Abstract
The article describes the results of a study of environmental problems that intensely limit socio-economic development in Central Asia. In the authors’ analysis, the most pressing current environmental problems are the loss of biodiversity and the complexity of the network of protected natural areas; insufficient levels of municipal solid waste processing; energy efficiency problems, in particular, the deterioration of the energy production and supply system; the imbalance between hydropower, irrigated agriculture and the environment; and problems of the Aral Sea. The article proposes solutions, including amendments to the legislation, the adoption of managerial decisions, and strengthening judicial control over compliance with the law. This article examines gaps in the legislative regulation of environmental safety and in policies at the national, regional and international levels. It also identifies future trends in the distribution of global resources that will be effective in protecting the environment, including the activities of the Regional Environmental Centre for Central Asia (CAREC). It also analyses the basic environmental rights of citizens as well as cases and consequences of violation of such rights, focusing on the need to inform citizens about the state of the environment and existing environmental problems, which is now the aim of the regional environmental remediation programme, led by the EU.
Keywords
The Central Asian region (encompassing the southern provinces of the former Soviet Union – Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan) is characterised by its mountain-desert and steppe landscapes. Due to its favourable geographical and geopolitical position, this region is strategically important worldwide. The most important transcontinental highways of the past and the present pass through central Eurasia. For thousands of years, however, the struggle for water resources has been one of the main problems of the arid Central Asian region, which lacks water resources in sufficient quantities for socio-economic development.
The UN Human Development Indices and Indicators, updated in 2018, ranked the state of development in areas such as health, education and income in 189 countries. Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan were ranked 58th, 105th and 108th respectively, and considered to be countries with a very high level of human development. At 122nd and 127th, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan were identified as countries with an average level of human development. Afghanistan, ranked 168th, was named among countries with a low level of human development. 1
The history of the countries of Central Asia has been determined in part by their location: in the combined basins of the Caspian and Aral Seas and the Issyk-Kul and Balkhash lakes and the fact that they do not have access to the world’s oceans. 2 Since the early 1990s, Central Asia, with the support of international organisations, has initiated a number of environmental programmes aimed at solving the most important problems. Many of these programmes had some success, although, due to their short-term nature and fragmented activities, they did not produce the expected results. 3 Long-term projects and stable institutional mechanisms are necessary in order to solve environmental problems. Therefore, in 2001, the Regional Environmental Centre for Central Asia (CAREC) was established with financial support from the European Commission and the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan. CAREC operates on the basis of a charter signed by five Central Asian governments, the European Commission and the UN Development Programme (UNDP), and its operating expenses are financed by the European Commission. Its various projects and programmes are implemented with financial support from the European Commission, UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), UNDP, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, and national aid provided by the US, the UK, the Netherlands, Germany, Norway, Switzerland, Japan and other donor countries, as well as international institutions.
In this context, legislative regulation is of great importance in ensuring environmental safety. Understanding environmental problems, even at a simple level, requires some appreciation of the concepts and methods employed by disciplines other than law, which is shaped by the results of research in a variety of fields. Legal instruments, particularly standard-setting, and practical work on enforcement and prosecution, must be supported and legitimised by the work of biologists, chemists, economists, engineers, geneticists and physicists. As Farber states, “it has long been a cliché that environmental regulation operates on the frontier of science”. 4
In recent decades, environmental protection has become a significant issue for governments and part of mainstream public debate. Most jurisdictions now have government departments and independent agencies dedicated to environmental protection, as well as public interest groups committed to raising the profile of environmental issues. Although the need for environmental protection is virtually uncontroversial, the reasons for protecting the environment are rarely spelt out. The meaning of environmental protection and the best ways of achieving it retain the potential for real conflict. 5
This article seeks to identify the environmental problems that currently exist in Central Asia; to analyse the environment-related activities of CAREC; and the environmental legislation (and legislative gaps therein) of the countries of Central Asia.
