MINISTERS TO SIGN NEW ENVIRONMENTAL TREATY ON PROTECTING CASPIAN SEA

MINISTERS TO SIGN NEW ENVIRONMENTAL TREATY ON PROTECTING CASPIAN SEA

TEHRAN, 3 November (UNEP) -– Ministers from Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russian Federation and Turkmenistan are meeting in Tehran today and tomorrow to adopt and sign the Framework Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Caspian Sea.

“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.

This groundbreaking agreement, the first legally binding treaty on any subject to be adopted by the five neighbours, will coordinate regional efforts to reverse an environmental crisis brought about by habitat destruction, pollution and the over-exploitation of fish and other marine life.

“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 well-being of millions of people living in this region”, he said.

The Caspian Sea is under severe stress from industrial pollution, toxic and radioactive wastes, agricultural run-off, sewage, and leaks from oil extraction and refining.

Other threats include uncontrolled fishing of caviar-producing sturgeon, the overexploitation of other marine resources, and the destruction of the region’s biological diversity, which includes some 400 species unique to the Caspian.  On top of this, water levels are currently rising, threatening coastal communities and ecosystems.

After the Convention is signed tomorrow during the Conference of Plenipotentiaries, it will need to be ratified by the participating governments –- a process that can take a couple of years –- so that it will enter into force and become legally binding.

The Convention will commit its member governments to preventing and reducing pollution, restoring the environment, using the Sea’s resources in a sustainable and reasonable manner, and cooperating with one another and with international organizations to protect the environment.

Specific issues addressed by the Convention include pollution from land-based sources, seabed activities, vessels, dumping, invasive alien species, environmental emergencies, marine living resources, sea-level fluctuation, 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 governments concerned in 1995, following an environmental assessment by UNEP, the United Nations Development Programme and the World Bank.

With an area of some 373,000 square kilometres, the Caspian Sea boasts a shoreline of 7,000 kilometres in length.  Its surface is 28 metres below sea level, and its maximum depth is 980 metres.  The lake is fed by some 130 tributary rivers, although 75 per cent of its inflow comes from just one -– the Volga River.  The Caspian Sea is also unique in that its waters hide some of the largest oil reserves in the world.

For more information, please contact:  Eric Falt, Spokesperson/Director of Communication and Public Information, UNEP Nairobi; tel:  +254-20-62-3292, mobile:  +254-733-682656, e-mail:  eric.falt@unep.org; or Nick Nuttall, Head of UNEP Media, tel:  +254-20-62-3084, mobile:  +254-733-632755, e-mail:  nick.nuttall@unep.org; or; Michael Williams, UNEP Information Officer, Geneva, tel:  +41-22-917-8242/ 8196/8244, mobile:  +41-79-409-1528, e-mail:  michael.williams@unep.ch.

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