The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the Ministry of Environment of Uzbekistan joined efforts to implement the One Health Central Asia project, which was launched on February 13. The main project objective is to mitigate the risk of zoonoses — diseases that are naturally transmissible from animals to humans, the press office of IUCN reported.
The project was announced at the 14th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Migratory Species of Wild Animals, which was held in Samarkand. The project budget is 11 million euros.
IUCN is planning to set up a regional network of protected and conserved areas and implement actions to prevent the emergence and spread of zoonotic diseases. IUCN Director General Grethel Aguilar stressed the importance of conserving the natural environment by improving public health and reducing the risk of infections transmissible from animals to humans.
The participants noted that the risk of zoonotic diseases in Central Asia is exacerbated by biodiversity loss and changes in human-wildlife interactions. Experts proposed strengthening conservation measures and wildlife management for disease risk mitigation.
