The International Conference on Economics of Land Degradation in Central Asia was conducted on November 28-29, 2016 in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, to discuss the findings and recommendations developed within the regional project on the Economics of Land Degradation (ELD) in Central Asia, initiated in 2014 jointly by the UNCCD, the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) and the GIZ Regional Programme for Sustainable and Climate Sensitive Land Use for Economic Development in Central Asia.
The overarching objective of the conference was to consider the ELD results in relation to on-going plans and frameworks to achieve greater synergies between the commitments of the Central Asian countries to the UN environmental conventions (combating desertification, climate change, and biodiversity).
The main message of the project is that sustainable land management (SLM) practices, assessed in the different ELD studies, can contribute to livelihood enhancement and more sustainable production systems given a better enabling environment that includes policies and new institutional arrangements.