On 25 May 2026, within the framework of the Fourth High-Level International Conference on the International Decade for Action “Water for Sustainable Development, 2018-2028,” the Coordination Forum of Central Asian countries on monitoring, assessment, and predictive modeling of glaciers and the cryosphere was held.
The forum was organized at the initiative of the Agency for Hydrometeorology of the Committee for Environmental Protection under the Government of the Republic of Tajikistan in cooperation with international development partners.
At the opening ceremony, the Director of the Agency for Hydrometeorology, Abdullo Kurbonzoda, delivered a speech emphasizing the importance of the international initiatives of the Founder of Peace and National Unity - Leader of the Nation, President of the Republic of Tajikistan, Emomali Rahmon, in the fields of water resource protection, glacier preservation, and climate change adaptation.
It was noted that, within the framework of implementing the United Nations resolution “Decade of Action for Cryospheric Sciences 2025-2034,” the establishment of a Regional Coordination Center for the Cryosphere in the city of Dushanbe in cooperation with the World Meteorological Organization is considered one of the important initiatives.
In their remarks, the Deputy Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization, Ko Barrett; the Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany to Tajikistan, York Schuegraf; the Head of the Caucasus, Central and Eastern Asia Division of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, Thierry Umbehr; the Director of the Division of Water Sciences and Secretary of UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Hydrological Programme, Abou Amani; the Director of the Asian Development Bank in Tajikistan, Ko Sakamoto; and the representative of the Aga Khan Foundation, Javlon Hamdamov highly praised Tajikistan’s role in promoting issues related to water, climate, and glacier protection.
Participants noted that the main objective of the forum is to strengthen regional scientific and technical cooperation in glacier monitoring and research, assessment of the cryosphere, improvement of climate predictive modeling, expansion of data exchange, and implementation of joint research initiatives.
During the plenary sessions, participants discussed issues related to the development of scientific and political mechanisms at the regional level for glacier monitoring and cryosphere management. At the same time, they reviewed matters concerning the expansion of cooperation in cryosphere assessment, climate change modeling, disaster risk reduction, and the development of climate adaptation strategies.
