Caspian Sea: State of the Environment 2019

ruary 2017) “On environmental security” (3 June 2017), and “On the State Land Registry” (25 No- vember 2017). New versions of the following laws have been developed and adopted: “On specially protect- ed natural areas” (31 May 2012), “On flora” (4 August 2012), “On fauna” (2 March 2013), “On protecting nature” (1 March 2014), “On envi- ronmental assessment” (16 August 2014), “On protecting atmospheric air” (26 March 2016), the Water Code of Turkmenistan (15 October 2016), and the law “On environmental security” (15 June 2018). The process of reforming envi- ronmental legislation is still ongoing (Kepbanov 2016). The relevant legislation of the Caspian littoral states is important for maintaining and restoring stocks of valuable commercial species in the Cas- pian Sea region. Since early 2011, the legal and policy framework for fisheries in Azerbaijan has been coordinated with FAO to ensure that the framework covering the rapidly developing aquaculture sector is in line with international standards, best practices and agreements. With technical support from FAO, the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources facilitated the adoption of the Law of the Republic of Azerbai- jan “On Amendments to the Law of the Republic of Azerbaijan ‘On Fisheries’, dated 27 June 2014” (Republic of Azerbaijan 2014). The Aquatic Bioresources Development, Reha- bilitation and Protection Fund was established in 2016. In connection with amendments to the Law of the Republic of Azerbaijan “On fisher- ies”, the following regulatory documents were adopted by the Cabinet of Ministers during 2016 and 2017: • Registration form and rules for registering en- tities in the fishing industry • Regulations and case studies for releasing new and hybrid varieties of fish and other aquatic bioresources into natural water bod- ies that are fished 7.4.1. Fishing

• Regulations for the transport of acclimatiza- tion resources and the acclimatization of fish and other aquatic bioresources • Regulations on the application of a special protection regime for fish and other aquatic bioresources in marine protected areas and coastguard strips • Guidelines for listing important water bodies for fishing and the restriction of water use • Regulations on catching fish and other aquatic bioresources • Guidelines for aquaculture • Regulations on conducting fishery assess- ments In the Russian Federation, legislation to main- tain and restore valuable commercial species in the Caspian Sea is associated with amendments made in July 2016 to Federal Law No. 166, dat- ed 20 December 2004, “On fisheries and the conservation of aquatic biological resources”. The amendments relate to implementing feder- al state monitoring (oversight) of fisheries and marine bioresource conservation and improv- ing the allocation of catch quotas for aquatic biological resources. Numerous changes were also made to the conceptual apparatus. Termi- nological amendments were introduced, replac- ing the concept of “fishing area” with the words “fishery area”. In the new version of the law, commercial fishing and (or) coastal fishing in the Caspian Sea are designated as areas governed by the international treaties of the Russian Federation on fisheries and aquatic biological resource conservation. The list of aquatic biological resources of the Caspian Sea will be subject to the approval of the Government of the Russian Federation. The new version also clarifies ownership rights to the extracted (caught) aquaculture resources of fish farms engaged in anadromous pasture aquaculture. Within the framework of regulated fisheries, the total allowable catch should be considered as a controllable fishery parameter which has an im- pact on the stocks of aquatic biological resourc- es, and the federal law has been supplemented with new provisions on improving the allocation

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