Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 22
By Fatih Karimov - Trend:
Iran and Russia joined a plan of action to protect the Caspian Sea environment.
The two countries signed an agreement in Tehran to cooperate for protecting endangered wild animal species, protecting the Caspian Sea ecology, protecting marshlands, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and reducing air pollution, Iran's IRNA news agency reported on Feb. 22.
Majid Shafipour, Head of International Affairs Center of Iran's environment protection organization and Nuriddin Inamov, director of the Department of International Cooperation at the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment of the Russian Federation, signed the agreement.
On the sidelines of the signing ceremony, Masoumeh Ebtekar, director of Iran's Department of Environment, said the Tehran Convention is currently the most important regional agreement regarding the protection of the Caspian Sea environment.
In November 2003, the five Caspian states signed the Framework Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Caspian Sea (further Tehran Convention). This document reflects efforts by the governments of Azerbaijan, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan to reach agreement on a regional effort to protect the fragile environment of the Caspian Sea.
The littoral countries of the Caspian Sea have also signed two protocols, namely, Protocol on Regional Preparedness, Response and Cooperation in case of Oil Pollution Incidents (the third session of the conference of the sides in Aktau, Kazakhstan, 2011) and the Protocol on Protection of the Caspian Sea from land-based sources of pollution as a result of land-based activities (the fourth session of the conference of the sides in Moscow, Russian Federation, 2012).