking with the help of space monitoring in terms of eliminating unauthorized natural landfills. Using space monitoring, we shine through regional territories, near cities and practically in online format we see the formation of natural landfills, their elimination result," Chairman of the Committee for Environmental Regulation and Control of the Republic of Kazakhstan Zhomart Aliyev said.    

   The Interstate Ecological Council (MEA) was established on February 8, 1992 by an Agreement on cooperation in the field of ecology and Environmental Protection. On May 31, 2013, a new Agreement on cooperation in the field of environmental protection of the CIS member states was signed at a meeting of the Council of CIS Heads of Government in Minsk. The meeting of the CIS MEA is held to address issues of environmental safety and cooperation in the field of environmental protection of the participating states.

Author: Press Service of the Ministry of Natural Resources of Russia

Опубликовано: 18 October 2023