Results
Environmental Problems in Central Asia and Gaps in the Legislative Framework
The following paragraphs summarise what are currently the main environmental problems of Central Asia:
Biodiversity/Species and Ecosystem Protection
The loss of biodiversity and complexity of the network of protected natural areas within the region is a major challenge. 6 Effective methods need to be further developed for the conservation of these areas and of endangered species of animals, plants and fungi. Although actions have been taken and protections declared, they are not yet sufficient to address this problem. It is necessary to expand the territory of ecosystems, through both managerial decisions and international agreements.
Insufficient Recycling of Municipal Solid Waste
In order to solve this problem, it is necessary to involve the private sector – to attract private entrepreneurs into waste management by creating a favourable investment climate. This will require targeted measures to promote waste management and sanitation services that are broadly available to the population, overseen by legal entities – that is, integrated management of solid waste. In Tashkent and Samarkand, investment projects have been undertaken with the participation of the Asian Development Bank and French Development Agency, emphasising the expansion of private-sector participation in the field of waste management and taking a first step towards curtailing the production and use of plastic bags. Uzbekistan has thus become the first country in Central Asia to adopt relevant legislative measures. It is necessary to take the same legislative measures in other Central Asian countries. 7
Energy Efficiency
Problems in the field of energy efficiency include, in particular, the deterioration of the infrastructure of the energy production and supply system, which is in urgent need of modernisation. The countries of the region have also made international pledges to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Compliance with these obligations will be possible only with the introduction of renewable energy sources.
At present, energy production and distribution rely on outdated equipment in need of modernisation. The energy tariff policy and the accounting system for electricity consumption are inefficient, making it difficult to attract investment and to promote competition in the energy industry. Throughout Central Asia, legislative measures are being taken in this area. In Kazakhstan, for example, there is a new Law on Public-Private Partnership, which regulates the order of relations and defines the legal, economic and organisational foundations of partnership. This approach has also been developed and implemented in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan also need to implement this law in their legislation. 8
Hydropower and Irrigation
The countries of the region must also address the imbalance between hydropower, irrigated agriculture and the environment. This can be addressed through the additional development of water resources. As noted below, demand for water has further increased due to population growth and industrialisation of the economies of the region, intensifying the burden on the environment. Accordingly, it is also necessary to develop regional water cooperation and, as a result, supplement the existing legislation with all kinds of regional agreements relating to water resources.
Urban Water Demand
It is estimated that, by 2030, more than 60 percent of the world’s predicted population of 8.4 billion persons will live in towns or cities. The highest rates of urban population growth are currently found in the developing world, where many growing cities are groundwater-dependent.
Over half of the world’s 23 megacities rely upon, or make significant use of, groundwater. 9 The role of such water in urban development is especially critical where key aquifers are located below the city or in the immediate peri-urban zone. In comparison with cities that are supplied by surface water catchment, such urban aquifers remain under-studied and under-protected. Typically, much of the incremental and dispersed nature of groundwater development occurs in the private sector, undertaken by numerous individual well-owners. 10 Fortunately, so far, such urban aquifers seem to have escaped major water quality deterioration, due to the quantity and quality of surface-water recharge and the fortunate circumstance that contaminant loadings appear to have been relatively light. 11
Freshwater Lakes and Rivers
The Aral Sea is an inland lake, which lies between Kazakhstan in the north and Karakalpakstan, an autonomous region of Uzbekistan, in the south. Its two inflow rivers are Amu Darya (one of the longest rivers in Central Asia, which forms part of Afghanistan’s borders with Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, and is also part of Uzbekistan’s border with Turkmenistan) and Syr Darya (formed by the confluence of two headstreams in the fertile Fergana Valley, with its lower course on the eastern edge of the Kyzylkum desert). The water catchment area of these rivers encompasses all Central Asian republics and Afghanistan, so that the Aral Sea can be regarded as a “Common Pool” resource. 12 At present, however, the Aral Sea is on the brink of extinction. Once the fourth-largest inland sea in the world (in the 1950s), the altitude and basin area of the Aral Sea have been decreasing at a drastic rate (see Table 1). Today, the Aral Sea has shrunk to less than one-third of its original dimensions. 13
Levels of the Aral Sea
Levels of the Aral Sea
Similar challenges include the pollution of the Caspian Sea, the pollution of drinking water, the salinisation of soil, and soil erosion. There are also consequences from nuclear weapons tests in Azghyr, Lira, Aral, Say-Otes and Semipalatinsk-Kurchatov in Kazakhstan. In this connection, the launch of a process called “Environment for Central Asia” 14 has been proposed. It envisions both regional and global components (see Figure 1).
