As part of the Green Central Asia program, on March 17, 2023, in the city of Tashkent, a joint meeting of the heads of institutions of Central Asia and the regional working group on monitoring and modeling glaciers in Central Asia was held.

The work of the Regional Working Group is supported by the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ), and national experts from five countries, including Kazakhstan.

The purpose of this event was to conduct national analysis and prepare report on further joint work on monitoring and modeling of glaciers in Central Asia.

From Kazakhstan side the director of the Central Asian Regional Glaciological Centre as as category 2 Centre under the auspices of UNESCO, Professor Balykbayev T.O.  and researchers Kapitsa V.P., Yegorov A.B. took part in the meeting.

National experts from four countries prepared and submitted national assessment reports on the topic “National Study on Potential Joint Methodology for Monitoring and Modeling of Glaciers in Central Asia”.

The submitted national reports of experts became the basis for further work of the Regional Working Group in the development and harmonization of the common regional methodology for monitoring, assessing and forecasting glaciers to strengthen regional coordination.

For joint regional approach to work on glaciers, the experts proposed to conduct the first joint regional scientific expedition to the Tuiyksu glacier in Kishi Almaty River basin in Kazakhstan in August 2023, as well as to all interested institutions of the Central Asian countries to sign a memorandum of understanding between organizations involved in monitoring and glacier researches.

The director of the Centre, Takir Ospanovich Balykbayev, spoke at the meeting and expressed his gratitude to all the organizers and participants of the meeting for their support in the development of regional cooperation under the program "Green Central Asia" and in particular, one of the priority areas - work on glaciers in Central Asia and confirmed the readiness to join the memorandum of understanding and cooperation in the presented version and take an active part in the work of scientific expedition to the Tuyiksu glacier.

As a result of the joint meeting of the heads of Institutions of Central Asia and the regional working group on monitoring and modeling of glaciers in Central Asia, the Memorandum of Understanding and Cooperation was signed by the following organizations:

 • Central Asian Regional Glaciological Centre as as category 2 Centre under the auspices of UNESCO, Kazakhsyan;

• Central-Asian Institute for Applied Geosciences (CAIAG);

• Tien Shan High Mountain Research Center at the Institute of Water Problems and Hydropower of the National Academy of Sciences of the Kyrgyz Republic;

• State Scientific Institution «Center for Research of Glaciers of the National Academy of Sciences of the Tajikistan»;

• Agency for Hydrometeorology of the Committee for Environmental Protection under the Government of the Republic of Tajikistan;

• Hydrometeorological Service Agency under the Ministry of Natural Resources of the Republic of Uzbekistan;

• The Abdullayev Institute of Geology and Geophysics at the University of Geological Sciences under the Ministry of Mining and Geology of the Republic of Uzbekistan.