From CMS COP14 to the Classroom

Snow Leopards in Central Asia

By GRID-Arendal

March 21^st, 2024

GRID-Arendal Expert Paige Eikeland traveled to Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan in February 2024 for the CMS COP, GSLEP annual steering committee meeting, and capacity building for the CAMCA project.

The COP felt like it started on the red-eye. Flights to Samarkand aren’t frequent, so it seemed inevitable that observers, delegates, and participants to the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS) COP14 all found themselves on the same plane from Istanbul. Delegates from all over the world descended on the second city of Uzbekistan for one week in February to discuss the conservation and sustainable use of migratory animals and their habitats.

My role at the CMS COP was to represent two projects that GRID-Arendal is involved in: Central Asian Mammals and Climate Change (CAMCA) and Vanishing Treasures. Our main activity was a side event that GRID-Arendal co-organized with the UNEP-Vienna office.

A snowleopard-shaped sundial, used as the CMS COP logo

Work started the weekend before the COP opened, when I attended the Global Snow Leopard & Ecosystem Protection Program (GSLEP) 13th annual steering committee meeting. Both CAMCA and Vanishing Treasures were featured in UNEP Executive Director Inger Andersen’s remarks during the high-level segment on Sunday morning. The GLSEP negotiations between the 12 range states for the snow leopard, one of the six key species in the CAMCA project, culminated in the Samarkand Resolution, which requests that the UN Secretary General adopt the snow leopard as “the powerful international symbol of high mountain ecology and climate adaptation.” Later that evening, the resolution was presented to the larger CMS Committee of the Whole (COW) Plenary by Koustubh Sharma, a CAMCA Advisory Board Member and GSLEP International Coordinator.

Inger Andersen at the GSLEP Steering Committee Meeting

The following day, we hosted our side event titled “Harmonizing Ecosystem-based adaptation and climate-smart conservation in Central Asia”. Koustubh was joined by Kenje Sultanbaeva from the Ilbirs Foundation to give a joint presentation on the key outcomes from our projects. This set the scene for a panel discussion on how we can upscale successes beyond the local level. During the event, we examined both policy synergies and financial upscaling, as well as exploring the role international financial institutions can play in addressing the “resource gap affecting the conservation … and the sustainable development and climate adaptation of local and indigenous communities in Asia’s high mountains,” as stated in Samarkand Declaration.

We tentatively planned for 35 people, but we stopped counting participants after 70! It was standing-room-only as interpreters worked furiously to keep up with our panel members and presenters. GRID-Arendal premiered the CAMCA project promotional video (both English and Russian versions). Both the promotional video and a recording of the project partner presentation are available on the CAMCA project website. The GRID-Arendal roll-ups featuring a map of the project area were displayed at the UNEP booth in the exhibition hall, receiving significant attention throughout the week.

Presenting the CAMCA promotional video at the CMS COP

After the side-event, attendees and panelists continued the discussion

Kenje and Paige pose for a picture at the CMS COP

Kenje presents at the CMS COP side-event

Great attendance from an engaged audience

Koustubh delivering speech at CMS COP side-event

The following week, I travelled to Bishkek, where I made the pivot from broad, international project-level communications to individual, tailored capacity building workshops with project partners. The first request felt more like fun than work – playing a snow leopard game developed by CAMP Alatoo for school children. I worked with CAMP Alatoo to develop a series of videos to explain the game and help more schoolteachers become moderators, curating the game experience for students to learn through play. Thankfully, GRID-Arendal had already covered the basics of videography at the 2023 CAMCA partners meeting, so partners could jump right in to filming and brush up on their skills! Ilbirs Foundation also joined CAMP Alatoo for joint training sessions, covering press releases, conducting media interviews, and identifying key performance indicators (KPIs). On my last day, I visited the Ilbirs office to answer their questions about social media content.

Central Asia prides itself on hospitality, and we were welcomed with traditional dinners and enriching company. Supara, the site of GRID-Arendal’s first journalist workshop in the region for Vanishing Treasures, houses an interactive exhibit explaining more of Kyrgyz rural heritage and a cozy cabin for dining – complete with axes (not so different from Norway). February 22nd was also Men’s Day (previously Defenders Day) where the women of Ilbirs organized elaborate skits, live entertainment featuring the komuz (a fretless 3-stringed instrument), and dancing and singing late into the night. The men had their work cut out for them to top the extravaganza in a similar celebration for Women’s Day on March 8th!

Until next time, GRID-Arendal bids Central Asia bye-for-now with “кийин көрүшкөнчө сени өбүшөм” (korush gumchu, ubusch kuncha) which means, “See you later, kiss you later!” in Russian (“Көрүшкөнчө, өбүшкөнчө” in Kyrgyz). It is not recommended that you follow the example of the Ilbirs employees and say this fun rhyme to your taxi drivers (even in jest).

About the Convention for Migratory Species

The fourteenth conference of the parties (COP) for the Convention of Migratory Species (CMS) took place in Samarkand, Uzbekistan from 12th February – 17th of February 2024. The conference was convened under the slogan “Nature Knows No Borders”, and served as a reminder that migratory species do not adhere to geopolitical boundaries but are deeply affected by them. Their survival is dependent on international collaboration and transboundary conservation efforts.

The triennial meeting marks one of the most significant biodiversity gatherings since the adoption of the Kunming Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework in 2022. During the proceedings, 14 new species were added to the CMS Appendices, including the Eurasian lynx, Pallas’s Cat, and Sand Tiger Shark. Resolutions and concerted actions were adopted on over 100 distinct topics by representatives of the world treaty’s 133 member states. The first-ever State of the World’s Migratory Species report was also launched in the opening press conference.