How the “Environment for Central Asia” process will work.
Central Asia is rich in natural resources, most of which are still untapped. In Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, large quantities of water are stored in the mountain glaciers. Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan have huge and mostly unexplored oil and gas deposits. Almost half of the populations of these countries, however, live in poverty and lack sufficient natural resources to sustain their livelihoods due to the uneven distribution of the countries’ wealth.
The region has suffered from significant ecological disasters and the legacy of the past. Beginning in the late 1940s, it was the nuclear testing ground for the Soviet Union. This has impacted upon human health and fragile ecosystems. In order to supply cotton crops to the Soviet Union, large-scale irrigation systems were built, contributing to the degradation of the Aral Sea and Caspian Sea. Other consequences of colonial authoritarianism include severe ecological degradation, forced migration of ethnic groups, as well as inter-ethnic competition for land, water and other increasingly resources. These resulted from a combination of forced secularisation, central economic planning and the establishment of artificial borders in the region. 15
At present, both national and international legislation relevant to the region are built primarily on the recognition of human rights and freedoms, taking into account the requirements of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Paris). That declaration was the UN’s direct response to the experiences of World War II and represents the primary global expression of inalienable human rights, although it is advisory in nature. 16
Environmental human rights are special – they are constitutional human rights associated with the natural environment and with the interrelationship of nature with human society. As such, they are an extension of the basic human rights that humankind requires and deserves. They include the rights to a favourable environment; to environmentally friendly food and everyday items; and to environmentally sound working conditions; as well as the right to compensation for damage caused to human health and property by environmental violations. There are also rights to have reliable information on the state of the environment, as well as on public or private activities that could harm the environment; the right to restoration of the natural environment in the event of damage or destruction; and the right to participate in matters relating to the natural environment. 17
International Instruments
Other international instruments are relevant to environmental human rights, in addition to the Universal Declaration: The Stockholm Declaration of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment (1972) considered the need for a common approach and common principles that would inspire the people of the world and serve as their guide to the preservation and improvement of the human environment.
18
The World Charter for Nature (UN General Assembly, 1982) declared that basic natural processes should be maintained at a relatively constant level, and all forms of life should be provided with the possibility of existence.
19
The Rio Declaration on Environment and Development (Rio de Janeiro, 1992) annexed Agenda 21 (Action Plan for Sustainable Development). The draft Declaration of Principles on Human Rights and the Environment (1994) was prepared by Fatma Ksentini, Special Representative for Human Rights and the Environment at the UN Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities. The UNECE Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters (Aarhus, 1998) was adopted in recognition of shared interests in environmental information and participation. The Earth Charter (2000) was an international declaration of fundamental values and principles considered useful by its supporters for building a just, sustainable and peaceful global society in the 21st century. The Charter was created by a global consultation process, and was endorsed by organisations representing millions of people. The Charter seeks to inspire in all people a sense of global interdependence and shared responsibility for the wellbeing of the human family, the greater community of life, and future generations.
20
National Legislation
Examples of national legislation on environmental human rights include the Republic of Kazakhstan’s recognition of the right to a favourable environment for life and health. Unfortunately, to date, that country’s observance and protection of this right cannot be considered satisfactory. Millions of Kazakhs are ill because they drink contaminated water, breathe poisonous air, and eat poor-quality food. They are leaving their homelands, which have become areas of environmental disaster, to live in sanitary protection zones around hazardous industrial facilities. Massive violations of the right to a healthy environment are becoming commonplace. 21
Another example is found in the Republic of Uzbekistan where legislation guarantees the protection of environmental rights. In particular, Article 44 of the Constitution establishes that everyone is guaranteed judicial protection of his/her rights and freedoms and the right to appeal in court against unlawful actions of State bodies and public associations. 22
Respect for human rights, including environmental ones, is very important, because their violation leads to social problems, which, in turn, produce environmental and socio-economic problems, and can potentially put national and international security at substantial risk. As briefly summarised above, Central Asia is subject to a number of serious environmental problems. These environmental problems were already serious political problems in the time of the Soviet Union. They continue to hinder political and economic development and stability.
