Sustainable development:
the interrelation of the natural and socio-economic
issues in Caspian Sea
Hafiza İmanova ,
ANAS İnstitute of Philosophy Research Assistant
Key words: sustainable development, Caspian Sea, sea level, fisheries, environmental
management.
Introduction
Sustainable development is the organizing principle for meeting human
development goals while at the same time sustaining the ability of natural systems to provide
the natural resources and ecosystem services upon which the economy and society depend.
The desired result is a state of society where living conditions and resource use continue to
meet human needs without undermining the integrity and stability of the natural system.
Sustainable development can be classified as development that meet the needs of the present
without compromising the ability of future generations.
As the concept developed, it has shifted to focus more on economic
development, social development and environmental protection for future generations.
Today Caspian Sea is one of the main issues of the world.
The Caspian Sea, called the jewel of two continents, Asia and Europe, is the world's
largest inland body of water, encompassing some 44 percent of the volume of all inland lakes
and seas. Five countries share the immense natural heritage of the Caspian Sea. The Caspian
Sea is exceptional by many standards. Moreover it is a closed lake with very large variations in
its water level because of natural oscillations of the components that make up the water
balance. The variations in the water level have had a strong influence on most aspects of
economic life. This has been particularly so during the past few decades.
The largest river of Europe, the Volga, plays the principal role in the hydrological
regime of the Sea. In addition to water, it also brings, as do other rivers that flow into the
Caspian, a considerable amount of pollutants, which influence the aquatic ecosystems
including the unique population of the few species of sturgeon. The Sea and its shores are rich
with mineral resources, including oil, but prospecting and extraction also require effective
environmental management.
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The objective of this article is to analyse the interrelation of the natural and socio-
economic issues for the sake of regional sustainable development in a very special region of
the world.
Environmental Challenges
The biodiversity of the Caspian aquatic environment is derived from the long history
of the existence of the sea and its isolation, allowing ample conditions for speciation. The
number of endemic aquatic taxa, over 400, is very impressive. There are 115 species of fish, of
which a number are anadromous and migrate from the Caspian up the rivers to spawn. The
best known of these is the sturgeon, which has provided a valuable economic resource for
over a century. There is also a Caspian freshwater seal, one of only two species that occur
worldwide.
A conventional idea of a sustainable fishery is that it is one that is harvested at a
sustainable rate, where the fish population does not decline over time because of fishing
practices. Sustainability in fisheries combines theoretical disciplines, such as the
population
dynamics of fisheries
, with practical strategies, such as avoiding
overfishing
through
techniques such as
individual fisheries quota
curtailing
destructive
and illegal
fishing
practices
by lobbying for appropriate law and policy, setting up protected areas,
restoring collapsed fisheries, incorporating all externalities involved in harvesting marine
ecosystems into fishery economics, educating stakeholders and the wider public, and
developing independent certification programs.
Fisheries and aquaculture are, directly or indirectly, a source of livelihood for over
500 million people, mostly in developing countries.
(2)
Social sustainability can conflict with biodiversity. A fishery is socially sustainable if the
fishery ecosystem maintains the ability to deliver products the society can use. Major species
shifts within the ecosystem could be acceptable as long as the flow of such products
continues.
(1)
Humans have been operating such regimes for thousands of years, transforming
many ecosystems, depleting or driving to extinction many species.
(3)
"To a great extent,
sustainability is like good art, it is hard to describe but we know it when we see it."(1)
According to Hilborn, the "loss of some species, and indeed transformation of the
ecosystem is not incompatible with sustainable harvests."
(1)
For example, in recent years,
barndoor skates have been caught as bycatch in the western Atlantic. Their numbers have
severely declined and they will probably go extinct if these catch rates continue.(13) Even if
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the barndoor skate goes extinct, changing the ecosystem, there could still be sustainable
fishing of other commercial species.
(1)
Overfishing can be sustainable. According to Hilborn, overfishing can be "a
misallocation of societies' resources", but it does not necessarily threaten conservation or
sustainability".
(1) Overfishing
is traditionally defined as harvesting so many fish that the yield
is less than it would be if fishing were reduced.
(1)
On the other hand, overfishing can precede
severe stock depletion and fishery collapse. Hilborn points out that continuing to exert fishing
pressure while production decreases, stock collapses and the fishery fails, is largely "the
product of institutional failure."
(1)
Today over 70% of fish species are either fully exploited, overexploited, depleted,
or recovering from depletion. If overfishing does not decrease, it is predicted that stocks of all
species currently commercially fished for will collapse by 2048.
(4)
Rising ocean temperatures and ocean acidification are radically altering
aquatic
ecosystems
. Climate change is modifying fish distribution
and the productivity of marine and
freshwater species. This reduces sustainable catch levels across many habitats, puts pressure
on resources needed for
aquaculture
, on the communities that depend on fisheries, and on
the oceans' ability to capture and store carbon.
Sea level rise
puts coastal
fishing communities
at risk, while changing rainfall patterns and water use impact on inland (freshwater) fisheries
and aquaculture.
The situation of oscillations in the level of the Caspian Sea is typical of closed
lakes. It is typical not only from the hydrometeorological point of view, but from the point of
view of economic impacts as well. The variations in sealevel cause uncertainty over time in
economic activities. The interest groups involved, including governments, have to develop a
long-term strategy for the management of the region. Thus, it is important to determine the
expected upper and lower extremes with a reasonable probability of occurrence.
Owing to the relatively rapid rise in sealevel, the Caspian coastline is currently in a
state of transition. In general, the change from the retreating phase of the Caspian to the
advancing phase has led to a transition from predominantly accumulating processes along the
shore to a prevalence of abrasion processes. On formerly accumulating shores, erosion
processes have begun and continue in many places.
This brief review of the damage associated with the rise in the level of the Caspian
Sea brings us to a very important conclusion: stabilization of the level of the Caspian Sea is in
the interests of all countries surrounding the sea. This might provide a basis for international
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