Policy News - December 18, 2003

Protecting the Caspian

After eight years of discussions, ministers from Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, the Russian Federation, and Turkmenistan finally signed a treaty in November to protect the Caspian Sea, the world’s largest freshwater lake. The treaty will not be legally binding until it is ratified by the governments, which could take a couple of years, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) officials say, adding that it is the first agreement among these states on any matter.

The Caspian is under severe stress from industrial pollution, toxic and radioactive wastes, agricultural runoff, sewage, and leaks from oil extraction and refining, according to UNEP, which helped negotiate the treaty. Other threats include the over-exploitation of marine resources, such as caviar-producing sturgeon. Conservationists are also concerned about destruction of the region’s biological diversity, which includes some 400 species unique to the Caspian, and rising water levels, which are threatening coastal communities and ecosystems.

In the treaty, the governments have agreed to prevent and reduce pollution, restore the environment, use the Caspian’s resources in a sustainable and reasonable manner, and cooperate with one another and with international organizations to protect the environment.

“This is a framework environmental convention, setting the direction, agreeing on principles, [and] facilitating continued cooperation,” explains UNEP spokesperson Michael Williams. “It provides carrots, not sticks. This framework can now be followed up with more rigorous protocols, such as the Climate Convention and its Kyoto Protocol. Now that the governments have signed, they are in a much better position to convince donors to fund regional environmental activities.”

Anita Danica-Valnicek of UNEP’s Caspian Sea team foresees seven protocols that will provide the “teeth” of the convention, which will take several years to develop. Details of such agreements are far from being nailed down, but UNEP spokespersons said they will cover areas such as pollution from land-based sources. It is also expected that these governments will set rules for licensing waste-water discharges, pollution from sea-bed activities, environmental emergencies such as massive pollution incidents, and environmental impact assessments. —MARIA BURKE