For example, protection of access to water has already led to some border disputes between the five countries. The economy of Central Asia is heavily dependent on agricultural production. Soil salinisation undermines this important source of income. This article aims to identify the main environmental risks in Central Asia and their relationship with potential or existing conflict zones in the region. An overview is given of the social, political and economic events in Central Asia after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Legislative Framework
Regional Instruments and Bodies
In considering legislation throughout the Central Asian region, it is useful to start at the regional level. To date, Afghanistan is not included in any of the Central Asian regional organisations of inter-State cooperation. 23 In the post-Soviet period, the countries of Central Asia have shown interest in cooperation and exchange of experience with such a significant regional association as the EU through various joint projects, such as the EU’s Rule of Law in Central Asia initiative, which includes the transnational theme of environmental protection and the modernisation of the legal sphere of Central Asian States.
In addition to CAREC, there are numerous other regional organisations and international treaties signed by the countries of Central Asia. For this article, the researchers have singled out the International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea (IFAS), established in 1993.
The environmental sphere also includes the agreement signed by the heads of the five Central Asian republics in 2006, which entered into force in 2009 – the Central Asian Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone (CANWFZ) treaty.
Modernisation of National Legislation
Modernisation of the legal sphere must normally begin with the modernisation of existing legislation, the judicial system and law enforcement agencies of the Central Asian States. The EU has provided advisory services in the field of environmental legislation. 24
Looking at developed countries (e.g., the US) and at regional integration bodies (e.g., the EU) provides examples of the manner in which environmental law is determined by internal ideology, internal struggle, and policies pursued by influential interest groups, as well as the rigour of internal regulatory activity (which determines the general approach of each State to international environmental law). In some of these cases, domestic regulatory acts are strict and represent potential competitive damage to the interests of domestic business. In such cases, international environmental law can serve as a mechanism for disseminating these standards in other jurisdictions which have weaker domestic environmental standards (in comparison to those in developed countries). In such jurisdictions, international environmental law will be seen as a threatening external force. It will be expected to create pressure to raise regulatory costs. Therefore, such a force might face resistance. 25
Europe is a world leader in the adoption of cost-effective environmental technologies that determine how to solve a number of environmentally significant problems, including waste recycling and scaling. According to statistics, European companies maintain a strong position in the production of renewable energy sources and in the disposal and recycling of waste. The volume of activities of EU environmental companies is about 40–50 percent of all such activities in the global market. 26
The EU’s environmental policy includes and is built on a very important, imperative legal principle for addressing the source of pollution: “the polluter must pay”. 27 This principle is reflected in the primary law of the EU – in paragraph 2 of Article 191 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union 28 – and is further implemented in the national legislation of the EU member States.
Currently, the environmental legislation of the countries of Central Asia, with the exception of Kazakhstan, is not systematically codified. Environmental issues are legislatively addressed primarily in highly specialised laws, by-laws and normative legal acts, mostly represented by decisions of republican executive bodies at a central level. While these actions undoubtedly represent an improvement of the environmental legislative situation, it seems advisable to systematise and codify existing legislation.
Law-making in the Republic of Kazakhstan provides an example of such systematisation of domestic environmental legislation. Since 2007, the more comprehensive Environmental Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan has been in force. 29
Article 2 of the Code clarifies the sources of domestic law in the field of ecology, giving priority to the norms of international law, the Constitution of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Environmental Code, all of which are presumed to have greater legal force in the system of Kazakh domestic law, over the legal regulations addressing particular environmental issues.
