Over 30 delegates from Central Asian, Eastern Europe and Southern Caucasus countries have met in Kyrgyzstan to work on synergies and indicators for National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs).

Representatives from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russian Federation, Tajikistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan attended the workshop, which was held in Issyk Kul, Kyrgyzstan on 7-9 September.

The overall objective of the event - which was also attended by representatives from the Convention on Biological Diversity, UNEP, UNEP-WCMC and WWF - was to strengthen capacity for developing indicators in order to update NBSAPs. The meeting was organised by UNEP in partnership with UNEP-WCMC and WWF Russia.

During the event, countries worked in sub-regional groups to discuss what common indicators across the sub-regions could mean for them, to identify common priorities, targets and indicators in their NBSAPs, and to discuss related challenges and possible solutions.

A second capacity-building workshop on indicators will take place in February 2016. The event will also be organised as part of the ‘Strengthening synergies and indicators in NBSAPs for the Pan-European region’ project funded by the European Commission’s Thematic Programme for Environment and Sustainable Management of Natural Resources including Energy (ENRTP) fund, with contributions from UNEP.

For more information please get in touch with thierry.lucas@unep.org
and maria.morgado@unep.org