LONDON, October 26.  The UK government, under the Darwin Initiative, a special grant program from the Ministry of Environment, Food and Agriculture, has decided to allocate over $ 500,000 for the Resurrection Island: enterprise, conservation and development project. development around the Aral Sea), according to the Dunyo news agency. This program aims to implement projects to conserve biodiversity and reduce poverty in developing countries. The beneficiaries of the grant, received with the participation of the Embassy of our country, are the Darrell Institute for Nature Conservation and Ecology at the University of Kent, the International Saiga Conservation Alliance, and the Institute of Zoology of the Academy of Sciences and the State Committee for Ecology of Uzbekistan. The three-year project provides for the adoption of a number of measures aimed at giving the Vozrozhdenie Island in the Aral Sea and the adjacent territory the status of a nature protection zone. This will help preserve the island’s unique biodiversity, in particular the endangered saigas. At the same time, projects will be implemented to provide the local population with new sources of stable income, in particular through the development of tourism. According to the authors of the project, the drying up of the Aral Sea is considered one of the largest anthropogenic environmental disasters of our time. However, in recent years, there have been many new initiatives with the broad participation of international partners, which are aimed at improving life in the Aral Sea region and returning it to its former glory. According to the project manager, Professor of the University of Kent Joseph Bull, the new initiative aims to help unleash the economic and environmental potential of the region by combining the efforts of the government, business, foreign partners and the local population to turn the Aral Sea region into a symbol of revival. Elena Bykova, head of the Saiga Conservation Alliance in Uzbekistan, believes that the project will lead to real step-by-step changes in the conservation of the last remaining saiga population in Uzbekistan, as well as other endangered species. It will also be important for learning international best practices in biodiversity conservation and building the capacity of local professionals. According to foreign experts, such projects demonstrate the importance that the government of Uzbekistan attaches to the Aral Sea region, as well as the degree of its readiness to cooperate with international partners in its revival.

Resources: indormation agency dunyo.uz