Article 4 of the Code provides the State’s definition of the environmental foundations of sustainable development, including the following democratic, civil, humanistic, universal principles and values: achievement by the State of the goal of ensuring a favourable environment for human life and health; respect for the right of everyone to have access to environmental information, with full public participation in addressing environmental issues and sustainable development; recognition of the global partnership for the conservation, protection, restoration of environmental wellbeing and the integrity of planetary ecosystems; and promotion of the development of international justice in the line of responsibility of the guilty subjects of private and public law that have caused damage to the environment.
At the end of 2017, Kazakhstan’s Law “On Subsoil and Subsoil Use” 30 also entered into force, as part of the Code.
In the field of codification of environmental legislation, Kazakhstan has outstripped not only the countries of the Central Asian region, but also the Russian Federation, which does not have its own unified codified normative legal act in the field of environmental law. The Environmental Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan could thus become a model for codification of the domestic legislation of Central Asian countries.
The following are possible means of interaction between the Central Asian States to achieve the objective of improving environmental legislation: Continuing the policy of developing and concluding inter-State agreements in order to resolve regional transboundary environmental problems, such as water and energy problems, between the countries of Central Asia, Russia and China. The 2018 Convention on the Legal Status of the Caspian Sea is a good example of productive inter-State cooperation. It was concluded by Caspian littoral countries in an atmosphere of international legal consensus and mutual understanding of the problem; Considering the possibility of creating a Central Asian Union, based on the principle of harmonisation of national legislation (including in the field of ecology) of the member countries; Moving towards a higher level of regional cooperation, including through the creation of new regional platforms and the continued utilisation of traditional communication platforms, such as the IFAS;
31
Continuing cooperation in the framework of intergovernmental agreements, including existing memorandums on transboundary waters between the Russian Federation and the Republic of Kazakhstan (1992); the Russian Federation and the People’s Republic of China (2008); the Republic of Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan (1996); the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Kyrgyz Republic (2000); and the Republic of Kazakhstan and the People’s Republic of China (2001); Continuing an active inter-State dialogue on environmental and legal issues within the framework of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), established in 2001; (At the inter-State level), continuing to adopt and implement the best practices of the EU in developing a regional institutional mechanism for environmental protection based on environmental standardisation – environmental regulation including the codification of such standards (e.g., integrated pollution prevention and control, and environmental impact assessment) and the creation of regional environmental/pollution-control bodies (a regional environmental management and audit system). This approach will also need to involve the formation of a mechanism for guaranteeing the environmental rights of individuals, as well as for promoting the involvement of public and private investment funds in environmental protection measures; Systematising the national legislation of the Central Asian countries, particularly with regard to the forms and types of legal liability for violations of environmental laws, including toughening of criminal and administrative liability for dangerous environmental offences.
International Environmental Obligations and Cooperation
For more than 40 years, countries around the world have joined together many times to develop and adopt legal instruments and policies to control activities and interactions that harm the environment, pose a serious risk to public health, threaten biodiversity, devalue ecosystem goods and services, and deplete natural resources. 32 Initial groundwork has been laid for a new era of international cooperation between members of the judiciary. The 2011 INECE Conference at Whistler resulted in a call to action to facilitate continued collaboration among key participants, including judges, prosecutors, civil society and the private sector to work toward strengthening mechanisms for environmental compliance and enforcement. 33
In UNEP’s 2007 GEO-4 Report, Ban Ki-moon, then Secretary-General of the UN, noted that environmental issues (in this case, those brought about by climate change) “transcend borders”. As such, protecting the global environment is largely beyond the capacity of individual countries. Only concerted and coordinated international action will be sufficient. The world needs a more coherent system of international environmental governance. 34 The Central Asian countries have acceded to a number of international agreements and participate in a number of global and regional bodies, only a few of which are highlighted below.
