UN Adopts Uzbekistan’s Initiative on Global Forest Restoration
The United Nations General Assembly has adopted a resolution put forward by Uzbekistan to declare 2027-2036 as the Decade for Afforestation and Reforestation. The announcement was made in a statement by Uzbekistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Titled “The Decade of Action for Sustainable Forest Management, Afforestation, and Reforestation”, the resolution was passed during a session in New York and garnered the support of over 80 co-sponsoring nations. Among them were all Central Asian countries, as well as Azerbaijan, Russia, Brazil, Austria, Germany, Finland, Portugal, India, Iran, Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Bahrain. According to the Foreign Ministry, the resolution is grounded in several environmental initiatives championed by President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, including the national “Green Space” project, the “Year of Environmental Protection and Green Economy” program, and the “Central Asian Green Belt” tree-planting campaign. The document urges nations and international organizations to intensify their efforts and pool resources to safeguard forests and rehabilitate degraded ecosystems, particularly in arid and semi-arid regions. This marks the second recent environmental resolution initiated by Uzbekistan and adopted by the UN. In 2024, the General Assembly supported a separate proposal focused on sustainable forest management and the restoration of degraded lands, including drylands, as part of broader efforts to combat ecological degradation. Uzbekistan’s flagship environmental initiative, Yashil Makon (Green Space), was launched in 2021 and aims to plant one billion trees and shrubs nationwide within five years.