The Regional Dialogue: Scaling up Nature-based Solutions for resilient landscapes in Central Asia

Landscapes in Central Asia are exposed to extreme weather events and natural disasters caused by climate change and human activities such as intensive agriculture, illegal logging, and unsustainable pasture and livestock management. The region is suffering from low productivity and poor resilience of natural and built infrastructure due to degradation, erosion, and loss of vegetation. The RESILAND CA+ Program seeks to help affected rural communities in restoring landscapes, protecting lives and livelihoods, and increasing resilience to desertification, landscape degradation and climate change. One way to achieve these overarching programme goals is through large-scale deployment of Nature-based Solutions (NbS) throughout the Central Asia region.

Nature-based Solutions address societal challenges through the protection, sustainable management and restoration of both natural and modified ecosystems, benefiting both biodiversity and human well-being. Nature-based Solutions for Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Adaptation are underpinned by benefits that flow from healthy ecosystems. They target major challenges like climate change, disaster risk reduction, food and water security, biodiversity loss and human health, and are critical to sustainable economic development.

This strategic regional dialogue is organised jointly by IUCN ECARO and the Ministry of Ecology, Environmental Protection and Climate Change of the Republic of Uzbekistan, and it aims to enable relevant actors to gain a common understanding of the NbS concept, its value and the opportunities it offers.

This event is organised in Tashkent, Uzbekistan in hybrid format from Thursday, 15 June to Friday, 16 June. The on- site event is invite only and will take place in Panarams Tashkent Hotel, Tashkent, Uzbekistan. The online registrations are available here .

This regional NbS dialogue will cover aspects linked to design, implementation and monitoring of NbS actions for strengthening ecosystem and community resilience. Through panel discussions and round-tables we will bring together Government officials, financiers, and CSOs to explore what enabling factors could create new NbS opportunities in Central Asia.

It will reflect on challenges and opportunities for NbS implementation for climate change adaptation and ecosystem resilience enhancement, and investigate bottlenecks for mainstreaming NbS into the most relevant policies for climate change adaptation and ecosystem resilience, increasing cross-sector alignment to ensure more policy coherence, maximising synergies between relevant sectors. Moreover, it will mirror mapping financial needs and financial incentives available for NbS, assessment of technical capacities, challenges & opportunities for NbS implementation in the region

One of the goal is to raise understanding and operational knowledge of relevant stakeholders on ecosystem resilience and climate change adaptation through ecosystem-based approaches – insights into design, implementation and monitoring of NbS, gender-responsive NbS, participatory and co-creative approaches.