Central Asian Cooperation
The Central Asian States are Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and members of UNEP, the International Geosphere–Biosphere Programme and the International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change, as well as many national and regional climate change programmes. They also participate in such regional associations as the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), the SCO and the OSCE. These regional associations have already developed a number of documents in the field of environmental protection. 35
The normative legal acts signed within the CIS are of great importance. Among these are the Agreement “On cooperation in the field of ecology and environmental protection”, the Agreement “On cooperation in the field of prevention and response to natural and technical emergencies”, the Agreement “On information cooperation in the field of ecology and environmental protection”, the “Agreement on cross-border cooperation in the field of study, development and protection of subsoils” and others.
The wellbeing of Central Asia has always depended on land and water resources, but at the same time it has been limited by the lack of water and the vulnerability of local ecosystems. By the 7th century BC, irrigation had developed in the region, and by the end of the 19th century AD, over 3.5 million hectares of land were irrigated. However, environmental problems have severely restricted social and economic development in the countries of Central Asia. Therefore, they are of particular interest to researchers. 36
The Asian Environmental Compliance and Enforcement Network
In support of these efforts, Asian environmental agencies established the Asian Environmental Compliance and Enforcement Network (AECEN), which works to promote improved compliance with environmental legal requirements in Asia through regional exchange of innovative policies and practices. Composed of national and sub-national environmental agencies, AECEN’s objectives are as follows: promoting the development and implementation of improved environmental policies, laws, regulations and institutional arrangements; strengthening practitioner capacity through specialised training and skills development; and facilitating regional sharing of best practices and information on strategies to strengthen compliance and enforcement.
37
Asia is the most economically dynamic region in the world, yet it is home to two-thirds of the world’s poor. While its economic progress has raised 270 million people out of poverty, it has triggered a decline in Asia’s natural capital – shrinking forests, declining biodiversity, disappearing water sources, barren lands. Exploitation of natural resources, industrial production, and urbanisation continue to pose serious environmental challenges. Throughout Asia there has been notable environmental degradation. This is especially evident in Central Asia, including the hilly areas in Kazakhstan, Turan Plain, Pamirs, Inner Mongolia and Qinghai Tibetan Plateau, where the ecology is particularly vulnerable and has been the subject of study as regards global change. 38 In response to the number and extent of environmental challenges they face, Asian countries have developed an array of environmental laws and judicial decisions that seek to implement international principles, including the principle of sustainable development. 39
Discussion
A contextual approach to environmental law is less a choice of research methodology, than an imperative arising from the subject itself. Environmental protection, law and policy are a deliberate reflection of this, emphasising the political context from which environmental law is drawn and nourished, and also making clear that law is an aspect of “environmental protection”. Selznick has highlighted these and other aspects of a contextual approach to law, not only environmental law, but all law. 40
Louka considered environmental law and environmental legislation in terms of the requirements needed to ensure protection of the global commons, that is, to address the conflicts arising from the objectives of environmental protection and the desire for growth. The protection of the global environmental heritage depends on the justice, efficiency and prospects of the world order. 41
Hart stated that “[w]hat reason demands is voluntary cooperation in a coercive system”. This view was stated and applied at a national level, but it appears that, on an international level, the figures and ideas have the same meaning. The judiciary fills a vital role of providing coercion while also providing an incentive for compliance. It is essential in providing the guidance and creativity needed for sustainable development which, as previously described, flows from effective compliance and enforcement. There are a number of ways in which the judiciary might be involved in implementing a sustainable future. Among these are its roles in balancing environmental and developmental considerations in judicial decision-making and in providing an impetus for the incorporation of contemporary developments in environmental law and the promotion of sustainable development. Such contemporary developments include principles such as access to justice, the right to information and public participation.
