Caspian Sea: State of the Environment 2019

The development of the Intergovernmental Inte- grated Programme on Hydrometeorology of the Caspian Sea was a key task under the Agreement on Cooperation in the Field of Hydrometeorolo- gy of the Caspian Sea The programme is intend- ed to be an effective tool for setting up a regional system to receive and share information on the state of the Caspian Sea in the interests of ensur- ing safety of life and the development of econom- ic activity at sea. Overall, the main outcomes of CASPCOM activ- ities in 2014–2016 included: increased coopera- tion between national meteorological and hydro- logical services in the field of hydrometeorology and monitoring of the Caspian Sea, and the pop- ulation of CASPCOM catalogues with new data (on sea level, water temperature, regional atmo- spheric circulation and surface run-off). Interaction with the Commission on Aquat- ic Bioresources of the Caspian Sea took place during the Commission’s meetings (December 2013 in Astrakhan, May 2015 in St. Petersburg, Russian Federation, and June 2016 in Astana, Republic of Kazakhstan). At these meetings, rec- ommendations on the total allowable catch of aquatic biological resources for the relevant pe- riod are adopted and the issue of prolonging the ban on commercial sturgeon fishing in the Cas- pian basin is discussed. Sturgeon may be caught for research and artificial reproduction purposes only; export quotas for caviar and other products derived from natural sturgeon populations are therefore set to zero. Issues related to the fulfilment of quotas for ma- rine and sturgeon fish species, and the reproduc- tion and protection of fish stocks are also dis- cussed, and data on the state of aquatic biological resource stocks based on the results of scientific studies are reviewed. The CEP, which operated from 1998 to 2012, made an important contribution to the develop- ment of environmental cooperation between the Caspian littoral states and to the drafting and sign- ing of the Tehran Convention. The CEP included international projects by the GEF, UNDP, Euro- pean Union (EU) and Technical Assistance to the Commonwealth of Independent States (TACIS)

programme in the fields of scientific research, ca- pacity-building, water quality and pollution mon- itoring, and coastal zone management. 7.2. Bilateral cooperation In addition to the regional agreements, bilateral cooperation also makes an important contribu- tion. In 2014, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan signed an inter-State agreement on the delineation of the bottom of Caspian Sea (Republic of Kazakh- stan and Turkmenistan, 2014). The Russian Federation engaged in the follow- ing cooperation under bilateral agreements with Caspian littoral states: • with the Republic of Azerbaijan under an agreement between the Government of the Russian Federation and the Government of the Republic of Azerbaijan on cooperation in the field of sustainable use and protection of the water resources of the transboundary Sa- mur River reached in 2010 (including water apportionment and monitoring of water re- sources, surveying of the main groundwater intakes, establishment of the required gauging stations, surveying of the technical condition of the Samur hydraulic engineering project) • with the Islamic Republic of Iran, within the framework of the memorandum of under- standing between the Russian Federation Ministry of Natural Resources and Environ- ment and the Iranian Department of Environ- ment on cooperation in the field of ecology for 2015–2016, and the Working Group on Water Management of the Permanent Russian–Ira- nian Commission for Trade and Economic Cooperation in such areas as environmental protection, sustainable use of water resources, safeguarding of biodiversity, monitoring of at- mospheric pollution, reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, water desalination, estimation of reserves, and exploration and monitoring of groundwater • with the Republic of Kazakhstan under an agreement between the Government of the Russian Federation and the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan on joint use and pro- tection of transboundary water bodies (in such

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