In honor of the World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought, which is celebrated on June 17, a round table was held in Ashgabat dedicated to the integration of land degradation neutrality principles into national land use planning and policy.

The event was organized jointly with the scientific information center of the interstate commission on sustainable development, the body of the International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea, and the Ministry of Environmental Protection of Turkmenistan with the financial support of the Global Environment Fund.

Representatives of the Secretariat of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification, the Mejlis of Turkmenistan, the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Agriculture, Water Management, Education, Finance and Economy, and the State Statistics Committee also took part in it.

The round table was aimed at promoting the inclusion of LDN principles in the updated National Action Program to Combat Desertification of Turkmenistan.

During the discussions, the participants touched upon issues of strategic planning, synchronization of various national policies in the field of natural resources. The participants discussed the existing legal and institutional framework of the land use system, as well as the inclusion of the Land Degradation Neutral Balance principles in the land management system in the country.