Kazakhstan

This joint report considers the role and impact of environmental factors in securing human safety and sustained development of the eastern Caspian Sea region, including the parts of Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan opening onto the Caspian Sea. Its analysis introduces a security perspective as it seeks to identify those environmental, socio-economic and political issues that are profoundly affecting the livelihoods of the populations and could lead to social tensions and instability.

For the first time a comprehensive overview of geo-conservation in Europe has been presented in a book. Geoheritage in Europe and its Conservation includes specific contributions from 37 countries focussing on legislation and geoconservation practices. The only record of the history of our planet lies in the rocks beneath our feet: rocks and the landscape are the memory of the Earth.

Snow leopard poaching and trafficking – referred to herein as snow leopard crime – is revisited 13 years after TRAFFIC’s first report on the subject, Fading Footprints: The Killing and Trade of Snow Leopards. This report builds on a preliminary analysis published in May 2016 (Maheshwari and von Meibom, 2016). It addresses a major information gap concerning the linkage between retaliatory killing for livestock depredation and poaching for trade, and the scale at which both are taking place.

Cranes, a flagship species of waterbirds, have great cultural significance - especially the Siberian Crane. Yet, even after decades of conservation efforts, cranes remain threatened with 11 species at risk. To help reverse these trends, the UNEP/GEF Siberian Crane Wetland Project  was the first project to its kind to take a "flyway" approach to conservation, looking to secure the ecological integrity of a network of 16 critical wetlands in Eurasia.

This book provides a review of progress in achieving the EECCA Environment Strategy's objectives, and provides a solid analytical base for discussions on future environmental co-operation between EECCA countries and their partners.