DUSHANBE, April 14, 2010, Asia-Plus  -- Establishment of the ecology commission within the Majlisi Namoyandagon (Tajikistan’s lower chamber of parliament) is an important stem, Alikhon Latifi, Tajik expert on environmental protection, said in an interview with Asia-Plus.

“I hope this commission will raise the issue of upgrading the status of our Committee for Environmental Protection,” said Latifi.

Ms. Muazzama Burhonova, the chairperson of the public ecology association, Civil Initiative Support Foundation, hopes that establishment of the parliamentary ecology commission will allow tackling many serious environmental protection problems in the country.

“I think the climate change problems and the significance of the problems of use of water resources in Central Asia have urged Tajik authorities to set up such a commission,” Burhonova said, adding that she hopes that activity of the ecology commission will not be politically motivated.

She reminded that a group of Uzbekistan’s Ecology Movement, consisting of 15 MPs, was set up within the new Uzbek parliament in January this year and those MPs got seats in the Uzbek parliament under quota.

Ms. Burhonova stressed that she is ready to cooperate with the Majlisi Namoyandagon ecology commission on ecological problems if they are not politically motivated.

We will recall that the ecology commission within Tajik parliament’s lower house consists of 15 MPs and its head will be elected at today’s sitting of the first session of the Majlisi Namoyandagon of the fourth convocation today.  The commission is dedicated to consider environmental protection issues.