The European Union and the International Alliance for the Protection of Heritage (ALIPH) have launched 29 projects across five Central Asian countries to help protect cultural heritage threatened by climate change.
The programme will fund work in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, the European External Action Service (EEAS) announced on Monday.
A total of €1.5 million has been committed, including €1.1 million from the EU and the remainder from ALIPH.
The funding follows a call for projects that received 233 applications.
Projects include conservation work at sites such as Sarazm — a UNESCO World Heritage site — in Tajikistan, as well as the Ak-Saray Palace and the Kayrit Oasis in Uzbekistan and the Dandanakan Mosque in Turkmenistan.
It also includes support for museums through restoration work and professional training, including at the Kasteyev Museum in Almaty, the National Museum of Antiquities of Tajikistan, and two institutions in Karakalpakstan, Uzbekistan — the Savitsky Museum in Nukus and the Ecological Museum in Muynak, which focuses on the heritage of the Aral Sea.
Museums, crafts and living traditions
Paintings from the Romanov Palace collection in Tashkent will also be restored under the programme, according to the statement.
Regional initiatives are planned on conservation and climate-resilient restoration practices, alongside a museology forum in Astana to bring together museum professionals.
Some projects will focus on “intangible heritage” — living traditions such as skills, music and oral culture — including documenting nomadic and mountain cultural practices, preserving epic poetry, and revitalising traditional games and music in Kyrgyzstan.
In Uzbekistan, the programme will support sustainable silk and ikat production by restoring natural dyeing techniques and passing skills to others. Ikat is a textile technique that creates patterns by dyeing threads before weaving.
Training for artisans and entrepreneurs is planned in areas including felt-making, suzani embroidery, ceramics, wall painting and the digitisation of ornamental traditions, with a focus on supporting young people and returnee communities.
EU cooperation with ALIPH involves “concrete action and innovative approaches” to safeguarding heritage at risk, according to remarks attributed to Peter Wagner, Director and Head of the Service for Foreign Policy Instruments at the European Commission.
The initiative will allow ALIPH to work with local heritage professionals to adapt creative industries and traditional crafts to climate change challenges, ALIPH Executive Director Valéry Freland said in the same statement.