These objectives are also promoted through the implementation of global and regional environmental conventions. 42 Slaughter notes that the effectiveness of environmental legislation directly depends on the implementation of international agreements. Communication might play a further role in promoting the acceptance and effectiveness of international obligations. In a situation in which a number of States are contemplating acceptance of a particular international legal obligation, references to the activity of courts in other States can act as both a security blanket (promoting the value of the particular obligation to each State) and a stick (indicating a potential downside or penalty for States that do not join). 43
Other judicial supporters also promote protection of the environment. Strengthening environmental compliance and enforcement requires the unwavering commitment of individuals and institutions everywhere. Among many actors in the environmental compliance chain, the judiciary alone has a fundamental contribution to make in upholding the rule of law and ensuring that national and international laws are interpreted and applied fairly, efficiently and effectively. Perhaps the most profound aspect of judicial leadership in strengthening institutions for environmental compliance enforcement is the judiciary’s ability to influence public perception and discourse concerning environmental and social concerns. In this connection, courts can have a powerful transformative effect on society. As noted in a joint comment by Fulton and Benjamin, environmental judges from separate continents and cultures, “what judges treat as important, a society comes to judge as important”. 44
As noted above, water-related challenges are of particular importance in Central Asia. These are internationally addressed, sometimes under the title “desertification”, which might be effectively controlled and its problems avoided and/or resolved only by relying on sound guidance for utilising water, land and mineral resources and through effective development of arid ecosystems. It will be useful, in achieving sustainable development in Central Asia, to further research the challenges of ecosystems and the environment. For example, conservation of the ecological environment in China may be achieved by drawing on the lessons learned from the ecological crisis in Central Asia and by actively coordinating and cooperating with the countries in Central Asia. 45
Conclusion
Central Asia includes a wide variety of unique ecosystems, including for example the high mountain ranges of the Pamir, Altai and Tian Shan; the vast deserts and steppes, the ancient waterways of the Amu Darya, Syr Darya, Irtysh and the Ili Rivers; and numerous lakes, including Balkhash, one of the largest lake ecosystems of the world, and Issyk-Kul Lake, one of the deepest lakes of glacial origin.
Currently, gaps in the environmental legislation affect the state of the environment in this region. Managerial decisions must be made, and stronger judicial control must be exerted to achieve compliance with the law. It is also necessary to adopt more inter-State agreements in the field of environmental safety, both international and regional, and to inform the population about eco-trends at the global, regional and national levels through various seminars and forums.
Recently, an important step was taken in September 2018 to deal with one of the main outstanding environmental issues in Central Asia. The EU-led regional environmental remediation programme has been developed to serve the populations of all Central Asian countries, and to work toward five overarching goals: promoting regional cooperation; maintaining peace and stability in the region; improving human health; improving the quality of the environment; and promoting economic development, in particular, local employment.
Footnotes
CAREC Annual Report 2004.
Farber, D.A. 2002. “Building bridges over troubled waters: Eco-pragmatism and the environmental prospect”. Minnesota Law Review 87(4): 851.
Holder, J. and Lee, M. 2007. Environmental Protection, Law and Policy: Text and Materials. Cambridge University Press.
Gray, C.L., Hill, S.L., Newbold, T., Hudson, L.N., Börger, L., Contu, S., Hoskins, A.J., Ferrier, S., Purvis, A. and Scharlemann, J.P.W. 2016. “Local biodiversity is higher inside than outside terrestrial protected areas worldwide”. Nature Communications 7 : 12306.
Morris, B.L., Darling, W.G., Gooddy, D.C., Litvak, R.G., Neumann, I., Nemaltseva, E.J. and Poddubnaia, I. 2006. “Assessing the extent of induced leakage to an urban aquifer using environmental tracers: An example from Bishkek, capital of Kyrgyzstan, Central Asia”. Hydrogeology Journal 14(1-2): 225–243.
Ibid.
Alderwish, A.M. and Dottridge, J. 1999. “Urban recharge and its influence on groundwater quality in Sana’a, Yemen”. International Contribution to Hydrogeology 21 : 85–90.
Kumar, R.S. 2002. “Aral Sea: Environmental tragedy in Central Asia”. Economic and Political Weekly 37(37): 3797–3802.
Kubo, H., Tateno, K., Watanabe, A. and Kato, Y. 2009. “Human and Environmental Symbiosis in Central Asia: Through the water management of the Aral Sea basin crisis”. Transition Studies Review 16(2): 467–478.
