Каспинфо
август 2000

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Название: Материалы на английском
Главные Пункты:
* Пресс-релиз о семинаре <Разработка принципов взаимоотношений неправительственных организаций с транснациональными корпорациями в Каспийском регионе>, который состоится 10-12 сентября 2000 г. в Алмате.
* Результаты аудита Каспийской экологической программы (CSEP) за 1997-2000 гг.
(15.08.2000)

Полный Текст
Материалы на английском
PRESS RELEASE


ISAR Seminar to Develop Principles for Interaction between NGOs and TNCs


ISAR: Initiative for Social Action and Renewal in Eurasia will hold a seminar
bringing together representatives of environmental nongovernmental organizations
(NGOs) from around the Caspian Basin in Almaty, Kazakhstan on September 10-12.
The seminar, "Developing Principles for Interaction between NGOs
and Transnational Corporations (TNCs) in the Caspian Region," is jointly
organized by ISAR and Green Salvation, an environmental NGO based in Almaty.

Designed as a response to NGO concerns about the increasing presence of TNCs
throughout the Caspian Basin, the seminar will provide NGOs with an opportunity
to share experience and knowledge about effective collaboration among NGOs in
regions where the activities of TNCs have a significant influence on the
environment. The seminar will also provide NGOs with the information, tools
and opportunity to enable them to develop their own strategy for interacting
with TNCs in the Caspian Basin.

NGO leaders from Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan
will take part in the seminar. Representatives from FSU and US organizations
with experience working with TNCs will present case studies and discuss these
experiences with seminar participants. Representatives of TNCs have been invited
to a roundtable session on the final day, providing a forum for open discussion
between TNC and NGO representatives on ways to work together productively,
share information and communicate about issues of joint interest and concern.
Information on the results of the seminar will be released to the public
following the meeting.

The seminar is the second in a series of four seminars taking place through
ISAR's Caspian Program. The first seminar held in Baku, Azerbaijan this March
resulted in the creation of a monitoring network and the adoption of a plan of
action for an integrated, international program of public monitoring in the
region. The remaining seminars, scheduled for 2001, will address alternative
paths of development for the Caspian region and the legal status of the Caspian.

ISAR's Caspian Program is funded by the United States Agency for International
Development, the Open Society Institute, the Trust for Mutual Understanding
and the Academy for Educational Development.

For more information, please contact:
Kate Watters
ISAR-Washington, DC
Tel: (202) 387-3034
E-mail: kwatters@isar.org


*******


3.3 The "Caspian Sea" programme
(Extract from Evaluation of the Tacis Interstate Programme in Environment, 2000)

The ecological threats to the Caspian Sea from oil exploration and transport are
enormous and growing.

3.3.1 Introduction
The problem. The Caspian Sea is seriously threatened by pollution. It
is a multi-national problem and the Volga contributes considerably to
the pollution load of especially nutrients. Much of the coast is
considered to be moderately polluted, but parts of the Caspian
adjacent to Azerbaijan are extremely polluted, particularly Baku Bay
and the waters of Sumgayit.

Regional initiatives. Although the Caspian littoral states and FSU
have been involved for many years in scientific investigation of the
environmental problems of the Caspian Sea, there have been few
positive actions to ameliorate the degradation of the region's
environment. The lack of any formal regional framework within which to
determine and carry out positive actions is currently hampering
efforts. Agreement is further hampered by the presence of large oil
reserves below the sea, and the disputes over the status of the
Caspian as a sea or lake, which will affect ownership of the
resources. However, in 1994 a Regional Committee for the Rational
Exploitation and Conservation of the Biological Resources of the
Caspian (the Regional Committee) was established.

International donor support. Shortly afterwards, in April 1995,
agreements were reached between the Caspian littoral states and a
joint World Bank and United Nations mission, which defined a first
phase of a Caspian Sea Environment Programme (CSEP). A meeting held in
Istanbul in May 1997 introduced the Tacis project and the potential
Global Environmental Facility (GEF) project to the riparian countries.
Since then UNDP has been preparing the GEF project, which was supposed
to run in parallel to the Tacis project to form a complete Caspian
Environment Programme. This Tacis project is financed within the
framework of the European Union's Tacis inter-state environmental
action programme, and is based on the initial CSEP agreements.

Strategy and action plan. The 1st phase of the Caspian Sea Environment
Programmme CSEP has the objective to promote sustainable development
and management. The specific objectives have been defined as:
1 To foster the collaborative spirit between the countries in the
region, which has weakened in recent years, as a result of the
collapse of the USSR and the relative isolation of the Islamic
Republic of Iran;
2 To reinforce institutional capacity, strengthen national, regional,
and local environment agencies, improve pollution monitoring
capabilities, establish networks for regional emergency response
contingency planning, and public awareness;
3 To develop common approaches to national environmental reviews,
status and trends reports, the preparation of legislation and
harmonisation of standards, strategies for the conservation of natural
resources and the coastal zone management. This should be encouraged
through the preparation of a Caspian Sea environmental priorities
study, which will be a comprehensive and short to medium-term analysis
of necessary investment and other actions; and
4 To define on the basis of this study urgent investment possibilities
and implement feasibility studies on these investment possibilities

An important element in the strategy is to get international agreement
on a Framework Convention for the marine environment of the Caspian.
Since 1995, the UNDP has been working towards this goal.
3.3.2 The Tacis support
The Tacis project and the UNDP/GEF project have similar aims and
modalities, and they are intended to form two complementary components
of the Caspian Sea Environment Programme (CSEP). Work on preparation
of the CSEP was initiated by UNDP under its project development
facility stage (PDF). However, preparation of the GEF component was
considerably delayed and is expected to be in full swing only after
completion of the current Tacis contract in the beginning of 2000.
This delay caused the project to suffer considerably in its
effectiveness and efficiency.

