Proceedings of the Silk Roads Conference: Anticipating Social and Environmental Impacts of China’s Belt & Road Initiative in the Mountains of Central Asia

The Silk Roads Conference in Bishkek, Kyrgyz Republic brought together around 40 academics and development practitioners on October 26, 2018, with the aim to discuss emerging social and environmental impacts associated with China’s Belt & Road Initiative in partner countries. Following on from the inaugural workshop Silk Roads in the Mountains of Central Asia held in Dushanbe, Tajikistan in 2017, this one-day conference further sharpened the focus of development-related discussions while equally expanding the geographic scope, drawing on valuable insights of participants’ research in Africa, Europe, Southeast Asia, as well as Central Asia. Interdisciplinary presentations were supplemented by a spatial mapping workshop to help identify significant opportunities and potential risks to sustainable mountain development that could be brought about by China’s Belt & Road Initiative.