Category: <span>Greening Silk Road</span>

New Canal Construction by Taliban Exacerbates Water Crisis in the Aral Sea Basin

Bakyt Ibraimov, Fawad Ali Source: The Third Pole May 18, 2023 Salt deposits in the Karakum desert, Turkmenistan, where experts say the Karakum Canal has resulted in land being salinised and seasonally waterlogged, making agriculture impossible (Image: Alamy) For more than 50 years, Afghanistan has contemplated building an enormous canal that …

Protecting Free Flowing Rivers – briefing for banks how to avoid harm

“Free flowing river” is an intuitively clear and appealing concept, but if we want its protection to be embedded into policies and regulations there is a need for formalized definition and identification algorithms. Our first attempt is directed at development banks, which often support destructive infrastructure projects negatively affecting wild …

Asian Development Bank Downplays Risks of Large Hydropower

Today, celebrating the Day of Action for Rivers, dozens of civil society groups published their critique of the Draft Guidance Note on Large Hydropower which was disclosed by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for a short “consultation period”. The ADB may establish a dangerous precedent issuing Guidance, that instructs its …

“Our Common Geopolitical Language” Sounds Scary

People from throughout the world who love Mongolia, its rivers and local communities, are truly concerned with current new push to build hydropower dams on Mongolia’s majestic free-flowing rivers. This piece republished with permission of the author – Peter Fong – is a vivid evidence of such concerns. Way back …

Amur-Heilong featured in the River Culture Book published by UNESCO

UNESCO published in Beijing a richly illustrated socio-ecological saga “River Culture –  Life as a Dance to the Rhythm of the Waters” (available in full and chapter by chapter here ) In 36 chapters spanning 900 pages the book analyses relationship between key ecosystem processes (e.g. periodic flooding) and ethno-cultural …

Call on Chinese Actors to Stop Extinction:  90 Civil Society Groups Call on China to Protect Biodiversity in its Overseas Investments

On December 15, 2022, 90 civil society groups from Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the world called on Chinese authorities and actors to protect biodiversity and people in its overseas investments. As China is chairing the 15th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP) currently …