Chapter 7. Status of soil pollution in Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia
Introduction
Author: Valentina Pidlisnyuk (Jan Evangelista Purkyne University, Czechia)
Contributors: Dr Tatyana Stefanovska (National University of Life and the Environment, Ukraine), Prof Asil Nurzhanova (Institute of Plant Protection and Biology, Kazakhstan), prof. Mikhail Kalinin (International Sakharov Environmental Institute of Belarusian State University, Belarus).
The Eurasian region, as described in this report, includes 12 countries, namely Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, the Republic of Moldova, the Russian Federation, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan (Figure 1).
Figure 1. Countries included in the Eurasian region as describe in this report.
The Eurasian region covers an area of about 2.23 billion hectares and has an estimated population of 240 million people. For the purposes of this report, the region has been divided into three sub-regions based on political and cultural differences, geographical location and socio-economic background. The sub-regions are:
- Eastern Europe: Belarus, Republic of Moldova, Russian Federation and Ukraine;
- Caucasus: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia; and
- Central Asia: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
The information presented in this chapter is based on the experts’ answers to the questionnaire mentioned in Chapter 1 and on the consultations with experts from Belarus, Kazakhstan, Republic of Moldova and Ukraine. It also includes information from intergovernmental organizations, national governments, civil society organizations, and academia. The information originates from documents and websites that were published in English, Kazakh, Russian and Ukrainian languages. Critical analysis of published research was used to draw conclusions.