OREANDA-NEWS.  March 15, 2011. A regional meeting on the issues of the protection of the marine environment of the Caspian Sea is opened in Ashgabat. The two-day environmental forum is organized by the Ministry of Nature Protection of Turkmenistan under the aegis of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). Experts of the nature conservation agencies of Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Russia and Iran, representatives of the UNEP, UNDP and other international organisations take part in the meeting.

Today, the Caspian region is an important geopolitical and economic centre on the Eurasian continent with diversified energy, transport and communications infrastructure. Thus, establishment of well-coordinated international cooperation in such critical sphere as environmental security based on distinctive legislative norms, equality and mutual respect for national interests of Caspian states is of particular significance.

Implementing successfully the energy strategy in this region, Turkmenistan is turning into the major international centre where effective mechanisms and principles for efficiently and ecologically friendly developing natural resources of the Caspian Sea, preserving and enriching flora and fauna and implementing its profound potential are formed today. In this regard emphasis should be put on the significance of the International Conference on the “Environment Aspects of the Trans-Caspian Pipelines”, which was held in Ashgabat this February on the initiative of the President of Turkmenistan. The forum, which brought together scientists and experts from many countries of the world in the Turkmen land, testified once again to the high international prestige of Turkmenistan, which views environmental welfare of the region and the planet as a priority of the state policy. The success of the unique project of the Avaza national tourist zone being implemented on the Caspian seaside through using a balanced approach to environmental issues is a striking illustration of the careful use of this unique natural phenomenon formed over millennia.

Addressing the meeting, Fritz Schlingemann, Head of the Tehran Convention interim Secretariat noted that the existing positive experience and the effectiveness of the international ecological forums organized by Turkmenistan, in particular, consultative meetings to draft one of the basic document of the Tehran Convention – the Protocol for the Protection of the Caspian Sea Against Pollution from Land-Based Sources and Activities predetermined the venue for the first regional meeting on the preparations of the action plans under the Convention in the Turkmen capital.

On the first day of the meeting the future objectives and measures to protect the marine environment, preserve and reproduce of its biodiversity, update the regulatory framework on natural resources management, preserve protected areas and natural monuments, increase awareness of local population of environmental issues, etc.