To fully understand the importance of the biological diversity (biodiversity) for a country and its people development we first need to identify it. The majority of people when asked about what biodiversity is give very indistinct answer that it means “nature” or “wild living creatures”. However, biodiversity has a far wider meaning that includes all types of life and natural systems that inhabit our planet.

Biodiversity is not a static concept. It recognizes interlinks between all biological nature parts. Biodiversity is often divided into 3 categories: diversity of species – diversity of all plants and animals, including bacteria and microorganisms; genetic diversity – diversity of genetic material within and among species; and ecosystem diversity – abundance of ecosystems (mountain forests, steppes or savannas, deserts, seas, etc.). These three components together make up the biodiversity. That is why conservation of any single component is important for the biodiversity conservation as a whole.

Another look on the biodiversity is our living in “biosphere”, i.e. in the live part of the planet. Biosphere is a very dynamic substance, but due to richness of its diverse biological parts it is very stable in terms of preserving life. Biosphere sustains external interventions (shocks, irritations), be it natural (such as various solar activity levels) or human-aided interventions (forest cutting, devastation caused by construction, etc.), only because of the abundance of the biological life. The less diverse life on Earth becomes, the more fragile becomes biosphere to external interferences. The lesser biodiversity is the fewer chances the planet has to survive in the long run.

Biodiversity is a significant source of economic, aesthetical, health-preserving and cultural wellness of our people. But our country, just like all others around the globe, faces with the threatening tendency of losing biodiversity – precious species, genes, and entire ecosystems become extinct. And the reason to it is only one – people!!! People are responsible for creating conditions, in which more species have disappeared than during the entire history from the dinosaurs’ extinction 65 million years ago. If the current speed of biodiversity disappearance is kept, in less than 100 years our planet will lose half of its species due to our, human actions, that destroy natural habitats, cause pollution and climate change . The main driving forces of the human influence on biodiversity are growing consumption of biological resources, production activities, agriculture, and overgrowth of settlements.

Does this mean that we shall fully cease our development processes, our consumption, trade, etc.? Of course, not. People, however, need to think of how to organize their lives and production activities so that biodiversity does not suffer and is preserved for future generations.

Biodiversity values

Biodiversity is a vital source of resources for people. We draw food; clothes; timber for cooking, construction, and furniture production; and majority of medical and industrial production components from wild or domestic biodiversity components.

Biodiversity values can be divided into two main categories:

 

What does the GEF SGP do to preserve biodiversity?

The GEF SGP general goal in this direction is to preserve the country’s biodiversity, including genetic diversity, diversity of species, and ecosystem diversity.

As mentioned before, the main reason of biodiversity loss in Uzbekistan is degradation of natural habitats mainly because of agriculture expansion and irrational consumption of biodiversity products and services causing degradation of status and decrease of quantity of biodiversity resources.

Biodiversity is one of the main the GEF SGP focuses, and the success of these activities for the bigger part depends not on government efforts, but on local population as direct user of biodiversity resources. This is why the effect of the GEF SGP realization in the country in terms of improving the state of biodiversity fully depends on how active the local population will be in solving their problems.

The GEF SGP objective on preserving biodiversity in Uzbekistan is aimed at elimination of the reasons that result in loss of biodiversity, i.e. prevention of negative effect from agriculture expansion on natural habitats and elimination of irrational practices of biodiversity products and services consumption. In other words, via its projects the GEF SGP will strive for creating conditions favorable for biodiversity natural preservation and implement practices that assume consumption by population in the amount that the nature is able to restore until the next season of this resource consumption.

In more details, the GEF SGP will act in the following directions:

Objective 1.1:
Prevention of expansion of agricultural and other grounds to protected natural areas of Uzbekistan and habitats of priority biological species (HPBS).

Protected natural areas in Uzbekistan are the core of biodiversity preservation in the country. That is why one of the most important objectives of today is “to preserve the biodiversity available in protected areas”. Agricultural development, that is allocation of new grounds for agriculture, is one of the main threats. The GEF SGP objective is to prevent such expansion, and, as far as possible, to restore territories around protected areas or HPBS so that they become favorable enough for habitation of wild species.

The GEF SGP does not support the principle of propagandizing ban of territories use. Local population needs the used territories as the source of income. Their requisitioning is not a solution. That is why it is important to implement alternative activities or approaches/practices to the usual activities at the already-in-use territories around protected areas and HPBS. Newly proposed activities or approaches to current activities shall be obviously beneficial to ecosystems, protected areas, or habitats.

It is important for potential applicants to answer whether there is a protected area of habitat of important biological species of plants and/or animals in their nearest neighborhood. If yes, it is probable that the GEF SGP will help you to preserve them if that is your plan.

Objective 1.2:

Restoration and development of degraded ecosystems as well as functions and services provided by biodiversity.

This objective is aimed at supporting projects dedicated to restoration and improvement of the existing territories that are proper for preservation and sustainable use of biodiversity resources. This objective assumes not only physical rehabilitation of the territories and biological complexes but also improved management of those territories.

This work had no sense without ecological integrity and links between the territories being restored. Therefore the restorable territories proposed in project applications preferably shall be located inside, if allowed by law, around (or in the neighborhood) of the existing protected areas or natural complexes that are still proper for habitation of important biological species.

Besides, this objective includes restoration of the degraded services and functions that will positively affect the ecosystem health.

Objective 1.3:

Development of any types of economic activities that decrease pressures on existing natural biodiversity habitats, products, and services.

This objective is focused on replacing naturally existing biodiversity resources consumption with the resources that were cultivated by the communities themselves. In other words, in order to decrease consumption of natural biological resources existing in wild, the GEF SGP projects will be aimed at production of own identical resources. Besides, this objective assumes replacement of the previous economic activities with the alternative options of occupying local people that may become more profitable and allowing natural ecosystems to restore. Typical example of such replacement is experience of the Nuratau project on forestry . In this specific sample the newly planted orchards and forests satisfy the demand of the local population for timber decreasing previous pressure on natural forests and providing to local people rather significant additional source of income (for more details, click here).

Another sample of decreasing pressures on natural biodiversity resources can be development of sustainable practices of existing resources consumption that allow using a resource but at the same time provide for restoration and augmentation of the given resource.

For more information of successful projects in our and other countries please see Projects section.