The Caspian Basin and the Caspian Environment Programme Essay -- Natur

The Caspian Basin and the Caspian Environment Programme The Caspian Basin is a unique ecosystem, the largest inland body of water in the world; and yet its importance in global politics is much more linked to its wealth of natural resources of oil and gas, rather than to any intrinsic environmental worth. This paper will analyse the policy process concerning a regional international regime, the Caspian Environment Programme (CEP). This organisation was initiated by major external donor actors, including the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), and the World Bank, yet intimately involves the five littoral states of the Caspian: the four ex-republics of the Former Soviet Union (FSU) – Russia, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan – as well as the Islamic Republic of Iran. When considering the area of policy process analysis, it is essential to remember the complexity involved, but most importantly, that the various elements, whether the actors, institutions, or the instru ments involved, are all influenced and shaped by how the process has developed before. It is this interaction of change, a product of policy feedback and learning, together with continuity, which informs the policy process. While the CEP is a new organisation (officially established from mid-1998), it is heavily influenced by the inputs of the aforementioned donor agencies, which are operating within institutional constraints and a contextual process. In addition, when analysing the efforts to safeguard the ecological and environmental aspects of the Caspian, there is the problem of common pool resources, where there is every incentive to exploit the natural resource wealth, while taking little responsibil... ...g/unep/section2.htm UNDP: http://www.caspianenvironment.org/undp.htm World Bank: http://www.caspianenvironment.org/wb.htm Saiko, T. A. and Zonn, I. S. (1996). "Europe’s First Desert." In Glantz, M. H. and Zonn, I. S. (eds.) Scientific, Environmental, and Political Issues in the Circum-Caspian Region. (pp.141-144) Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers. Sievers, E. W. (2001). "The Caspian, Regional Seas, and the Case for a Cultural Study of Law." Georgetown International Environmental Law Review, 13, pp.361-. State Dept on-line sources: http://usinfo.state.gov/regional/nea/mena/caspdip.htm#9 Vinogradov, S. V. (1996). "Toward Regional Cooperation in the Caspian: A Legal Perspective." In Glantz, M. H. and Zonn, I. S. (eds.) Scientific, Environmental, and Political Issues in the Circum-Caspian Region. (pp.53-66) Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.