Unison Group’s mission was established in 2002 and born out of the necessity to protect and conserve Kyrgyzstan’s ecosystem services, wildlife and natural habitats admits the country’s economic transitioning to a market economy. In the years that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the new Kyrgyz Republic was left with acute environmental degradation, mass unemployment, poor economic performance and major political changes. During this time, environmental protection mechanisms grew more and more ineffective and Kyrgyz ecosystems and biodiversity succumbed to growing pressures from human activity. The consequences of such human pressures were immense and often irreversible: a more than 50% decline in forest cover, the vanishing of valuable mountain ecosystems and a near extinction of many bird and mammal species.
Unison was established in 2002 and emerged from a civil society movement to protect Kyrgyzstan’s natural resources from the growing deterioration. Unison was one of the first civil society organizations to recognize the inherent value of natural ecosystems to the Kyrgyz society and to emphasize the importance of taking action. Since then, Unison has evolved into one of the leading advocates in Kyrgyzstan in the field of energy, climate, sustainable development, good governance and ecology in Kyrgyzstan.
Given the strong demand, the Civil Foundation Unison was renamed to Unison Group in 2015 and separated into a civil-society department (Unison NGO) and a strategic advisory firm (Unison Consulting).Today Unison Group mobilizes a powerful network of decision makers, investors, companies and public interest groups to accelerate and expand the adoption of sustainable practices and solutions to build a healthy Kyrgyz economy.