Turkmenistan, Ashgabat, Sept.8. / Trend H.Hasanov /
Ashgabat is hosting a forum of the Caspian countries, aimed at developing the final version of the Protocol on the Protection of the Caspian Sea from Pollution, based on ground resources and land-based activities.
Azerbaijan, Russia, Kazakhstan, Iran and Turkmenistan have Caspian coasts. The UN, the EU and the Turkmen Nature Ministry organized the forum. The leaders of the Interim Secretariat of the Tehran Convention attended the forum.
Currently the Framework (Tehran) Convention, which entered into force in 2003, provides the legal protection for the Caspian Sea's ecological safety. Today this is still the only multilateral instrument of this kind in the Caspian region.
The provisions of the convention are aimed at uniting the world community's attempts to preserve the world's largest inland basin with its unique natural and hydrological environment and to carry out sustainable development in its coastal areas.
The intensive development of the Caspian Sea coast, the high rate of growth of oil and gas industry and the increase of the network of pipelines and transport routes, without which the economic development of the region is unthinkable today, all these factors have necessitated the development of the first basic document of the Convention - Protocol on the Protection of the Caspian Sea, the organizers of the forum said.
The Protocol will allow to determine controlled types of economic activities and categories of pollutants, form of control over emissions of these substances and their transport through the atmosphere, develop environmental quality standards, adopt general guidelines and introduce advanced environmentally safe technologies. The Protocol is planned to be signed in Astana in 2010.
Do you have any feedback? Contact our journalist at: [email protected]