Due to the above mentioned delays with the GEF component, the main
expected results from the Tacis project, set out in the TOR presented
presented in May 1997 in Instanbul, were amended, and down tuned after
the inception phase of the project as follows:
¬ Establishment of the Programme co-ordinating unit (PCU);
¬ Establishment of four thematic centres (dealing with
desertification, sea level fluctuation, fisheries, data gathering);
¬ Work towards the preparation of the Strategic Action Plan (rather
than a prepared Strategic Action Plan);
¬ Work towards the preparation of an urgent investment portfolio
(rather than a prepared urgent investment portfolio).

The following organisations/institutions take part in the project:
Institute for Fisheries (Astrakhan), Caspian Sea Inspectorate (Baku),
Caspian Institute for data information and management (Baku),
KazNIIMOSK (Almaty), Institute for Desert Flora and Fauna (Ashkhabad),
Ministries/Committees for the Environment in five countries of the
Caspian Sea, and the PCU.

The conclusions, learned and recommendations presented below are based
on file and dossier studies, background papers prepared by NIS experts
for this evaluation and interviews by the evaluation team with some 20
representatives of different stakeholders in Moscow, Baku and Almaty.
3.3.3 Conclusions
Relevance
The Caspian Sea Environment Programme is the single biggest
environmental project in the region. Unlike the Aral Sea crisis, the
environmental problems are severe, but the solutions seem to be more
manageable. In terms of EU environmental policy the programme is very
relevant.

Effectiveness and efficiency
The effectiveness of the interventions appear to have been quite
limited so far. Because of co-ordination problems between the donors
in the Programme, the initially defined outputs in the programme will
not be reached at the end of the project. The fact that the UNDP
contribution in the programme started very late was the principal
cause for the downgrading of the initial expected outputs from
"submitting a Strategic Action Plan and Project Investment Programme"
to "working towards the SAP and PIP".

The project is implemented well by the contractor and the "revised
workplan" is likely to be implemented as planned.

A serious problem is the lack of (reliable) data and poor exchange of
data. This prevents making a proper inventory of problems.

The maximum fee level for NIS experts applied for Tacis contracts has
been mentioned as a barrier for utilising top national experts on the
project team , thus lowering efficiency.

Impact of the Tacis assistance:
The Tacis assistance can be credited with two positive developments:
¬ Countries and relevant institutions involved are talking again and
mistrust between them is reducing;
¬ For the first time, environmental issues of the Caspian Sea are
being tackled in an integrated way and in a joint effort.

Project cycle management
The project cycle management from the side of the Commission is
considered to be inadequate.
¬ Contracting procedures are slow and the long periods in contracting
and revision of contracts seriously hamper the efficiency in project
progress.
¬ The Commission does not show clear leadership in this project, and
the Commission services (Task Manager) have insufficient capacity to
adequately respond to project implementation problems.

These and other weaknesses in the project management capacity of the
Commission are raised in progress reports, monitoring reports and are
mentioned by almost all parties interviewed. A telling sign for the
inadequate communication between the Commission, the Contractor and
the Tacis monitors is the disagreement between the contractor and the
monitoring team on a formal issue i.e. should the monitors take the
original objectives and planned outputs of the TOR, or should they
take the inception phase workplan as the target setting framework for
monitoring project implementation and progress?

Lessons learned
¬ There is to limited involvement of -and poor communication between
-other relevant line Ministries at the on-set of the Programme
(especially in relation to the Convention of the Caspian Sea).
Internal communication (within institutions involved) needs
considerable improvement;
¬ Geo-political/economical discussions and interests hamper the
drafting of common environmental action (Caspian Environmental
Convention still not completed and agreed upon);
¬ Environmental issues are low on the political agenda of the litoral
countries of the Caspian Sea. The aimed for framework convention needs
agreement on clean methods of oil exploration, and shipping. the Gurev
nuclear power plant, the Volga river pollution, coastal management
etc. Given the fact that these are the drivers of the economy of the
litoral states, it may prove very difficult to get agreement on an
environment convention. More difficult then in the Black Sea where
tourism and fishing are two strong win-win sectors.
3.3.4 Recommendations
On-going Tacis support for the CSEP is fully justified. The project is
implemented well, and has high visibility. At this stage in time, the
Tacis project and the other international assistance programmes are
the only guarantee that the Caspian environment will (at least
somehow) remain on the political agenda of the countries involved.

Any further follow-up activity will need to anticipate on the
identified institutional difficulties and stress the importance of
drafting a high quality SAP, which is to be agreed upon by all
relevant institutions and littoral states. The process of drafting
this SAP would need to systematically involve the research
institutions currently involved in the thematic centres, the
international oil industry, NGOs the littoral Governments and the
international donor community, in order to raise its acceptability.

Integration of the Volga river into the Caspian Strategic Action Plan
is desirable and needs serious consideration in TIPE programming.