1. RUSSIA, INDIA, IRAN TO
DECIDE ON WAYS OF DEVELOPING NORTH-SOUTH TRANSPORT CORRIDOR
The Russian, Indian and Iranian transport ministries are holding a conference in New Delhi
this week to determine ways of developing the North-South international transport
corridor, running from India to Northern Europe through Iran and Russia, in 2002.
The Russian delegation is led by Deputy Transport Minister
Chingiz Izmailov, the Transport Ministry press service told Interfax. The delegations have
agreed to set up a special working agency in charge of issues related to customs,
financial and legal regulations. They also discussed other countries' possible membership
in the project, including Bahrain, Kazakhstan and Lithuania. Transport Ministry sources
said that an agreement on laying out a North-South international transport corridor was
signed by Russia, India and Iran in St. Petersburg in September 2000. Its annual handling
capacity could exceed 15 million tones for the next few years. Experimental container
freightage from India to the Scandinavian countries through Iran and Russia showed that
the new transport route "will effectively compete with the sea route going through
the Suez Canal," ministry experts think.
Containers transported along the South-North route reach the consignee 2-3 times faster
than by sea. Moreover, the consignor saves $400 on each container. In 2001, the
international transport corridor handled over 500,000 tones of transit containers.
Russia's Caspian shipping companies are actively participating in transport operations. Source: INTERFAX
2. CASPIAN SEA LEVEL DOWN 50
CENTIMETERS IN FIVE YEARS
The Caspian Sea level has dropped fifty centimeters (20 inches) in the last five
years, the Russian emergencies ministry said Wednesday, according to Interfax. The Caspian
Sea level began to decrease in 1996, and had dropped by 46 centimeters by the end of
2000.
According to estimates by Russian scientists, the sea
level will have dropped by a further three to five centimeters in 2001. However, during
the first few months of 2002, the Caspian Sea level is expected to rise by four to ten
centimeters, the scientists said.
The Caspian Sea, the world's largest enclosed sea, is rich
in oil and surrounded by Russia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan. All five
neighbors have been unable to agree on how to share the Caspian wealth since the end of
the Soviet Union in 1991. The sea level had dropped regularly until 1978 Source:AgenceFrance-Presse
1. TIPS FOR ELEMENTARY
ECOLOGICAL EDUCATION The Azerbaijan Society for Protection of Animals (ASPA) held a two-day seminar at
the Ecological Center of the Ministry of Education as part of the Caspian Ecological
Program project "Improvement of the ecological situation in Khatai district of Baku
by means of ecological education of schoolchildren".
"The objective of the project is to seek ways of
improving elementary ecological education at school", ASPA President Azer Garayev
told AssA-Irada. According to him, ecological subjects are taught using various teaching
methods, with textbooks in Azeri, Russian or translated from Russian. The quality of the
textbooks leaves much to be desired for its contents, design, etc., he underscored.
The textbooks fail to accommodate the local ecological system, as they have no data on the
Caspian, its fauna, flora and problems.
According to Azeri scholars, the lack of a common doctrine
in teaching ecological subjects leads to overall ecological illiteracy in the country and
eventually to inhuman treatment of the environment.
The seminar developed recommendations for the improvement of the situation to be forwarded
to the Ministry of Education, the Milli Majlis and other entities.* Source: AssA-Irada
2. WORLD BANK IS DELAYING ITS OWN ENVIRONMENTAL PROJECT IN
AZERBAIJAN
'The approach that the World Bank has adopted towards construction of the fish-breeding
farm in Neftchala is not quite accurate, we think', says Minister of Ecology and Natural
Resources Hussein Baghirov. Construction of the fishery is financed from the project of
urgent environmental protection investments, and the credit agreement for $20 mn was
signed by the World Bank and the Government on 7 August 1998. Only $1.64 mn has been spent
of the total budget to date, even though assimilation of the allocated resources began on
2 February 1999 and the project should be closed on 31 December 2003.
According to Minister Baghirov, the delayed start-up of
the construction work is caused by the problems at the World Bank itself. 'We signed the
agreement with the contractor only following the approval of the World Bank, and now they
seem to be having some problems', Hussein Baghirov remarked.
