Ramsar CEP Conference May 1998
Natural deserts mainly on the eastern side of the Sea determine the Caspian Environment.
Due to some human activities a further degradation of vegetation and soils is ongoing.
The Caspian littoral countries therefore at the 1998
Ramsar Conference as the starting point of the Caspian Environment Programme decided to
establish a Caspian Centre for Combating Desertification in Ashgabad (Turkmenistan). The
Caspian Centre for Combating Desertification started the work in June 1998.
Objectives
The objectives of the Centre are to prepare outcomes, recommendations and further
technical assistance for the Caspian Strategic Environmental Action Plan in terms of
desertification. This includes the following works in all five littoral countries
- Assessment and mapping of desertification phenomena
- Research of Desertification Hot Spot areas
- Causal analysis of current desertification
- Further desertification and risk forecast
- Socio-economic implications
- Institutional, legal, technical needs.
- Development of Combating Desertification Measures
An overall goal of the Centre is to improve the capacity
building of human resources in the field of desertification. Desertification in the past
has not been considered an important environmental threat. Thus the development of national teams
dealing with modern comprehensive desertification assessment is the main issue.
Caspian Desertification
Group
Since 1998 a desertification group around the Caspian Sea is functioning. This
group is lead by the Caspian Centre for Combating Desertification. Our partners are
scientists and consultants working at the
- Institute Geography Baku (Azerbaijan)
- Institute Geography Almaty (Kazakhstan)
- Arid Land Centre Elista (Kalmykhia, Russia)
- Range and Forest Organisation Tehran (Islamic Republic of Iran)
Centre in Ashgabad
Hosting institution is the National Institute for Desert, Flora and Fauna at the Ministry
for Nature Protection Turkmenistan in Ashgabad.
Centre heads are Prof. Dr. Frank Schrader (Germany) as EU
Tacis Centre Leader and Prof. Dr. Aman Babaev (Turkmenistan) as Local Technical
Coordinator.
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