Five Nations Sign Pact to Safeguard Caspian Sea

TEHRAN, Iran, November 4, 2003 (ENS) – A treaty signed here today commits the five countries bordering the Caspian Sea to prevent and cut pollution, restore the environment, use resources sustainably and cooperate more to protect the environment of the world's largest lake.

Beneath Caspian waters lie some of the largest oil reserves in the world. As a result, today the Caspian Sea is degraded by industrial pollution, toxic and radioactive wastes, agricultural runoff, sewage, and leaks from oil extraction and refining.

Ministers from Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, the Russian Federation, and Turkmenistan met over the past two days to adopt and sign the Framework Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Caspian Sea. It is the first legally binding treaty on any subject to be adopted by the five neighboring nations.

“By signing this important new treaty, the Caspian states are demonstrating their firm commitment to saving the beautiful and resource rich Caspian Sea,” said Massoumeh Ebtekar, vice president and head of the Department of the Environment for the Islamic Republic of Iran.

“Our actions here today also underline our shared conviction that countries must work together if they are to achieve their common environmental goals,” she said.

Oil rigs rise above a field of flowers on the Caspian Sea shore. (Photo courtesy Caspian Environment Programme)

“This agreement will promote the conservation of the largest freshwater lake in the world,” said Shafqat Kakakhel, deputy executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), under whose auspices the treaty was negotiated.

“By ensuring the sustainable use of the Caspian Sea’s valuable living resources, the Convention will contribute enormously to the wellbeing of millions of people living in this region,” he said.

In New York, a spokesman for UN Secretary General Kofi Annan hailed the treaty as "a significant step forward for the region" that will "benefit the health and livelihoods of hundreds of millions of people."

Annan's spokesman praised the five signatory nations for "sending a message to their people and to the world that multilateral cooperation for sustainable development is not only essential, but possible."

Chief among environmental threats to the sea is destruction of the region’s biological diversity, which includes some 400 species unique to the Caspian.

Oil rigs and rusting machinery line the Caspian Sea. (Photo courtesy Caspian Environment Programme)

Water levels are currently rising, threatening Caspian coastal communities and ecosystems, an issue the treaty addresses.

Other problems the five countries will work to resolve include pollution from land based sources, invasive species, environmental emergencies, environmental impact assessments, monitoring, research and development, and the exchange of information.

The Convention will strengthen and support the Caspian Environment Programme, which was established by the five governments in 1995 following an environmental assessment by UNEP, the UN Development Programme, and the World Bank.

The Caspian Environment Programme aims to halt the deterioration of environmental conditions of the Caspian Sea and to promote sustainable development in the area.

With an area of some 373,000 square kilometers (144,016 square miles), the Caspian Sea has a shoreline of 7,000 kilometers (4,350 miles) in length. The lake is fed by some 130 tributary rivers, although 75 percent of its inflow comes from the Volga River.

Visit the Caspian Environment Programme at: http://www.caspianenvironment.org/