An assessment of the proposed five pilot sites was conducted within the CAREC Project on “Payment for Ecosystem Services in the Issyk-Kul oblast”.
The project is implemented by the Regional Environmental Center of Central Asia (CAREC) with support of the State Agency on Environmental Protection and Forestry of the Kyrgyz Republic, the Issyk-Kul oblast state administration of the Kyrgyz Republic (Memorandum on Understanding was concluded) and the Secretariat of the UNECE Convention on Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes (Water Convention).
The financial support of the project is provided by Swiss Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN), Small Grant Program of GEF (GEF SGP) for Kyrgyz Republic and European Commission Delegation in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic and Tajikistan.
The objective of this project is to demonstrate the feasibility of applying the Recommendations on Payments for Ecosystem Services in Integrated Water Resources Management in a Central Asian context
These recommendations were accepted by the Parties to the UNECE Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes (Water Convention) held at their fourth meeting in (Bonn, 20-22 November 2006. They were developed through a remarkable participatory process which involved experts from different backgrounds, from national authorities, international organizations and non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
Lake Issyk-Kul Lake is unique water ecosystem. Over 80 rivers flow into the lake, one of them is Chon-Aksuu river. This river was chosen as a pilot ecosystem, based on the ease of availability of data, as a prerequisite to demonstrate the applicability of the concept of Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES).
The current situation in the pilot sites and the status of ecosystem of Chon-Aksuu river basin, land and water resources, forestry unit and relations between users of ecosystem services are analyzed in this report.
