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<Forum on the Caspian, Aral and Dead Seas-Perspective
of Water Environmental Management and Politics>

<Symposium on the Aral Sea and The Surrounding Region
-Irrigated Agriculture and the Environment>

ABSTRACT

Environmental Policy Making for Sustainable Development of the Caspian Sea Area

Genady N. Golubev
Faculty of Geography, Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia

The environmental policy, making the pursuit of sustainable development of the areas adjacent to the Caspian Sea depends on four major factors: a) the hydrometeorological regime of the Sea and its basin, including, first of all, the fluctuations of its water level; b) current economic activities on the Sea and its shores; c) current economic activities in the basin; and, d) positions and interests of the five countries surrounding, since only a few years ago, the shores of the Sea.

Being a closed lake, the Caspian is characterized by very large oscillations of the water level due to the variations of the components of its water balance. Since the 1930s, through to 1977, the water level was constantly dropping. This was wrongly attributed to man's activities in the basin. All long-term forecasts of the water level made by 1977 predicted a continuation of this trend. As a result, economic activity was linked to the low water level. Since 1977, the water level has been steadily rising, due to natural factors, reaching approximately 2.5 metres above the lowest point. Now many parts of the human settlements, roads, oil wells, ports, industrial enterprises, etc., are being inundated or in danger of it. Due to the very flat topography in many parts of the shore, the wind action makes temporary inundations of vast areas reaching 30-50 km inland. The problems associated with the rising water level are different for each Caspian country.

The economic activities on the Caspian Sea basin lead to various degrees of water pollution in the lake. By volume, the main source of pollution is the Volga River which provides about 80% of the total river inflow to the Sea. Fishery is most affected by pollution. Moreover, the Sea is the main source of the precious sturgeon fishes and, hence, caviar. Integrated management of the Caspian Sea basin for the sake of the Sea is one of the main geopolitical problems for that region.

Due to the recent collapse of the Soviet Union, a new political situation has emerged. Five countries now possess the shores of the Sea. They are at different stages of social and economic development and they have (or may have) different geopolitical interests. Just to give an example, 40% of the population of Russia lives in the basin of the Caspian Sea and, therefore, international arrangements for the pollution management of the Sea would affect deeply the interests of that country. Another example is finding a formula for sharing environmentally sustainable oil prospection and extraction from the Sea bottom.

Generally speaking, international cooperation in sustainable environmental management of a very large lake brings along a set of very specific problems unusual for similar water bodies connected with the world ocean.

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