Environment and Security: Transforming risks into cooperation

Eastern Caspian

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Environment and Security

Geopolitical and energy security considera- tions will continue to influence the way global and regional actors perceive the eastern Cas- pian region in the coming decade. Political stability and security in the larger basin will be of paramount importance for further signifi- cant development of the region. To minimize real or perceived security threats, Caspian Sea states should further develop trust and confidence – building measures that ultimate- ly lead to greater regional cooperation and in- tegration. This in turn would enable states to respond more effectively to new challenges such as the impacts of climate change. The transition from a planned to a market economy has been largely based on the extraction and exportation of hydrocarbon resources. This situation is changing the structure of national economies, the overall importance of coastal areas and the live- lihoods of people living in the region. Al- though both countries have benefited from energy-sector revenue, the development of oil and gas resources also challenges the distribution of associated wealth and ben- efits and strengthens the dependence of the local economy and job markets on this sector. The Kazakh and Turkmen provinces on the Caspian Sea shores all show signs of economic overspecialization. Further Gross Regional Product growth depends largely on the energy sector as agriculture is declining. Fisheries, a traditional source of revenues for riverside and coastal communities, have also been in constant decline since the 1990s. Urban centres have become strategic nodes for services to the energy sector (financial services, transportation, housing, etc.), at- tracting people from rural areas, other parts of the country and abroad. More than half of the region’s population is currently living

in coastal urban areas near the oilfields and mineral deposits, widening the gap between urban centres on the coast and the rural hin- terland. The rapid development of urban cen- tres is often unplanned, creating stark differ- ences within the urban centres themselves, between areas served by recent municipal in- frastructure, and those lacking such services or depending on decaying infrastructure. These developments are also reflected in changes in the wage structure of the east- ern Caspian region. Despite an overall rise in salaries, substantial wage differences persist between the oil-and-gas sector and other sectors, particularly agriculture and fisher- ies. Furthermore, with the decline of fishing and agriculture, employment opportunities are becomingly increasingly scarce in the construction industry and sectors other than energy. Such a situation further increases the differences in living conditions between urban centres and rural areas, where making a living is increasingly difficult. Intensive fishing since 1950s and other factors such as damage to the spawning grounds in the Volga and Ural deltas, dam construction, over-fishing, and increasing poaching and pollution, have caused rapid depletion of fish stocks. Other factors have further contributed to the dramatic drop in fish stocks: invasive species have been competing with the Caspian Sea’s marine fauna leading to a decrease in the avail- ability of food. The catch of sturgeon, the Caspian Sea’s main commercial fish, has steadily declined in recent decades from 16 800 tonnes in 1981, through 8 000 tonnes in 1991, to less than 200 in 2007 leading to a temporary ban on caviar exports imposed in 2001 by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fau-