Caspian States Adopt Protocol Protecting the Caspian Sea from Pollution

At the Conference for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Caspian Sea, representatives of the Caspian littoral states signed on December 12 in Moscow a Protocol on the Protection of the Caspian Sea against pollution from land-based activities.  This is according to the press service of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment.

This adopted protocol is the second document in nine years since the signing at the convention in 2003 in Tehran. It’s expected the document will ensure practical implementation of provisions of the Convention for the Protection of the Caspian environment.

Opening the meeting, Sergey Donskoy, the Minister of Natural Resources and Ecology of the Russian Federation, said: "The Tehran Convention plays a key role in strengthening regional environmental cooperation. Convention becomes effective legal tool for environmental protection in the Caspian Sea." He also drew attention to the substantial convergence on a number of issues. To implement the Protocol, Convention member countries are to develop national plans of action to control sources of pollution, including emission limits, and to promote the use of environmentally sound technologies, along with the introduction of targets for the environment. The next session of the Conference, for parties at the ministerial level, will be held in Turkmenistan in 2014. -02D-