Azernews.Az

The participants of the Caspian Environment Forum held in the Turkmen resort city of Awaza this week stood for developing a set of measures aimed at the preservation and enhancement of the natural resources of the Caspian Sea, the national Altyn Asir TV channel said on Wednesday.

The event was attended by delegations from Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia, Turkmenistan, and the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe.

The Caspian Sea washes the coast of Azerbaijan, Russia, Kazakhstan, Iran and Turkmenistan. It is the world's largest intra-basin that is not associated with the World Ocean and has a climate value.

The Caspian Sea is unique due to variety of flora and fauna, including the world's largest sturgeon population (90 percent of the world reserves).

Avaza forum outlined steps for the implementation of joint research, study of the state of Caspian biological resources and the assessment of its natural resources. The implementation results of the Caspian Environment Program project "The Caspian Sea: Restoring Depleted Fisheries and Consolidation of a Permanent Regional Environmental Governance Framework Caspeco" was discussed at the forum.

Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov appealed to the event participants.

"An independent and neutral Turkmenistan attaches great importance to integrated settlement of environmental protection issues in the framework of international agreements. Performing its obligations under international conventions and programs, Turkmenistan implements policy based on the equitable international cooperation," the president said.

Earlier, Ashgabat proposed to establish inter-regional UN center to address the issues of climate change and made a proposal on the establishment of the Caspian Environmental Forum.
In late August, at a governmental meeting Berdymukhamedov noted that Turkmenistan stands for constructive dialogue on the Caspian Sea.

The route to Europe via the Caspian Sea and Azerbaijan looks more and more attractive to Turkmenistan, which owns the fourth-largest natural gas reserves in the world. The Turkmen side expressed readiness to conduct appropriate environmental expertise with participation of international experts for implementation of this project.