It was stressed during the last conference “Ecology of the Caspian Sea: international cooperation for sustainable development” held in the seaside resort of Avaza, that Turkmenistan has initiated a number of proposals to preserve the unique ecosystem of the Caspian Sea and its natural landscapes, and rich biodiversity, the Turkmen government reported.
The Foreign Ministry, the Ministry of Nature Protection, State Enterprise on the Caspian Sea Issues under the president and the administration (mayor’s office) of the Balkan region acted as the organizers of the event.
The event was attended by representatives of diplomatic missions of the countries of the Caspian region, international organizations – the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the World Bank, and the Asian Development Bank.
“The implementation of systematic monitoring of the status of biological resources and the marine environment of the Caspian Sea, carrying out of a wide range of research in this area were named among the urgent tasks”, the report says.
Caspian Sea is the world’s largest inland body of water of an oceanic origin. More than 500 species of plants and 850 species of animals, including 300 rare and endemic ones listed in the Red Book of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, inhabit the depths of the sea and the coastal location of the Caspian Sea.
Turkmenistan ratified the UN environmental agreements – Convention on Biological Diversity and the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands and actively works to implement the provisions of these instruments into national legislation. For example, new laws “On Flora”, “The Animal Kingdom”, “On Fisheries and Conservation of Aquatic Biological Resources” were passed, “Forest Code” (2011), the Law of Turkmenistan “On Specially Protected Natural Areas” (2013) and the Law “On Environmental Protection” adopted this year have been significantly upgraded.
The adoption of the Protocol on Biological Diversity to the Framework Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Caspian Sea to the V session of the Conference of Parties held in Ashgabat in May was an important step for further concerted action of effective cooperation of the Caspian countries in this area.
