The year 2025 marked a milestone for Turkmen specialists in desert studies. During the 80th session of the UN General Assembly, President Serdar Berdimuhamedov for the first time proposed the establishment of a Regional Center for Combating Desertification for the countries of Central Asia, to be headquartered in Ashgabat.
According to Pirli Kepbanov, Candidate of Biological Sciences and Director of the National Institute of Deserts, Flora and Fauna under the Ministry of Environmental Protection of Turkmenistan, the creation of such a center would consolidate the region’s scientific and practical potential, strengthen environmental cooperation, and make a meaningful contribution to achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. In his article published in the newspaper ‘Neutral Turkmenistan’, the scientist emphasizes that the initiative carries “a significant peacekeeping message,” as it would support the long-term development of resilient agricultural systems, unite efforts to preserve agricultural lands across the vast region, more effectively combat the degradation of arable fields and pastures, and thereby enhance the stability and security of food and economic systems in the participating states.
The center would provide a platform for jointly addressing transboundary issues affecting agricultural production and water management infrastructure. Turkmenistan’s proposal forms part of a broader package of environmental initiatives, including the establishment of a specialized regional center for climate-related technologies, drawing international attention to the environmental consequences of the Aral Sea crisis, and the protection of the Caspian Basin. “Their implementation would mark a new stage in generating and putting into practice advanced environmental protection measures, strengthening them in light of contemporary realities and leveraging existing technological and scientific achievements,” Kepbanov notes. “The future Regional Center for Combating Desertification could extend its scope to training and retraining young scientists, launching joint research projects, and creating additional incentives for the development of science within the region.”
Turkmenistan’s initiatives go beyond national interests and draw on centuries-old synergies of natural processes across the extensive territories of Central Asia. They call on the scientific communities of neighboring countries to pool efforts in developing a shared strategy for adapting to changing climatic conditions, conducting water diplomacy that takes all parties’ interests into account, and studying irreversible natural processes for the benefit of both nature and people.
The realization of this proposal would establish the world’s first intergovernmental specialized institution focused on sustainable land use in sandy desert environments, the preservation of desert ecosystems, and the environmentally safe extraction of natural resources hidden beneath them.
In Turkmenistan, efforts continue to strengthen scientific and applied research, develop sector-specific recommendations that account for climate risks, and integrate terminology related to combating desertification, land degradation, and land restoration into legislative and institutional frameworks.
The National Institute of Deserts, Flora and Fauna, led by Pirli Kepbanov, is one of only four institutions of its kind worldwide. Founded in 1962, it will celebrate its 65th anniversary in 2027. Amid increasing aridification in Central Asia and global climate change, the institute’s role in halting desertification, preserving desert ecosystems, and promoting rational use of arid lands is growing steadily.
The institute’s history traces back to the Soviet era, when it coordinated desert research across the entire USSR (now the CIS). It included well-equipped experimental stations and field outposts where hundreds of specialized scientists worked. Key facilities included the Garryköl research station (60 years old), the Repetek Sand-Desert Station (established in 1912 and included in UNESCO’s World Network of Biosphere Reserves), the Nebitdag agrosilvicultural station, and the Seli support point in the foothills of the Kopetdag. These sites conducted practical research on sand fixation, protection of roads from sand encroachment, takyr (clay pan) development, utilization of stormwater runoff for irrigation, and more.
Kepbanov stresses that the center of desert science for the modern Central Asian region and adjacent countries historically emerged and developed on Turkmen soil. For decades, leading global experts in the field gathered here to discuss pressing issues. Over the years, dozens of recommendations were developed and transferred to practical application, including for Mongolia, China, and African countries—many of whose students and graduate students completed internships and field training in the Karakum Desert. Notably, the first generation of Chinese desert researchers acquired foundational knowledge and skills on Turkmen territory.
The institute’s partnership network over the years has included more than forty scientific and governmental organizations from 35 countries.
Today, the institute collaborates with the Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography (China), the Federal Scientific Center for Hydraulic Engineering and Melioration named after A.N. Kostyakov (Russia), and several universities in Central Asia. Its scientists have contributed to improving the productivity of Karakum pastures, creating artificial biocenoses, controlling agricultural and livestock pests, optimizing seasonal supplementary feeding of livestock, and conducting geobotanical surveys using GIS technologies and remote sensing. Ongoing research includes the reuse of drainage water for irrigation and desalination, cultivation of halophytes to reclaim saline soils, and monitoring the condition of the Kyzylkum, Karakum, and other deserts.
These achievements rest on the work of generations of distinguished scientists, including Academician Agadjan Babayev—the founder of the discipline and the institute’s first director. Other notable contributors include Doctors of Science A. Babayev, A. Ovezmukhammedov, N. Nechaeva, N. Kharin, Vice-President of the Academy of Sciences M. Petrov, Doctors of Geography B. Fedorovich and V. Kunin, Doctors of Agricultural Sciences V. Nikolaev and P. Esenov, Candidates of Geography O. Kurbanov and S. Veisov, Candidate of Technical Sciences M. Nepesov, Candidate of Biological Sciences M. Durikov, and many others.
The accumulated expertise and Turkmenistan’s proactive initiatives will enable the integrated consideration of desert science and climatology in natural resource planning. The proposed center will serve as a platform for international scientific and practical dialogue, uniting Central Asian countries, other interested states, UN agencies, and the global scientific community. This will open new horizons for a systemic approach to land conservation and adaptation to climate challenges in one of the planet’s most vulnerable regions. ///nCa, 14 January 2026