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THE CASPIAN ENVIRONMENT PROGRAMME IS STRENGTHENING ITS PUBLIC AWARENESS AND INVOLVEMENT COMPONENT

The Caspian Environment Programme (CEP) is a regional umbrella programme that encompasses all Caspian States and numerous international agencies, including The World Bank, UNEP, UNDP, the European Union/TACIS (EU/TACIS), and many others. The Caspian Environment Programme (CEP) was developed as a comprehensive response to the key environmental problems facing the region. The overall goal of the CEP is: "Environmentally sustainable development and management of the Caspian environment". The CEP encompasses all five Caspian States: Azerbaijan, I.R.Iran, Kazakhstan, Russian Federation and Turkmenistan. The CEP's Programme Co-ordination Unit is currently located in Baku, Azerbaijan.

At the present time CEP is strengthening its Public Awareness and Involvement component with the purpose of familiarising and involve the public in five countries to the Programme. The CEP's Public Awareness and Involvement component is aimed at obtaining broad-based participation of the general public, private sector associations, academic and research institutions, local and regional government, NGOs, teacher associations and local community groups in the development of National Caspian Action Programme, Strategic Action Programme planning process. The main idea is to develop co-operation between the aforesaid stakeholders for the preservation and renewal of environmental well-being of the Caspian Basin, including living resources and water quality, so as to obtain long-term benefits for the human populations of the region.

In this regard CEP is inviting an international consultant, Sylvie Goyet, to visit Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan in September and later the other three countries, to develop a Work Plan for CEP's Public Awareness and Involvement component and meet with the programme's main stakeholders and key local public and private sector representatives. In Baku, Azerbaijan Sylvie Goyet will meet with UNDP, EU-Tacis, Forum of local NGOs and the Azeri Confederation of Entrepreneurs. The Work Plan pertains to a programme of increasing public awareness and involvement in five Caspian littoral countries about the problems of the Caspian Sea, its ecological integrity and its environmentally sustainable development and management