Environmental Issues of the Caspian

Abstract

Environmental problems in the Caspian and its coastal zone shaped, and reflect the consequences of, the historical and economic development of the Circum-Caspian countries. The Caspian Sea is a meeting place of the different economic and ethnopolitical interests of littoral states. National and transnational oil and gas corporations are involved in the extension and intensification of utilization of the commercially attractive Caspian natural resources, which are fraught with the increased stress loads on the natural environment and biota. The ecological situation on the Caspian is being shaped in conditions of long-term natural change (century-wise fluctuations of the sea level, climatic changes) and also acute recent socioeconomic issues (a transitional period, economic crisis, conflicts, etc.). Among key environmental issues are pollution of the sea and coastal ecosystem, threats of its degradation, qualitative and quantitative depletion of natural resources (including renewable bioresources) involved in economic activities, ecological risks in on-land natural and anthropogenic ecosystems, deterioration of living conditions and health of the population, depletion of landscape and biological diversity, desertification, and intrusion of alien species that distort the normal functioning of ecosystems in the Caspian Sea.