TEHRAN – Celebrated on August 12 by the five Caspian Sea states (Iran, Russia, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, and Azerbaijan), the International Caspian Sea Day serves as an opportunity to review the status of the world’s largest inland body of water and highlights the significance of preserving its unique ecosystem and biodiversity.

In 2003, the Caspian littoral states signed the (Tehran) Framework Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Caspian Sea.

Following ratification by all five Governments of the Caspian littoral states, the Tehran Convention entered into force on the 12th of August 2006. Since then, the Caspian Sea Day is celebrated on August 12 annually. 

Known for its unique biodiversity, the Caspian Sea is home to different kinds of valuable species and plays a vital role in the economy, food security, and ecological sustainability of the region.

Over recent decades, marine life, particularly sturgeon and Caspian seals’ populations in the sea, have sharply declined due to threatening factors such as illegal fishing, overfishing, oil, industrial, and agricultural pollution, climate change, reduced water flow, as well as habitat destruction.

Sturgeons are among the strategic resources of the Caspian Sea, highly valuable for their caviar, but are in danger of extinction.

The Caspian seal is the only marine mammal in the sea. The species is now listed as endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) red list, with its population declining due to various reasons from one million in the past to 70,000, currently. 

In recent years, the increase in the discovery of seals’ carcasses on the southern coast of the Caspian Sea has raised concerns among environmentalists that the Caspian seal is at greater risk of extinction than ever before.

Iran has always underscored the need for regional cooperation to protect the biodiversity of the Caspian ecosystem based on regional diplomacy and save endangered species, particularly the Caspian seals, through enhanced joint measures.

The country has taken several measures to address these challenges. 

The Seventh Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Framework Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Caspian Sea, known as COP 7, which will be held in Tehran, will focus on the preservation of the Caspian seal.

In November 2024, the Department of Environment (DOE) started implementing a national action plan that focuses on the conservation of the Caspian seal.

The main objective of the plan is to conserve the Caspian seal, a rare, valuable, endemic, and endangered species of the Caspian Sea, as the priority of marine environmental activities.

The establishment of a center for the Caspian seal conservation in Tarbiat Modarres University branch of Noor County is among the important measures taken in this regard. 

It has fostered positive interactions between the university and the executive units, which are expected to bring about positive results in the protection of Caspian seals in the near future.

Executive working groups have been formed in cooperation with governors and other beneficiaries under the management of provincial departments of environment in Gilan, Mazandaran, and Golestan provinces.

Also, the rescue centers of the seals in these three provinces are well-equipped, and a specialized training workshop has already been held for the beneficiaries and rangers, Talebi-Matin said.

The training included basic methods of rescue, release, carcass disposal, and correct sample gathering.

In addition, examining the seals’ carcasses on the beaches to identify the cause of their loss is being pursued in cooperation with neighboring countries and related organizations.

In August 2024, the Iranian ambassador to Turkmenistan participated in the scientific-practical international conference titled ‘Caspian Sea -Cooperation for Sustainable Development’, which was held in the national tourism zone of Awaza.

Delivering a speech at the conference, Ali-Mojtaba Rouzbahani, stated that the Caspian Sea is a common heritage as well as a point of connection for the littoral states. It is a source of blessings for more than 270 million people.

The Caspian Sea is a strategic region connecting the North-South and East-West corridors. It is the duty of the coastal regions to protect the Caspian for future generations, as it has been inherited by us clean and safe.

The official went on to say that the approval of the Tehran Convention, as the first step in realizing cooperation in the Caspian Sea, indicates the importance of preserving the environment as an important principle for all activities in the Sea.

MT/MG