KYRGYZSTAN: BISHKEK HOSTS ENVIRONMENTAL SECURITY

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 BISHKEK 000396 SIPDIS STATE FOR SCA/CEN, EEB, OES/PCI (PHUDAK, NFITE) E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV PREL EPET ECON SENV KG SUBJECT: KYRGYZSTAN: BISHKEK HOSTS ENVIRONMENTAL SECURITY CONFERENCE BISHKEK 00000396 001.2 OF 004 ¶1. (U) SUMMARY: Six agencies from the UN, Europe, and NATO have joined together to form the Environmental and Security Initiative (ENVSEC),which has 33 projects in Central Asia. The stated goal of ENVSEC is to assist Central Asian countries to address environmental and security risks. Any environmental degradation has the potential to lead to conflict. The challenge for ENVSEC is to turn theoretical knowledge into actual cooperation between states and projects. ENVSEC projects fall into four broad categories: dialogue and cooperation, reducing risk from hazardous practices, increasing resilience to climate change, and raising awareness. Local government representatives expressed concern that ENVSEC would independently adopt projects without consulting or even informing each country's "national coordinator" for environmental policy. One break-out discussion group resulted in NGO recrimination against a Kyrgyz government official. The discussion consensus is that the four project clusters are adequate for now but that each country wanted to reserve the right to change or modify them if its situation changes. The 33 ENVSEC projects in Central Asia include dam safety trans-boundary cooperation in the Ferghana Valley, radioactive waste management, climate change adaptation, and promoting the Aarhus Convention. NATO is very active in ENVSEC in Central Asia, and its projects include microbiological safety of drinking water, integrated water resource management for wetlands restoration, and geo-environmental security of the Toktogul hydroelectric power station region. END SUMMARY. Six Donors Join to Form ENVSEC -------------- ¶2. (U) During the April 24 Environmental and Security Initiative (ENVSEC) Conference in Bishkek, Regional Environmental Officer (REO) and Environmental and Scientific Specialist learned that ENVSEC has 33 projects in Central Asia in four general target areas designed to address various aspects of environmental security in the region. Six agencies have joined together to create ENVSEC: the UN Development Program (UNDP),the UN Environmental Program (UNEP),the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE),the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE),the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO),and the Regional Environment �00A;Center for Central and Eastern Europe (REC). The stated goal of ENVSEC is to assist Central Asian countries to address environmental and security risks as well as to promote environmental protection and trans-boundary cooperation in support of democratic governance, sustainable development, and poverty reduction. These agencies offer their combined pool of expertise and resources to address political, economic, and social concerns that involve the link between the natural environment and human security. As UNECE/ENVSEC Chair Marco Keiner said, in addition, another goal is to increase ENVSEC's visibility among donors and improve its overall fundraising ability. ENVSEC Ambitions -------------- ¶3. (U) Keiner said ENVSEC's long-term strategy is to strengthen regional mechanisms and capacity for effective environmental and resource management; improve understanding and knowledge of industrial and radioactive waste sites in order to develop effective remediation activities; raise the capacity of governments to prevent and manage trans-boundary risks from industrial and hazardous "hotspots"; increase national and regional capacity to address climate change risks; increase dialogue and partnership between government and civil society organizations on environmental and security issues; and increase civil society and government access to information on environmental issues. ENVSEC Status in Central Asia -------------- ¶4. (U) UNDP Regional Center ENVSEC Coordinator Ajiniyaz Reimov noted that the connection between the environment and security is "patently obvious" to all those who work in this area. He stressed that any environmental degradation has the potential to lead to BISHKEK 00000396 002.2 OF 004 conflict, and all military conflicts create environmental degradation in their wake. The challenge for ENVSEC is to take the vast treasure of theoretical knowledge about the environment and transform it into actual cooperation between states and projects that ENVSEC can implement. In this regard, ENVSEC is a pioneer, Reimov said. UNDP serves as the ENVSEC coordinator in Central Asia. Outline of ENVSEC Projects -------------- ¶5. (U) At the Bishkek Conference, ENVSEC reviewed the existing projects, grouped under four broad categories, or "clusters": dialogue and cooperation on shared resources; reduction of risk to security and stability from hazardous practices; increased resilience to security impacts of climate change; and raising awareness and strengthening capacities and participatory mechanisms on environmental and security issues. The third cluster was recently added and was somewhat controversial, Reimov said, because many did not want to get "too close" to climate change as an issue out of fear that politics would derail it. He said ENVSEC was initially concerned about including climate change as one of its "clusters" because of the potential for conflict between countries over scarce resources and also because of the "politicization" of climate change itself. Now that the political "climate" has changed (and Reimov did not elaborate on the reasons for this),ENVSEC has now included climate change