The contract was signed with the alliance formed between
the Azeri company Azerenerjitikintigurasdima and Germany's Ferrostaal. The allocation
towards construction of the fishery equals $5.95 mn. The total credit that the bank
allocated towards the whole project equals $9.1 mn. Ten months will pass from the moment
the work begins and the moment of the turn-key completion. The annual breeding capacity of
the fishery should equal 15 mn fish-fry. It will be built in Khilly locality near
Neftchala, 20 km upstream from the mouth of Kura and 150 km away from Baku.
Right now, nothing can stop the World Bank from beginning to finance the project to ensure
that construction work begins, and this will be 10% of the contract sum. All the tasks we
had to carry out we have carried out. There are no problems. The ball is on their side
now. As far as I am concerned, the bank is about to settle all the issues very soon', said
Hussein Baghirov.
Azerbaijan's sturgeon fishing and caviar quotas set by the
Caspian Sea Biological Resources Commission are subject to the future productivity of the
new fishery.
The World Bank avoids making comments on the project's progress. Source: AZER-PRESS.
1. CASPIAN TELECOMS CONFERENCE Caspian Telecommunications Conference featuring Government participation from 9
countries of the Caspian, Central Asian and Caucasus regions including Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Russia, Iran and Turkey will
take place on 22nd - 24th May 2002 at the Hilton Hotel and will feature the participation
of Ministers of Communication, Directors of National Telecom Corporations, senior
executives of local and International Telecoms corporations and representatives of
International Telecom Associations.
Source: Email: Ingram@bemltd.com Website www.bemltd.com
2. IRANIAN CYCLISTS TO PEDAL
PARSABAD-BAKU ROUTE An Iranian cycling group from Fajr-e Moghan Club, Ardebil province, is to pedal
the 275-km distance between Parsabad and Baku, announced head of Azerbaijan Physical
Education Dpartment, Monday.
Talking to IRNA, Aydin Mamadov added the group is to start
its tour on January 18, aiming to attend the commemoration ceremony for the Azeri martyrs
of January 20, 1990 to be held in Baku. Acording to him, the Azeri physical education
officials and athletes will welcome the 12-member cycling group in the border town of
Bil-e Savar, Azerbaijan, on January 19. During their four-day stay, the Iranian cyclists
will also visit the tourist attractions and historical sites of Republic of Azerbaijan. On
Jan 20, 1990, the troops of former Soviet Union made an attack on the Azeri demonstrators,
leaving 132 killed and 612 wounded. Source: IRNA
1. RUSSIAN OFFICIALS ARE
DETERMINED TO FOCUS MORE ATTENTION AT THE HEALTH OF THE NATION
The first step will be estimating health status of the population and physical development
of the youth. In particular, annual monitoring will be conducted in the Astrakhan region.
This analysis is expected to reveal original causes of diseases in the population, specify
impacts of environment on human physical status, define factors of negative impact, etc.
All data will be included in special Federal information database. According to obtained
results, experts will be able to predict health status of the citizens, prevent and
eliminate negative factors. This information is open, medical officers intend to inform
the public on the results of examinations and undertaken measures. Source: News Agency AVERS, 9 January, 2002
CEP Comments: 2 projects related to environmental human health ("The Health of
Children in the Astrakhan area: challenges, ways for preservation and improvement",
project leader - Prof. Anver Djumagaziev, and "Rehabilitation/ Establishing 2 Health
Centres in the Astrakhan region", leader - Prof. Dina Nikulina) were approved for
implementation and initiated under Caspian Environment Programme Small Grants Program,
Public Awareness/Public Participation component. Source: PPA Russia
2. A NUMBER OF AMENDMENTS TO THE FEDERAL LAW "ON FISHING
AND CONSERVATION OF AQUATIC BIORESOURCES" will be forwarded to the
Government of Russian Federation by the Astrakhan Region Administration. These amendments
regard primarily the issues related to commercial fishing and licensing activities of
fisheries enterprises.
