Diary

May 27, 2003, PM.

Prof. Gunnar Kullenberg (Sweden/France), Former Executive Secretary of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO, Assistant Director-General of UNESCO, was supposed to open the plenary proceeding. But he wasn't able to arrive because of his heath problems, so he sent his speech to the participants. The participants` attention in Prof. Kulleberg`s report was focused on the fact it was impossible to solve any problem of the Caspian Sea basin without co-operation between circumlittoral states.

Prof. Kullenberg`s report was followed by the speech of Mr. Hamid Reza Ghaffarzadeh (Iran), UNDP-GEF CEP Programm Coordinator, UNDP Programm Manager. He told about SAP Programm realization. SAP is a declaration, accepted by Caspian Sea and its Deltas Region Countries. The basic priorities of the document are:

1. Increment of fish storages.
2. Protection of bioresources.
3. Pullution problems.
4. Coastal development.

National Caspian Programm is the basis of SAP. SAP is almost ready yet for today's moment and ought to be ratified by the Caspian Sea basin Countries. The important trait is the fact that regional co-operation has no dependence towards the Caspian Sea de jure status.

The third reporter, Prof. Terttu Melvasalo (Finland) devoted her speech to the problems of the Baltic Sea. She introduced HELCOM`s affairs, being dealed with pollution problems of the Baltic Sea. She added about the seminars, held by HELCOM. In conclusion Prof. Melvasalo called Baltic Sea Region Countries and their governments to take part in environmental protection processes, introduce ecological bills, establish a co-operation and publish the results of their efforts. Professor considered that such co-operation should be interpreted as a vital example of successful interaction.

After the lunch, the Seminar was followed by Prof. A. Kosarev (Russia). His report dealed with both hydrological and ecological problems of the Caspian Sea. The report focused the participant's attention on the way the hydrology of the Caspian Sea had been changing for last fifty years. One of his report's main cases is the fact of freshet decrement in combination with a brand cold winter had resulted the amplification of ventilation. The second case relates steady starification to vertical brackishness. His point of view deals with the fact the researching of main hydrological processes and water dynamics is helpful to figure out the questions of environmental protection. Mr. Monakhov (Russia) introduced the importance of Caspian Sea researching, being figured five main goals:

1. Climate and inner water exchange of the Caspian Sea
2. Natural recycling devices
3. Ecological features of the Caspian Sea with different kind of legal regulation.
4. Oscillations of level and dynamics of the Caspian Sea's riches of soil
5. The way of governance for the Caspian Region Countries and petroleum companies.

Dr. Emma Gabushina (Kalmykia, Russia) reported on the establishment of new organization of independent ecological expertise.

The problems of sea level affection, climate's oscillations and human affairs towards the naval ecosystem and coastal area were presented by Dr. Helen Ostrovskaya (Astrakhan, Russia).

May 28, 2003, AM.

The problem of a baffling complexity in legal sphere about the Caspian Sea was discovered during that day's plenary meeting.

Prof. Lee Kimball (Washington, USA), expert in ocean governance, delimitation and related resource management problems, reported on Regional Approaches to Governance of Shared Seas. After she reported on regional co-operation, she focused special attention on both problem of shared resources and problem of keeping interests of Coastal Countries.

Prof. Piquemal`s speech was devoted to pragmatic legal approach for the exploration of natural resources according to the sustainable development of the Coastal States. The legal way, presented by Prof. Piquemal, has no aim to solve the delimitation problem of the Caspian Sea, but allows to share natural resources. So, two main goals are to be remarked due to the sustainable development of the Caspian Sea and its Deltas Regions:

1. Legal way of using natural recourses.
2. Environmental protection in this area.

Professor supposed regional co-operation was to be established mentioning these points:

1. Dire necessity of sustainable development of the Caspian Sea and its Deltas Regions.
2. Linking the conceptions of sustainable development, shared using of natural recourses and environmental protection.

The legal way could be presented from these two points of view:

1. Establishing of a Regional Department for the shared using of common natural resources.
   
2. Figuring out the ways of both regional and international co-operation towards special areas of every Coastal State.

Prof. A. Salimgerei's repot dealt with legal issues of development of the Caspian Sea fishery resources by Caspian States.
Commission for sea bioresources seemed to be malfunctional for the last ten years, because Iran hadn't taken part in it's work at all and Kazakhstan's representatives had missed two last sessions. Russia claims to be of a leading role in distributing of fishing quotas, explaining it is the only country among the Deltas Regions to save scientific basis after the USSR was broken. The fact that major biological recourses of the Caspian Sea are situated in Kazakhstan isn't taken into consideration.
Due to professor's opinion, the way out is in avowal of Kazakhstan as a State with basic territories of sturgeon resources and delegating rights and charges in fish vanishing prevention.

