UZBEKISTAN JOINS AEWA

Recently Uzbekistan deposited its instruments of accession to AEWA and will become the 46th Contracting Party as of 1st May 2004. Of its 444.400 km2 territory about 22.000 km2 is covered with water. A great part of this is the Aral Sea. Uzbekistan's shoreline to this huge, but constantly shrinking inland water is 420 km long.

Uzbekistan is landlocked by Kazakhstan in the north, Turkmenistan in the southwest and Afghanistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgystan in the east. The land is essentially flat with intensely irrigated river valleys along the Amu Darya in the east, which flows into the Aral Sea. 327 bird species are reported to occur on Uzbekistan territory, including a number of waterbird species covered by the Agreement, e.g. White Headed Duck (Oxyura leucocephala), Marbled Teal (Marmaronetta angustirostris), Corncrake (Crex crex), Sociable Plover (Vanellus gregarious), Pygmy Cormorant (Phalacrocorax pygmaeus), Little Egret (Egretta garzetta), Lesser White-fronted Goose (Anser erythropus), Red-breasted Goose (Branta ruficollis), Ferruginous Pochard (Aythya nyroca) and others. Uzbekistan is already a member of several international environmental agreements, i.e. the Convention on Biodiversity, the Convention on Climate Change, the Convention to Combat Desertification, the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, the Convention on Migratory Species, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, etc.

On behalf of the Contracting Parties the UNEP/ AEWA Secretariat welcomes Uzbekistan to the 'AEWA family'.