25 August 2017: The UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) has reviewed Tajikistan’s environmental performance, during the same year in which the Government of Tajikistan participated in a Voluntary National Review (VNR) at the 2017 session of the High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF).

UNECE facilitated an environmental performance review (EPR) in Tajikistan in 2017, which was presented to stakeholders in Dushanbe on 25 August. The review found that the most pressing issues for the country are deforestation, contamination of food and water, and air pollution from road transport.

The review recommends prioritizing forest protection, given unsustainable rates of deforestation caused by intensive livestock grazing and illegal firewood collection.

EPRs are a peer review of countries’ achievements by teams of experts from European countries. UNECE has been facilitating the EPRs for 20 years. Austria, the Netherlands, Norway and Switzerland fund the process, and many European countries provide experts to conduct the review. The Tajikistan review process was its third conducted through UNECE. The review covered governance and performance and considered the integration of environmental concerns into selected sectors: agriculture; industry; energy; transport; housing; health; and disaster risk management (DRM). The reviewers recognized some achievements, including measures to deal with obsolete pesticides and uranium waste tailings. The review resulted in 82 recommendations, including prioritizing forest protection, given unsustainable rates of deforestation caused by intensive livestock grazing and illegal firewood collection.

Tajikistan’s VNR indicated that its Government will implement the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) based on a national development strategy covering the period up to 2030. The national development strategy contains four goals that align fully with the SDGs, to: ensure energy security and efficiency use of electricity (SDG 7, affordable and clean energy); turn the country into a transit path (SDG 9, industry, innovation and infrastructure); ensure food security and access to good quality nutrition (SDG 1, end poverty, and SDG 2, zero hunger); and expanding productive employment (SDG 8, decent work and economic growth). The VNR showed that Tajikistan successfully lowered the incidence of poverty in the country from 83% to 31% during the period covered by the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), from 2000-2015. However, the review found that environmental issues remain to be fully addressed. For example, the melting of glaciers, linked to climate change, is an important issue for the mountainous state.[UN Web Page on Tajikistan VNR] [Tajikistan VNR Full Report] [UNECE Press Release] [UNECE Web Page on EPRs] [UNECE Tajikistan EPR Report Publication Page] [Tajikistan Third EPR]