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To
UNDP Offices in Kyzylorda/Aralsk, att. Nailya Okda
To
UNDP Almaty, att. Knud Ostby
New York, att. Henrik
Kolstrup
Copenhagen,
att. Peter Iversen, Lotte Jørgensen
a.o.
Concerning:
How can UNDP support the fish trade, the fishermen and their
families in connection with a Danish/Kazakish Fishery project by
the Aral Sea, Kasakstan?
Introduction
For
more than 4 years the Danish grassroots society Landsforeningen
Levende Hav (The Danish Society for a Living Sea) cooperated with
fishermen and others by the Aral Sea in Kasakstan. We have worked
with a fishery, environmental and developmental project around the
Northern part of the Aral Sea – called Little Aral. The project
is called ”From Kattegat to Aral Sea – a Fishery project”
– and through the years it has received a support of app. $
420,000 from The Danish Foreign Ministry and private funds. From
the received amount, $ 240,000 has been spend in the Aralsk
Region, and the rest has been spend on wages, travelling expenses,
administration and exhibitions in Denmark.
The
project must be considered the largest concrete grassroots project
around the Aral Sea. In the 4 years the project has been working,
35 people from the Aralsk region have attended courses in Denmark.
New fishing equipment of a value of app. $ 120,000 has been
transported from Denmark to Aralsk. The Danish biologist of the
project has cooperated with a Kasakish research institute in
conducting the first biological investigation of a larger scale in
Big Aral since 1991. The project has had 12 different Danish
delegates for shorter and longer periods, among these five have
been professional fishermen. The project has facilitated the
establishment of app. 22 independent fishermen cooperatives, of
which at least half to day can be said to be moving in the
’right’ direction. In the autumn, 1998 the project spend
app. $ 40,000 on supporting the cooperatives, buying motors and
trading fish. And as the latest activity, a sister society to The
Danish Society of a Living Sea has been established in Aralsk –
a society that is expected to attract 3-400 members.
By
now, the project has accomplished its goals in what we called
phase 1, and it is halfway in its phase 2. Now we are moving to
phase 3 – and expect that it will begin in July, 1999 and last
for two years.
Development
The
over all objective of the project is to support the fishermen and
their families around Little Aral in Kasakstan. In the area there
are app. 700 fishermen, living in villages, in Aralsk and in two
fishing communes. By supporting the fishermen, the project aims at
establishing a sustainable flounder fishery in the Aral Sea. The
Aral Sea flounder was introduced from the Azavo Sea, when the Aral
Sea gradually became more salt and the fresh water fish
disappeared. Today the flounder population is so big, that the
fishermen can catch app. 4,500 ton/year – without threatening
the biological sustainability of the population.
Environment
The
Danish Society for a Living Sea works with an environmental policy
objective, and this is fulfilled in this work, because focus is
put on the environment in and around the Aral Sea. The Aral Sea is
a key example of what man must not do to nature. But still, we
believe that the Aral Sea has a future as a Sea, the limiting
factor is primarily money.
The
Society’s objectives are achieved by concrete projects. The
basic assumption of the Society is that environmental questions
must be answered by concrete activities, and knowledge about the
factual conditions of the possible answer. The activities led to knowledge, and thus new plans and investments are
based on a sustainable fundament.
The
main part of the many descriptions of the Aral Sea problems have
been made after a short visit with a camera, and thereafter the
writing of a report. These descriptions do not led to a sensible
utilization of the funds of the World Society. Funds that we are
obliged to offer for the solution of the social and environmental
problem in and around the Aral Sea.
Request
for UNDP:
UNDP
has been present in the Aralsk Region since 1994. Since 1994, we
have tried to create an interest in the UNDP to support the
fishery – without success. We came close in the autumn 1998, but
in the end we did not succeed in convincing UNDP that they ought
to support the fishery with an amount of $ 20,000 – mainly for
smaller credits for the fishermen.
Therefore
we now circulate this request in the UNDP system. We wish that the
UNDP will find the necessary funds to support and give credits to
the fishery cooperatives and the fish treatment industries in
Aralsk region. We hope to find support in the Danish Foreign
Ministry for a two year period of app. $ 250,000. Apart from this
we hope to find additional support of $ 50,000.
The
money will be spend as follows: on Fishery equipment and
transport, on repairing boats and building new ones, on a pontoon
bridge, on a work shop on net fabrication, on support for the
cooperatives, on the Aral Sea Society in Aralsk, and on wages and
administration in Denmark.
From
the Danish Foreign Ministry we learn that Denmark does not ear
mark its fundings for the UNDP. Is there another country that
could possible do this? And/or is it possible that the UN offices
in the receptive countries can apply for funding for this purpose
in the UNDP or e.g. in UNOSP?
The
over all argument in favour of supporting the Aral Sea fishermen
is, that with a biologically and economically sustainable fishery
in the Aral Sea the work to have the Aral Sea regenerated, e.g.
leading more water to the Sea, and minimising the desertification.
We
are available with any necessary information. We published a
report in 1998, it will be revised to include the project’s
results from 1998/99.
Yours
sincerely
Kurt
Bertelsen Christensen
This
request has been send by fax and email to:
The
project coordinator i Kazakstan:
Aralsk
The
Society ARAL TINIZE : Zhannat Makhambetova phone/fax 0073243
322256
Almaty
Makhambet
Tairov. 0073272
485510 e-mail tairov@nursat.kz
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