On 26 May, a march celebrating World Environment Day in Tajikistan’s two largest cities will show the way to an improved stewardship of our planet and in turn keep citizens healthy.
Scores of participants will walk through central Dushanbe and Khujand meeting the general public on the streets and in cafés, sharing information on the impact on the environment of action we take in our daily lives and ways we can better protect nature.
Forests occupy just 2.9% of Tajikistan, despite them cleaning the air people breathe and creating soothing shade from the hot summer sun – which can often lead to temperatures of 40 degrees Celsius in the country’s capital in summer. ‘Plant trees in autumn and spring’ the flyer that will be shared by the troop therefore suggests.
Meanwhile, every day, 600-700 tonnes of municipal waste is deposited in landfill in Tajikistan’s capital, which now contains a mountain-like 30 million cubic metres of discarded material. ‘Reduce, re-use and recycle wherever possible!’ pleads the flyer, which will be given out in English, Russian and Tajik.
In Dushanbe, the campaign begins at the UN Information Resource Centre building at Mirzo Tursunzade str. 30 and will cover four neighbourhoods. A further 30 nature defenders wearing dedicated t-shirts will cover much of central Khujand on their walk at the same time.
The theme to this year’s edition of World Environment Day is ‘connecting people with nature’ and is the ‘people’s day for doing something for our Earth and becoming an agent of change. 2017 is also the Tajik Year of Youth, which Friday’s march will reach out to.
“Environmental protection is important to Tajikistan as – being the poorest country in our region – we are especially vulnerable to climate change for example,” said Tahmina Azizova of UN Environment and the United Nations Development Programme’s Poverty and Environment Initiative, which leads the marches together with UN volunteers.
“Underdeveloped mechanisms for social accountability, obsolete infrastructure and inefficient use of energy and water resources - the legacy of Soviet Union, - exarcerbate the environmental sustainability situation in the country," Tahmina noted.
“We hope that the knowledge we share on why we need to protect nature will also reach rural areas and beyond,” she underlined.
For more information please contact isabelle.valentiny@unep.org or tahmina.azizova@undp.org