Deputy Director CaspNIRKh Anatoly Vlasenko informed that Astrakhan scientists made
numerous proposals, among them, the following:
· introduce definition "spawning grounds" into the Law, and
· acknowledge priority in sturgeon fishing for the states where sturgeons' spawning
occur.
Last year, Draft Law on fishing was rejected by the President RF as inconsistent with the
Constitution RF and certain acting federal laws. It neglected interests of RF at the
Caspian; moreover, regional authorities were not empowered to deal with fisheries and
protection of bio-resources. Source: News Agency AVERS, 11 January, 2002
3. MID-JANUARY, 2002, CASPIAN FISHERIES RESEARCH INSTITUTE
(ASTRAKHAN, RUSSIA) HELD ITS ANNUAL SCIENTIFIC SESSION on results of the previous
year. The majority of research was undertaken in the field of bioresources. Data were
collected in the course of 8 expeditions, including 3 cruises to the North Caspian (stock
assessment of sturgeons, shads and semianadromous fish species), 4 - to the Middle and
South Caspian (population status of the Caspian kilkas and distribution of Mnemiopsis) and
1 international cruise with participation of littoral states (stock assessment of
commercial fish species).
In 2001, hydrological conditions in the lower Volga river
were favorable for generating stocks of sturgeons, semianadromous and riverine fish.
Salinity and oxygen conditions in the North Caspian (significant freshening) as well as
development of benthic food items there either contributed to efficient feeding of
commercial fish species in the North Caspian.
In spring, a large-scale natural phenomenon occurred at
the Middle Caspian, which caused anomalous decline of the water temperature, abrupt rising
of deep water layers, increase of pollutants' concentrations, and sharp drop of oxygen
contents at depths 400-100 m. This phenomenon coincided with kilka die-off, and
significant concentrations of toxic substances were identified in the sampled specimens.
Trophic conditions for planktivorous species were strained
due to wide distribution of Mnemiopsis, which spread up to the northern parts of the sea
by the end of the summer. Its maximum abundance was registered in the central and western
regions of the South Caspian.
Distressed status of Caspian sturgeons is still of great
concern. Results of the Caspian marine expedition show that sturgeons' abundance in the
Caspian (exclusive of Iran) remains at the level corresponding to that of the 1999;
decrease of age-weight parameters persists in population trends. Commercial stocks of
sevryuga and Russian sturgeon declined due to illegal harvest of senior age groups. The
number of spawners predicted to enter the rivers in 2002 is at the low level.
Breeding conditions in the year of 2001 were unfavorable
for the Caspian seal, as mild winter had an adverse effect to the pupping period. Low
level of Caspian seal reproduction was registered, and relapse of epidemic diseases may
probably occur.
Summarizing results of the works a number of decisions
were adopted; these were concerned with more precise assessment of the Caspian commercial
bioresources, estimation of marine environmental impacts on bioresources, increased
reliability of TPC (Total Permissible Catches) forecasts. Source: PPA Russia
1. Turkmenistan demolishes
the exit visa
The President of Turkmenistan issued a decree effective January 1, 2002 on exit
requirements for the citizens of the country. According to the new policy there will be no
exit visa required to leave the country only an entry visa to the country of destination
will be required to depart Turkmenistan. Source: Turkmen TV
2. The Mayor of
Turkmenbashy City dismissed The Presidnet of Turkmenistan issued a decree on dismissing Halmamed Durdyev,
Mayor of Turkmenbashy from his post. Source: Turkmen TV
Astrakhan Region Public Council on Ecology
Chairman of the Presidium: Director of KaspNIRKh, Dr. of Biology, Vladimir P. Ivanov
Postal address: KaspNIRKh, 1, Savushkina str., Astrakhan 414056, Russia
Tel.: (8 8512) 25-86-36 (receptionist)
E-mail: kaspiy@astranet.ru
