The World Bank will allocate a $142 million loan to Uzbekistan

The board of Executive Directors of the World Bank approved a $142 million soft loan to Uzbekistan.  This is reported by the World Bank Office in Tashkent.

It is reported that the funds will be used to finance a project to improve landscape sustainability and reforestation in various parts of the country, as well as the development of cooperation between Uzbekistan and other Central Asian countries for the restoration of transboundary natural territories.

Additional funding will be provided by the Korea-World Bank Partnership Fund ($3 million) and the Global Partnership Fund on the sustainable landscape ($8 million).

For reference, Uzbekistan is a country with small forests. It is estimated that they cover 3.68 million hectares or 8.6 percent of the total area of the country.

Over the past 30 years, the uncontrolled development of animal husbandry, the growing demand for wood as fuel in extremely limited rural areas, and the use of forestland for irrigation have led to deforestation.  Climate change has become another factor in forest degradation, leading to an increase in the number of fires and the penetration of wood pests and diseases into forest areas.

Today, the World Bank program in Uzbekistan is the organization’s second-largest project in Europe and Central Asia after Turkey.  The total value of the projects includes 29 projects worth about $5.4 billion.