Kurakov, L.P., Kurakov, V.L. and Kurakov, A.L. 2004. Economics and law: dictionary. Moscow: University and school.
Kuratov, S. 2008. “Concerning the Implementation by the Republic of Kazakhstan of International Obligations Accepted in Accordance with the Aarhus Convention” [in Russian]. Environmental Security and Civil Initiative 11 : 11–17.
Abdullaeva, D. 2006. “Protection of Environmental Rights” [in Russian]. Environmental Security and Civil Initiative 9 : 21–26.
Laruelle, M. (Ed.) 2013. Migration and Social Upheaval as the Face of Globalization in Central Asia. Leiden and Boston MA: Brill.
Veresha, R.V. 2016. “Determination Motive through the Prism of the General Concept of the Motives of Human Behaviour”. International Journal of Environmental and Science Education 11(11): 4739–4750.
Gioti Papadaki, O. 2012. “European Environmental Policy and the Strategy ‘Europe 2020”’. Regional Science Inquiry Journal 4(1): 151–158.
Ibid.
Kashkin, S.Yu. 2017. “The Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union”. European Union: fundamental acts as amended by the Lisbon Treaty with comments, at 288. Moscow: INFRA-M.
Auelbayev, B.A., Kushkumbayev, S.K., Syroezhkin, K.L. and Dodonov, V.Y. 2015. Central Asia – 2020: Four Strategic Concepts, at 48–50. Astana: Kazakhstan Institute for Strategic Studies under the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
Markowitz, K.J. and Gerardu, J.J. 2012. “The importance of the judiciary in environmental compliance and enforcement”. Pace Environmental Law Review 29(2): 538–554.
UNEP. 2007. Global Environment Outlook GEO4: Environment for development, at xvi. Available at https://wedocs.unep.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.11822/7646/-Global% 20Environment% 20Outlook% 20% 204% 20(GEO-4)-2007768.pdf?sequence=3&isAllowed=y.
Fischer, G., Shah, M., Tubiello, F.N. and van Velhuizen, H. 2005. “Socio-economic and climate change impacts on agriculture: an integrated assessment, 1990–2080”. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 360(1463): 2067–2083; Parry, M.L., Rosenzweig, C., Iglesias, A., Livermore, M. and Fischer, G. 2004. “Effects of climate change on global food production under SRES emissions and socio-economic scenarios”. Global Environmental Change 14(1): 53-67; and Smit, B. and Skinner, M.W. 2002. “Adaptation options in agriculture to climate change: A typology”. Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change 7(1): 85–114.
Cihlar, J., Ly, H., Li, Z., Chen, J., Pokrant, H. and Huang, F. 1997. “Multitemporal, multichannel AVHRR data sets for land biosphere studies—Artifacts and corrections”. Remote Sensing of Environment 60(1): 35–57.
Asian Environmental Compliance and Enforcement Network (AECEN). 2006. “Principles and Practices for Improving Environmental Compliance and Enforcement in Asia”.
Becker, F. and Li, Z.L. 1990. “Towards a local split window method over land surfaces”. Remote Sensing 11(3): 369–393.
Supra, note 37.
Quoted in Holder and Lee, supra, note 5.
Louka, E. 2006. International Environmental Law: Fairness, Effectiveness, and World Order. Cambridge University Press.
Purdy, R. 2009. “Using Earth Observation Technologies for Better Regulatory Compliance and Enforcement of Environmental Laws”. Journal of Environmental Law 22(1): 59–87.
Slaughter, A.M. 1994. “A Typology of Transjudicial Communication”. University of Richmond Law Review 29(1): 99–137.
Fulton, S. and Benjamin, A. 2011. “Foundations of Sustainability”. Paper presented at the Ninth International Conference on Environmental Compliance and Enforcement, Whistler, British Columbia, Canada, 24 June 2011.
Zhou, K., Zhang, Q., Chen, X. and Sun, L. 2007. “Features and trends of the environmental change in the arid areas in Central Asia”. Science in China Series D: Earth Sciences 50(1): 142–148.