Azerbaijan, Baku / Trend corr S. Babayeva / The first session of the Conference of Framework Convention on Caspian Sea Environment Protection (Teheran Convention) that was held in Baku on 23-25 May has finished.
The decision to develop budget proposals for the first financial period and to allot $360,000 to the budget of the Teheran Convention for 2009 ($72,000 contribution from each involved country) was made.
The second session is being planned to the first half of 2008 in Iran. The issue on appointing a Permanent Secretariat of the Convention remained unresolved. It will be reviewed at following sessions. Proposals to fill the Secretariat position were put forward by Azerbaijan, Russia and Iran. Meanwhile, the UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme) will be acting-Secretariat.
The Framework Convention has been developed by the specialists of the Caspian countries with the assistance of UNEP and was signed in November 2003 in Teheran.
The main purpose of the Convention is to protect the Caspian Sea from pollution through activities including restoration, conservation, and efficient use of Caspian bio-resources.