Programme Cooperation Agreement 2012 – 2013

 Support to the Interim Secretariat of the Tehran Convention Support to the Teheran Convention For the last three years GRID-Arendal has supported the Teh- ran Convention through providing staff to the Interim Secre- tariat, supporting regional assessments and conducting the Caspian Sea State of the Environment (SoE) report adopted by the Third Conference of the Parties (COP3) in Aktau in 2011. The Caspian SoE was finalized and circulated in 2012. During this biennium, the Interim Secretariat assisted with the preparations for COP4 held in Moscow in 2012 and with the Protocol on the Protection of the Caspian Sea against Pollution from Land-based Sources and Activities which was finalized and adopted at COP4. The Secretariat also supported preparations for: • additional protocols on the Protection of Biological Di- versity and on Environmental Impact Assessment in a Trans-boundary Context; • the implementation strategy of the Aktau oil spill protocol; • National Convention Action Plans and Public Participa- tion strategies; and • COP5 to be held in 2014 in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan. Caspian Environmental Information Center (CEIC) The web-based CEIC, designed by GRID-Arendal, serves as a communication tool for the Secretariat of the Tehran Conven- tion and aims to provide reliable and high-quality data and information for regular SoE reporting of the Caspian Sea. 101 The CEIC concept was developed within the framework of the Tehran Convention and presented to country del- egations in March 2012. National Environmental Infor-

mation Officers (EIOs) were subsequently appointed. It was agreed that the European Environment Agency (EEA) would provide support in training of EIOs and assist in the integration of the CEIC into the EIONET. 102 In addition, in April 2012, GRID-Arendal entered into an agreement with BP and its co-venturers to establish the web-based CEIC. 103 Two hands-on workshops held in October 2012 at the EEA and at GRID-Arendal, exposed participants from 5 Caspian states to European methods of environmental information management and to all technical aspects of the operation of the CEIC. The CEIC was subsequently launched and demonstrated at COP4 in December 2012. It was welcomed and formally established by the Min- isters, High-level officials and other conference partici- pants as “the thesaurus of data and information submit- ted and collected in the context of the implementation of the Tehran Convention and its protocols”. 104 In 2013 the portal was upgraded from a pilot to a fully- functional web resource housing reports, national action plans, aggregated data, and scientific and legal docu- ments for environmental issues and activities within the Caspian region. It also provides a directory of all relevant government-affiliated organizations and public participa- tion. The proposal for the next phase of CEIC development has been prepared and submitted to BP Caspian. Positive signals have been received from their headquarters, that the project will be funded. 102. EIONET is a partnership network of the EEA and its member and cooperating countries involving approximately 1000 experts and more than 350 national institutions. The network supports the collection and organisation of data and the development and dissemination of information concerning Europe’s environment, following EEA’s methodology for ‘Shared Environmental Information Systems’ (SEIS). 103. http://www.bp.com/genericarticle.do?categoryId=9006615&conte ntId=7074558 104. http://www.tehranconvention.org/spip.php?article63, paragraph 15

101. http://www.kaspinfo.com/node/749

The Protocol on the Protection of the Caspian Sea against Pollution from Land-based Sources and Activities was finalized and adopted at COP4 in Moscow in 2012.

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