The Regional Environmental Centre for Central Asia

The Regional Environmental Centre for Central Asia (CAREC, est.2001) serves as the Regional Secretariat and coordinator of the One Health Programme in Central Asia, supported by the World Bank under the Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Program (HEPR). CAREC provides a neutral regional platform linking government decision-makers, technical experts, academia and international partners across Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

CAREC can serve as the project’s institutional anchor for research-to-policy translation in Central Asia. Through the Regional One Health Coordination Council (ROHCC), established in 2025, CAREC supports intergovernmental coordination across the human, animal and environmental health sectors. The ROHCC provides a formal mechanism through which evidence, technical findings and recommendations can be discussed, validated and translated into regional priorities and actions.

Research partnerships

CAREC also participates in international research cooperation, including the CARe project (2025–2030) with the Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Transition Economies (IAMO), focused on climate resilience, land degradation, water scarcity and rural communities in the Fergana Valley. This demonstrates CAREC’s ability to contribute to transdisciplinary research combining scientific analysis, stakeholder engagement and policy-oriented outputs.

In the biodiversity and landscape field, CAREC has supported regional analytical work under programmes such as RESILAND CA+, including biodiversity monitoring, nature-based solutions, wildfire and invasive species management, transboundary ecotourism and regional policy harmonization. This provides additional experience directly relevant to research at the biodiversity–health interface.