New Online Portal to Support Protection of the Marine Environment of the Caspian Sea

Siri Olsson

By GRID-Arendal

November 8^th, 2018

On November 8, 2018, the Tehran Convention Interim Secretariat will receive the upgraded and improved Caspian Environment Information Centre portal during a consultative meeting on the Caspian Region and the Tehran Convention in the Europe Office of UN Environment. This online collaborative information sharing platform is developed by GRID-Arendal with the generous support from the British Petroleum Exploration (Caspian Sea) Limited in Baku, Republic of Azerbaijan. Its objective is to provide the Parties to the Tehran Convention with an information sharing tool, making it easier for stakeholders from the Caspian littoral states to collaborate on environmental issues.

A major step forward was made in 2003, when the Tehran Convention was signed as the first legally binding agreement among the Caspian littoral states. The expanding work under the Convention identified the need for a reliable and easy way to exchange information.

Nurgul Tastenbekova, a 23 year old user from Kazakhstan, says:

“The Caspian Environmental Information Centre is a portal that is a kind of library where you can find information related to Caspian environment, biodiversity, monitoring, the economic potential of the region, etc. The portal also contains information on activities carried out in the Caspian littoral countries. The portal is very convenient to use and well thought out. One of the features of the portal is that it provides a platform for discussing issues related to the issues of the Caspian Sea with stakeholders from all five Caspian countries.”

New Online Portal to Support Protection of the Marine Environment of the Caspian Sea

Portal features

The portal contains several different functions that enable easy access to information about the environment of the Caspian Sea. Stakeholders such as governments, administrators, academia, private companies and NGOs can become users and join different groups, contributing to public and private information sharing. It has been pivotal in the ongoing process of preparing the Second State of the Environment Report for the Caspian Sea. Even for the casual viewer, the site gives access to a wide range of information provided in the collections of documents, news, events, forum discussions and maps.

The current portal is the result of the second phase of the Caspian Environment Information Centre (CEIC) project supported by BP. The previous phase included the first CEIC portal created in 2012, based on the Tehran Convention calling for the development of a centralized database and information management system.

Supporting SDG implementation

The portal is contributing to the achievement of several of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly number 17 “Partnerships for the goals” and 16 “Peace, justice and strong institutions”. The portal itself provides the Caspian countries with a technological means for regional cooperation and information sharing, promoting policy and institutional coherence. Furthermore, by encouraging private, public and civil society engagement on the platform, it contributes to increased openness and public awareness on environmental issues in the Caspian region. The portal ensures inclusive and participatory knowledge creation, aimed at informing decision-makers, scientists and civil society stakeholders. Ultimately, this will contribute to achieving goal 14 “Life below water” by supporting sustainable use and conservation of the sea and its marine resources.

For more information, please contact Mateusz Benko (mateusz.benko@un.org).

The Tehran Convention interim Secretariat (TCIS) is located within UN Environment’s Europe Office in Geneva, Switzerland. The Secretariat supports the Conference of the Parties and the implementation of the Tehran Convention in organizational, administrative and technical matters.

GRID-Arendal is a centre collaborating with UN Environment, which provides support to monitoring, assessment, reporting, information exchange, back-up networking and research, and environmental management and administration related work.