as one of its "clusters." All future projects will have to fall under one of these groupings in order for ENVSEC to accept them. Concern that ENVSEC Will Ignore "National Coordinators" -------------- -------------- ¶6. (U) During the conference, Tajikistan's First Deputy Minister of Energy and Industry Makhmadsharif Khakdodov expressed his concern that ENVSEC would independently adopt projects without consulting or even informing each country's "national coordinator" for environmental policy. Kyrgyzstan's State Agency on Environmental Protection and Forestry Director Arstanbek Davletkeldiev and Kazakhstan's Ministry of Environmental Protection Legal Policy and International Cooperation Director Aleksandr Bragin also supported this concern and wanted to ensure that ENVSEC would not "blindside" their countries with projects that did not fully conform to each country's own national priorities. Reimov assured them that ENVSEC will not undertake any project without full coordination with each country's own national plans. Breakout Discussion Groups -------------- ¶7. (U) The delegates broke into three separate discussion groups to focus on keeping or amending the four project "clusters" and discuss any additional projects that ENVSEC should undertake in the future. REO and Embassy Tashkent's Environmental Specialist were in a group with government officials and NGO representatives, and the Kyrgyz ENVSEC Chair Davletkeldiev asked the Environmental Specialist to lead the discussion because, according to him, "the United States is a non-partisan, neutral observer to the Conference and can best serve as an impartial moderator for this discussion." This group made the following suggestions: -- All riparian states should work together to address the negative impacts on health caused by trans-boundary environmental conditions -- for example, the Kyrgyz Republic needs other countries' help to upgrade and improve wastewater treatment plants in the Mailuu-Suu region in Kyrgyzstan that has uranium and other hazardous tailings; -- Include health related projects that would address trans-boundary health problems such as typhoid, malaria, and other water-borne diseases; -- Invite international health organizations such as the World Health Organization and Global Fund to participate in the ENVSEC BISHKEK 00000396 003.4 OF 004 Initiative as partners; and -- Some international environmental conventions, such as the Espoo Convention on Environmental Impact Assessment, to which Kyrgyzstan is a party, restrict and limit the development of its energy and other sectors, and these conventions need to be adopted with reservations that correspond to the specific cases and realities of Central Asia. ¶8. (U) Each group then presented its results before the ENVSEC body, reaching a consensus that the four project clusters are adequate for now but that each country wants to reserve the right to change or modify them if its situation changes. ENVSEC also recorded the various recommendations for additional projects that should be included in the future. ENVSEC Projects -------------- ¶9. (U) Listed below are six of the 33 projects that ENVSEC has underway or is planning to carry out: -- Dam safety in Central Asia (UNECE),ongoing, all Central Asian countries; -- Transboundary cooperation of communities in the Ferghana Valley (UNDP),ongoing, Tajikistan; -- Radioactive waste management in a trans-boundary context (UNDP), planned, all Central Asian countries except Turkmenistan; -- Assistance to Central Asian countries to implement the Convention on the Trans-boundary Effects of Industrial Accidents (UNECE, UNEP) ongoing, all Central Asian countries except Turkmenistan; -- Risk reduction and climate change adaptation in Central Asia (UNDP, UNEP),planned, all Central Asian countries; and -- Promotion of the Aarhus Convention in Central Asia (OSCE), ongoing, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan. (NOTE: The UNECE Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-Making, and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters, is better known as the Aarhus Convention. There is an Aarhus Center in Khujand, Tajikistan. END NOTE.) NATO Active in ENVSEC in Central Asia -------------- ¶10. (U) NATO is quite active in Central Asia and has several ENVSEC projects that it is implementing: -- Microbiological safety of drinking water (NATO),ongoing, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan; -- Integrated water resource management for wetlands restoration in the North Aral Sea basin (NATO),completed, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan; -- Geo-environmental security of the Toktogul hydroelectric power station region (NATO),planned, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan; -- Legacy of uranium extraction and environmental security in the Central Asian republics (NATO),completed, all Central Asian countries except Turkmenistan; -- Trans-boundary risks on the Kanibadam hazardous waste site in Ferghana Valley (NATO, UNEP, UNDP),planned, Tajikistan; -- Study on radioactive waste disposal sites in Turkmenistan (NATO), ongoing, Turkmenistan; -- Biotechnological exploitation of Uzbek saline water reserves using halotolerant microalgae (NATO),ongoing, Uzbekistan (NOTE: This project is designed to help local residents who have lost their BISHKEK 00000396 004.2 OF 004 livelihood because of the drying up of the Aral Sea to sell this algae, growing as a result of over-salinated water from chemical and fertilizer runoff. END NOTE); and -- Using stable isotopes, passive organic samplers, and modeling to assess environmental security in Khorezm, Uzbekistan (NATO), ongoing, Uzbekistan (NOTE: this project assesses the potential for using irrigational water runoff for other kinds of livelihoods. END NOTE). GFOELLER