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Statement by
H.E. Djoomart Otorbaev
Vice Prime Minister of the Kyrgyz Republic
at the Plenary Meeting of the
United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20)
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
21 June 2012
Dear Chairman,
Your Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is an honor and privilege for me to speak at the UN Conference on
Sustainable Development. On behalf of the Government of the Kyrgyz
Republic let me express deep gratitude to UN and the government of Brazil
for warm hospitality and excellent organization of this meeting.
Ladies and gentlemen!
Last two years were difficult for our country. Following the corrupted regime
change in April 2010 the country managed to conduct the constitutional
referendum, fair and transparent parliamentary and presidential elections
highly assessed by international community. Now we build the first
parliamentary democracy in Central Asia.
In the center of attention of our state is the human being. Maintaining the
human rights of our citizens will be our absolute priority. How to create an
opportunity for the citizens to get decent education, access to health care
services, to provide employment opportunities and protect the vulnerable
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groups of population? The position of my country is that it can be achieved
only through the “green” sustainable development.
We came here to learn. To learn on how to make the lives of our people
better, on what to do to leave the better country to our children
There are several fundamental challenges for the “green” development in the
Kyrgyz Republic.
1. Mountain ecosystems. More than half of our territory lies above 2 500 m
above sea level, only 12 % of the territory is lower than 1 500 m. Glaciers cover
almost 4 % or 8 000 km2, which accumulate 650 billion m3 of fresh water. The
latest observations show that under the impact of the climate change the
glaciers area has decreased for 20% so far. The economy pushes us to develop
the mineral resources in mountainous area. We fully realize that without
proper ecological control these developments could potentially lead us to the
catastrophic consequences. Mountain forests experience the high
anthropogenic pressure, which mainly grow in river beds. The continuing
tendency of displacement of the population in river valleys results in their
degradation and replacement by the crop lands. Mountain pastures, which are
9 million hectares or half of the country territory, are the important part of
employment and incomes for rural residences. However the pastures are
degrading. Different sources indicate that the area of degraded pastures make
up at least of 30%.
2. Threats for loss of ecosystems. The very existence of life in the mountains
demand at least 50% more energy costs than in the flat land. Significant part of
our mountains half a year lies under the snow cover. One of the results of
human-induced factors is the decrease in the number and reproduction of
species. The Red Book of Kyrgyzstan (2007) includes 57 birds, 23 mammals, 8
reptiles, 18 jointed-footed animals, as well as 87 species of plants and
mushrooms that are under the risk of extinction.
3. Water resources. There are 3 500 rivers in the country. The total runoffs are 50
km3. Water is the strategic resource for the “green” economic growth and
must be used in a rational way through the protection of glaciers and natural
ecosystems. We will be willing to join all initiatives aimed at conservation of
glaciers and natural ecosystems. We are willing to learn more on existing best
practices on water management systems, rehabilitation and construction of
efficient irrigation systems. With that we realize that any development of
infrastructure is capital intensive.
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4. Hydropower. Already now 90% of the electricity in the country is generated by
the hydropower stations. Gross hydropower potential of 267 rivers exceeds
250 billion kWh. We are looking for “green” investments into our hydropower
sector. In the future we will further increase the share of power generation
through the clean “green” hydropower.
5. Agro processing. Currently half of our population has their own land. As of 1
January 2012 there were 270 000 private farms. Depending on a region the
average land user possesses from 2 (Batken area) ha to 12 ha (Naryn Area) of
agricultural land. Among the factors influencing the bio productivity are
erosion, salinization, and swamping. Our country today has huge potential for
production of “organic” products. We need modern technologies to increase
the crop yield and to sell our production to other countries. Again we need the
best advice and investments on how to do it.
There are few poor land locked and mountainous countries in the world. UN
classifies them as under the definition the “The countries with special needs”.
There are at least 11 of them with the GDP per capita of less than 1 000 USD.
However up to now those countries were unable to unite to present to the
international community their specific problems and needs. Here we would
like to propose to start the process under the conditional title “The
Mountainous Initiative”, which would advocate for the recognition and
support of the developing and indebted mountainous countries. On a base of
previously adopted UN resolutions herewith we would like to propose to ask
multilateral financial institutions to significantly reduce or write-of the
multilateral debts for those countries on exchange of sustainable “green
growth”.
The Kyrgyz Republic has been the key initiator of an International Year of
Mountains in 2002 and our capital – Bishkek had hosted the Global Mountain
Summit the same year. We know how to organize it and we can do it again. As
first step already we would like to propose to organize the international
conference on climate change in mountainous countries, and invite all
interested parties to attend it.
Your Excellences, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Our Future is with us. Let’s unite and make it better together.
Thank you for your attention.
