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Charles Gurdon
Menas Associates
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Five Caspian states set to sign environmental pact
Dubai-Ministers and senior officials from
the five littoral states of the Caspian Sea began
a two-day meeting in Tehran Nov 4
ahead of the signing of a Framework Convention
for the Protection of the Marine Environment
of the oil-rich Caspian. It would
be the first legally binding treaty on any subject
to be adopted by the Caspian neighbors.
The official Iranian News Agency IRNA
reported the treaty would coordinate regional
efforts to reverse an environmental
crisis brought about by habitat destruction,
pollution and the overexploitation of fish
and other marine life.
The littoral states (Russian, Iran,
Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan)
have not yet agreed on a legal framework on
how to divide up the body of water and allow
full-fledged development of its oil and
gas reserves.
"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
Program.
The legal status of the sea and any hydrocarbon
resources beneath it has been unresolved
since the break-up of the Soviet Union.
Russia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan
have reached general agreement on a plan to
divide up the Caspian seabed using median
lines. But Iran opposes the median lines
principle and would prefer to divide the
Caspian into five equal sectors.
The Caspian is heavily polluted by sewage,
oil leaks, industrial pollution, toxic and
radioactive waste, while overfarming of
sturgeon is threatening caviar production
and other marine resources.
Kate Dourian
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