Caspian Sea 2011

State of the Environment of the Caspian Sea

Protection monitors compliance with environ- mental legislation in the Balkan velayat. Service “Caspecocontrol” of the Ministry of Nature Pro- tection is continuously controlling and monitor- ing the state of the environment of the Turkmen sector of the Caspian Sea and its coastal zones, the implementation of environmental regula- tions by foreign national oil companies, and other commercial entities. The State Enterprise on Caspian Issues under the President of Turkmenistan is responsible for the sustainable development of the Turkmeni- stan sector of the Caspian Sea. Its main objec- tives include Caspian Sea delimitation, sustain- able development planning and other issues. In 2007, the Interagency Commission of Turk- menistan on Caspian Sea issues was established to coordinate all economic activities carried out on the coast of the Caspian Sea. This includes the evaluation of projects carried out, and the establishment of international cooperation agreements in the field of navigation, environ- ment protection, and hydrometeorology. The commission also provides recommendations concerning improvements in national legislation of the Caspian Sea (Questionnaire TK 2010). In regard to climate change, an interagency com- mission on Mechanisms of Pure Development (MPD) of the Kyoto Protocol of the United Na- tions Framework Convention on Climate Change was established in 2009 (Questionnaire TK 2010). In connection with oil exploitation and trans- portation, the primary environmental concern in the Caspian Sea region focuses on what re- sponse can be given in the event of any potential emergency in the coastal areas of Turkmenistan. At present it is the Department of reaction to emrgency situations within the Ministry of De- fence. The State Service of Maritime and River Transport of Turkmenistan responsible for man- agement of ports, is also responsible for oil spills in port areas. Foreign oil companies oper- ating offshore, have their own plans for the pre-

vention and response to oil spills. Water quality monitoring is performed by “Caspecocontrol”, which compiles monthly monitoring reports for the whole Caspian coast of Turkmenistan. 7.2. Policy and legislation Analyses of the development of legislation in the various Caspian Sea littoral states are based on the questionnaire which requested these states to list the acts, regulations, decrees and other executive and legal and legislative instru- ments at a federal, national or local level relat- ing to the environment of the Caspian Sea and adjacent coastal areas. Such legislation shall have been enforced since January 2008, and shall have been seen to have had a noticeable impact on the region’s environment. The questionnaire asked to what extent such changes have taken place in line with the provisions and/or imple- mentation of the Tehran Convention, the Strate- gic Caspian Action Programme (SCAP) and as- sociated protocols. Directly relating to the Caspian Sea, there are two main streams of documents, namely, SCAP and the five National Caspian Action Plans (NCAP) developed under the Caspian Environ- ment Programme (CEP). Until 2007, The SCAP and NCAPs, in most cases, were without direct legal status; however, there were some examples of enforced legislation that aimed to achieve the same environmental objectives as the SCAP/ NCAPs (CEP 2007a). As of today, Turkmenistan has approved the NCAP through the presidential decree in early 2008. The NCAP of the Russian Federation was agreed upon (approved) by Cas- pian administrative units in 2007, i.e. Astrakhan oblast, the Republic of Dagestan and the Repub- lic of Kalmykiya of the Russian Federation. Changes in legislation relating to the Caspian Sea environment are presented in Table 7. These chang- es, compared with the environmental quality objec- tives (EQO) of the existing Regional Strategic Action Plan for the Caspian States, are also shown (minus the public participation objective). These legislative changes were adopted by the Caspian Sea littoral states under the Caspian Environment Programme.

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