Links to information and social media for representing organisations at COP 26 (and a few other fun items of note)

In advance of the COP 26 UN Climate Change Conference, we draw attention to several important Central Asian based organisations currently working on climate issues in the region. I have also included links to their social media, which as always, is the speediest way to keep up with the brilliant work and international initiatives undertaken by these specialists.

Importantly, The Regional Environmental Centre for Central Asia (CAREC) is hosting a joint-Central Asian pavilion at COP 26: ‘For the first time in the history of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) the countries of Central Asia will voice their consolidated position on climate change as one region at the 26th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 26).’

Follow them on Facebook, Twitter and read about this joint-initiative and their goals for the conference HERE.

The Central Asia Climate Information Platform (CACIP) which launched a Geoportal and has numerous sources of information (in Russian, English, and Central Asian languages) on climate-related issues in the region and was ‘developed within the framework of the World Bank funded initiative Climate Adaptation and Mitigation Program for Aral Sea Basin (CAMP4ASB) led by the Central Asia Regional Environmental Center (CAREC) in collaboration with the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) and its partners.’

Join their public Facebook group and see their Telegram channel and read a statement from each participating nation in English HERE.

Kathmandu based International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) with member states Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar, Nepal, and Pakistan ‘regularly publishes content related to research findings, developments and impacts on the HKH’ and is a constant source for scientifically researched information on the people of this region and their relationship to their environment.

Follow them on Facebook and Twitter (see their website for YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram). You can read about the #HKH2Glasgow campaign at COP 26 here.

In relation: The Third Pole: ‘a multilingual platform dedicated to promoting information and discussion about the Himalayan watershed and the rivers that originate there.’ The publish regular studies and updates on the greater Himalayan region in several regional languages, including Russian.

Follow them on Facebook and Twitter. Read their statement on COP 26 HERE

UCL (including the Institute of Archaeology) are also participating in COP 26. Read the statement, see who is on the team, and how UCL is shaping the debate HERE. More specifically, read about the Institute of Archaeology’s team and contribution HERE.

exhibitions focused on central asia you can attend in person

‘The National Museum of Asian Arts – Guimet offers the largest exhibition ever devoted to Tajikistan in the West. It reveals the cultural richness of this little-known country, which has remained in the shadow of its more publicized neighbors, Afghanistan and Uzbekistan, with exceptional and rare pieces. October 14, 2021 – January 10, 2022.’ Our colleague Bobomullo BOBOMULLOEV of the Institute of History, Archaeology and Ethnography named after A Donish, in Dushanbe, Tajikistan was a key partner in putting together this exhibit.

In the UK, The Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge is hosting Gold of the Great Steppe: ‘This exhibition will present artefacts from the extraordinary burial mounds of the Saka people of East Kazakhstan.’ With colleague Saltanat Amirova playing a key role in the loan and metallurgical research on some of the items in conjunction with her PhD research.

Bulletin of the INternational INstitute for Central ASian Studies

As always, we encourage you to read the Bulletin of IICAS which publishes twice yearly, in Russian and English, open access articles on cultural studies and historiography.

The current issue TOC:
Elmira Gyul on Sogdian Silk: Myth or Reality?
Tatyana Starodub on The Origins of the Visual Arts in the Islamic world
Andrey Khazbulatov, Zhanerke Shaigozova on The Ethnocultural Features in the Artistic Style of Late Medieval Pottery from Kultobe
Svetlana Gorshenina on Photography and the Tsarist Russian Çolonial Administration of Turkestan: Designing the History and the Place between Past and Future
Snezhanna Atanova on “Imagined Community” and Turkmen Artisanry: a Day in the Altyn Asyr bazaar
Philipp Meuser, Dmitriy Khmelnitsky on The Three Epochs of Soviet Architecture in Central Asia
Oktyabr Dospanov on Janpyk-kala and the History of Excavations and Surveys of Medieval Sites of Khorezm along the Right Bank of the Amu Darya River
Emma Zilivinskaya on New Research on Golden Horde Era Mausoleums
Dmitriy Miloserdov on Where Does the Search for Ethnic Indicators Lead?
Allanazar Sopiev onHow Does one Respond to the Haughty Look