May 28, 2003, PM.

Classification of conflicts of the Caspian Sea Region States was presented in "Conflict's Potential in the Caspian Region" by Prof. Igor Zonn (Moscow, Russia), Editor-in-Chief of the Caspian Sea Bulletin, expert in environmental and political problems of the Caspian Sea. He divided different conflicts into geopolitical, ethnoterritorial, military conflicts of a strategic scale, ecological and religious. The main factor of establishing these kinds of conflicts in a region is vast resources in gas, minerals and other mines. In conclusion, Prof. Zonn mentioned that because of the increasing threat of international terrorism the number of conflicts increased and the ways, diplomats solve them, became more sophisticated.

Dr. Svend Jensen (Denmark), expert in management, economy and industry, reported on Private Public Partnership in sustainable development and Natural Resource Management with special emphasis on ICZM (Marine Pollution Control and Port Waste Management). He declared about different forms of co-operation such as the development of infrastructure (pure water, transport energy, telecommunication services etc.), pollution control, tourism, financial regulating. Every government should share these questions between state and private organizations. Businessmen are to be interested also because of enlarging their economical influence. Such relations should grant sustainable development for every country, solve both economical and social problems, dealing with environmental protection.

Prof. T. Kudekov (Kazakhstan), Vice-Chairman of the coordinating committee for Hydromet and Pollution Monitoring of the Caspian Sea, figured out a question of environment monitoring systems. He said that the polluting level increased but noone had money for expensive ecological expeditions.

"Modern State and problems of Turkmenistan seacoast of Caspian Sea" by Mrs. Myartseva was devoted to geographical, economical and ecological position of the region at present. She paid attention to fact that the Government and non-commercial organizations of Turkmenistan had already invested to this area but more efforts needed.

Prof. V. Zaitsev was the last to make a report. He presented a conception of CCMS Pilot Project on the Design of The Caspian Basin Observing System to Form the Basis for Environmental Protection, being discussed during the conference, held by NATO in Baku. Turkey was instituted as a coordinator for this project, which planned to be started next year. The question of remote sensing for pollution preventing and ecological monitoring were discussed also. Professor pointed out that another two seminars should be hold, too.

By the end of the day participants were divided into two thematic working groups to have detailed discussions of issues and formulate recommendations.

May 29, 2003.

Closed discussions took place.

May 30, 2003. Final session.

During the first part of the session Prof. S. Vinogradov (UK) presented final resolution for discussion. These are main goals:

1. The problems of the Caspian Sea are deeply interconnected and affects negatively towards the Coastal States.
2. Coastal Countries should commonly evaluate the resources of the Caspian Sea.
   
3. Scientific researches is a major factor in solving problems of the region.

Coastal States should take into consideration and follow the UN's declaration.
It is necessary to ratify The Convention, dealing with whole range of interaction questions or to issue a series of regional conventions in specifics spheres (i.e. navigation, EP).

Establishing of transregional organization should serve as a mechanism of resolvations.
To keep the Caspian Sea away from polluting processes, Coastal States should establish interaction in exploring the sources of pollution. To solve fish keeping problems and preserve a wide variety of biological substance from vanishing, a suitable regional department is to be established and special anti- poaching measures are to be taken.
Caspian Sea and its Deltas Regions should determine some zones of a major importance to create a fish preserve area there. One of the main mechanisms of sea bottom protection is recovering wastes on the shore (only Russia puts the garbage away from the coastline). The other way of protection is recycling in of old oil-mining towers.

The question of ship-polluting prevention was also discussed during the meeting. Coastal States were recommended to force the building of wastewater-filtering frameworks.

Coastal Countries should make as many as they can to make Caspian Sea a truly peaceful one (military presence of non-regional states should be prevented strictly). Some common bills in terrorism and drug-dealing are to be declared also.
Prof. E. Ozhan(Turkey) followed the first part of that day's meeting. He presented a project of the resolution, dealing with the bioecological problems of the Caspian Sea. That project includes recommendations for the Caspian Sea basin Countries to keep the seawater pureness: common quality standards and waste recycling measures are to be taken. Research and sea ability evaluating recommendations are also included.

Coastal States are also recommended to perform ecological tests near the oil- and gas-mining platforms periodically. Cooperation between national control agencies is to be achieved at a larger scale.

A Regional Center of Interaction should be established. Development and establishing of Priority Actions Programme should become its main aim. It is also recommended to start a Distributed Informational System.

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