Output by the Central Asian economies dropped sharply after independence with subsequent fall in living conditions. Poverty is widespread, especially in rural areas. Communal services have broken down in many areas, straining relations between local authorities and the population. Only recently have some of the economies shown signs of improving, but GDP growth rates have not helped to reduce poverty and social inequality. The unemployment rates ...

The Taboshar uranium mining site stands on the southern edge of the Kuramin Mountains close the Uzbek - Tajik border. The site consists of a non - rehabilitated open mine, dismantled production buildings, and three tailing sites storing 10 m tones of low grade processed uranium ore. The town of Taboshar with its 12000 inhabitants is only a few kilometers away.

Sudden releases of water into the Spitamen district from Kyrgyzstan are regularly endangering the neighboring Tajik arable land downstream and villages along the river. The Tajik communities are convinced upstream Kyrgyz communities are responsible for the flooding. However, local experts suggest that increased water levels in spring the later years may also be due to increased and rapid ice and snow melt down caused by a warmer climate in the hi...

In the soviet period the industrial operations paid little attention to environment or public health, resulting in the accumulation of pollutants in the local environment. Because of their vulnerability to natural hazards, previous history of accidents, and their position along water courses and in the vicinity of towns and cities in transboundary areas, tailing dumps at both active and closed mining enterprises constitute an environmental as wel...

The walnut forest is remnants of Central Asia Tertiary era subtropical forests. They are located primarily in the northern slopes of the Ferghana and Chatkal ranges of the Tien Shan and on the southern slopes of the Gissar and Darvaz ranges in Tajikistan. The Jalal-Abad walnut forests is currently under risk of man made damage due to wood fuel cutting, cattle grazing and land cultivating. The forest consists of a remarkable combination of walnut...

The pilot phase of the initiative in 2003 assessed environmental threats in Central Asia and South –Eastern Europe, two regions where environmental concerns have clear security implications. The Southern Caucasus joined in 2004. Eastern Europe and the Circumpolar Arctic will be included in 2005-2006. In each region work stats by identifying, through consultation with national and regional stakeholders, priority environment and security issues and...

Agriculture is a mainstay of Central Asia’s economy. With the economic crisis following independence it has become even more important. Agriculture being almost entirely dependent upon irrigation, access to water is of strategic importance. Two major Tributaries – The Naryn and the Kara-Darya – both originating in Kyrgyzstan, join to form the Syr-Darya, one of the two largest rivers serving the Aral Sea Basin, and the key water resource of the wh...

To date there are three main groups of issues that are relevant to environmental and security issues in the region. These are access to and quality if natural resources (primarily water and land but also forest and more generally biodiversity resources), existing or potential pollution from industrial facilities, hazardous and radioactive waste sites; and cross-cutting issues such as natural disasters, climate change, public health, environmenta...

The rationale of the common soviet market and economic system has disappeared, forcing Central Asian states to find their own position in the global market without the support of a redistributive economy. Their geographical position landlocked between two economic and political giants, china and Russia, makes their task difficult, especially in poor countries. All three economies are predominantly agricultural. They all rely on primary exports, e...

An important factor when looking at the region in terms of environment and security is the impact of climate change in Central Asia in general, and Ferghana Valley in particular. By modifying people’s livelihood, climate change may have an important security dimension in conjunction with other aggravating factors. In the Ferghana valley it is likely that climate change will primarily affect sector related to water and agriculture. Central Asia is...

Given the importance of agriculture for the whole Ferghana basin, natural resources such as land and water have historically been amongst the most important factor in this regions development. The size of the population depending upon these resources is consequently a key political security, and environmental issue. The Ferghana valley is the most populous area in Central Asia. High population densities increase the risk of depletion of natural r...

Water is a basic production resource for agriculture. Competition for scarce water resources has been recognized as a potential source of international conflict. In the case of the Ferghana Valley, despite the very local character of the conflicts, the presence of international borders/or the implication of communities belonging to another ethnic group has loaded the conflict with a transborder and/or ethnic dimension. Earlier studies have shown ...

Mercury mining, uranium mining, chemical and textile industries, oil facilities and processing plants which contribute to the contamination of the soil with highly toxic heavy metals are recognized as environmental challenges in the region. Even though past spills and contaminations have caused tensions between the different countries of the region, officials do not consistently regard environmental pollution by existing facilities as a security ...

The Arctic is extremely diverse in terms of landscapes, varying from pack and drift ice to rugged shores, flat coastal plains, rolling hills and mountains surpassing 6000 metres above sea level (Denali, 6,194 m asl, in sub-arctic and boreal Alaska). The region has rivers and lakes, tundra and the largest forests in the world (the Russian Taiga). This is a simple grayscale political map.

The averages of the scenarios in the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (ACIA) are presented in this figure, for the year 2090, with the surface temperatures over land, the size of the polar ice cap, and the outer limits of permafrost. This map features shipping routes in addition - as the sea ice is decreasing, the potential for developing shipping in the Arctic increases.

The Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna is a working group under the Arctic Council, for the countries of Russia, Denmark, USA, Canada, Sweden, Iceland, Norway and Finland and indigenous peoples. Monitoring, assessment, protected areas and conservation strategies are all tasks under this working group. The area that the working group primarily addresses is presented in this map.

The Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna is a working group under the Arctic Council, for the countries of Russia, Denmark, USA, Canada, Sweden, Iceland, Norway and Finland and indigenous peoples. Monitoring, assessment, protected areas and conservation strategies are all tasks under this working group. The area that the working group primarily addresses is presented in this map.

Climate change affect the health of the population, not only through heat waves and waterborne diseases, but also as a result of the expansion of geographical areas conducive to the transmission of vector-borne diseases such as yellow fever, dengue and malaria. Species of mosquitoes, such as the group ‘Anopheles gambiae’, ‘A. funestus’, ‘A. darlingi’, ‘Culex quinquefasciatus’ and ‘Aedes aegypti’, are responsible for propagation of the majority of...

Estimations calculate that the environment and natural resources sector should contribute USD 791 million to the Uganda GDP, excluding benefits like ecosystem services. In the formal figures, only USD 405 million is recorded, where subsistence use and informal markets are not captured. Over 90% of the employment in the sector is secondary processing and subsistence use. Sustainable natural resource use implies that this sector will continue to pr...

Gorilla tourism in Uganda is primarily taking place in the Mgabinga Gorilla National Park and Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, and represents one of the main destinations for wildlife tourism in the country. Estimations of the national and community level economic impacts in Uganda, based on a full capacity of 8760 tourists per year and expenditures of USD 874 were calculated to present the direct impacts, the indirect (secondary support activi...