EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Preamble
The Republic of Azerbaijan’s Fifth National Report to the Convention on Biological Diversity
has been prepared in accordance with Article 26 of the Convention and COP decision X/10 of
the Convention, whereby parties are required to submit their fifth national reports by 30 March
2014. The structure of the report is based on the Guidelines for the Fifth National Report
published by the Convention. The report was prepared by the Ministry of Ecology and Natural
Resources (MENR), with the financial and technical support of the GEF and UNDP.
In line with the Guidelines for the Fifth National Report, the report emphasises synthesis and
analysis rather than detailed description, and does not repeat content that was already covered
in Azerbaijan’s Fourth National Report.
Status of Azerbaijan’s biodiversity
The Republic of Azerbaijan is situated at the juncture of several bio-geographical areas - the
Eastern Palearctic, Turan, the Mediterranean, Asia Minor, and the Middle East - and contains
species of European, Central Asian and Mediterranean origin. The country forms an integral
part of the Caucasus Ecoregion, a region with exceptional levels of biodiversity. Azerbaijan
also shares the largest inland body of water in the world, the Caspian Sea, with four other
countries (Russia, Iran, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan). The biological diversity of the Caspian
Sea and its coastal zone makes the region particularly significant.
Azerbaijan can be divided into the following five broad ecosystem complexes, all of which
contribute to the high levels of biodiversity represented in the country:
-
Forest ecosystems;
-
Freshwater, wetland and swamp ecosystems;
-
Grassland and semi-desert ecosystems;
-
High mountain ecosystems; and
-
Marine and coastal ecosystems.
In 2012, a revised and updated edition of the Ecoregion Plan for the Caucasus identified and
delineated the key Priority Conservation Areas, and associated wildlife corridors, in four
priority biomes – forest; freshwater and wetland; coastal and marine; and high mountain - for
the ecoregion, including the entire territory of Azerbaijan. These PCAs provide a spatial focus
for
the
implementation
of
conservation
measures,
including:
land-use
zoning;
establishment/expansion of protected areas; creation of wildlife corridors; improved monitoring
and enforcement; and targeting mainstreaming activities in Azerbaijan.
The National Caspian Action Plan (NCAP) identifies the key marine and coastal habitats
requiring focused conservation actions in Azerbaijan’s territorial waters of the Caspian Sea.
Limited institutional capacities in the mapping and classifying of ecosystems and habitats, as
well as in the development of thresholds to assess their threat status, means that is it not yet
possible to objectively report on ecosystem and habitat trends in Azerbaijan. The MENR is
however, with the support of the Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit
(GIZ), developing a National Biodiversity Monitoring System (NBMS) for Azerbaijan. The
first version of the NBMS (2013) defines 20 pressure, state and response indicators, of which
15 are considered as priority indicators for the country.
In August 2013, the 2nd edition of the Red book of Azerbaijan was published. The Red Book
contains updated information on the status of rare, threatened and endangered wild plant and
animal species for the entire territory of the country, including Azerbaijan's sector of the
Caspian Sea. The current version of the Red Book lists 338 species of higher plants, 12 species
of fungi, 23 species of lower plants and 223 species of fauna (including 74 insect species, 6
amphibian species, 14 reptile species, 9 fish species, 72 bird species and 42 mammal species).
This represents a significant increase in the number of rare, threatened and endangered species
that were recorded in the 1
st
edition of the ‘Red Book of Azerbaijan’ (1989) - 108 animal
species and 140 plant species – although this, may in part, be attributed to an improvement in
the research and monitoring capacity of the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences
(ANAS).
In 2011, the Secretariat of the Framework Convention for the Protection of the Marine
Environment of the Caspian Sea published the
Caspian Sea: State of Environment report. The
report highlights the main trends in the marine and coastal environment of the Caspian Sea. It
provides a gap analysis, showing the needs and requirements of the countries, individually and
collectively, in the areas of monitoring, information collection and management related to
policy, decision-making and implementation of the Tehran Convention and its Protocols.
Key pressures on Azerbaijan’s biodiversity include:
(i)
Land degradation: extensive salinization; widespread soil erosion; weak regulation of
building and construction activities; and pervasive use of fertilizers, pesticides, and
herbicides.
(ii)
Habitat fragmentation: harvesting of timber; conversion of grasslands for agriculture;
damming of rivers; expanding the network of irrigation channels in steppe ecosystems;
and outbreak of wildfires.
(iii)
Unsustainable levels of natural resource use: overgrazing in
grasslands and semi-arid
areas; hunting of wild birds and game species; over-fishing of sturgeon and other
commercial fish species; and poorly maintained water distribution systems.
(iv)
Pollution: limited infrastructure and capacity for effective waste management; weak
storage capacity for hazardous wastes; residual oil pollution; incoming municipal,
industrial and agricultural wastes from trans-boundary rivers.
(v)
Invasive species: marine and terrestrial spread
(vi)
Climate change: weak adaptation and mitigation capacities
The root causes of environmental degradation in Azerbaijan lie in four main areas. First, while
the collapse of Soviet rule in 1991 was liberating, it also left much of the population poorer
than before and without the free basic services (e.g. housing, electricity, water, gas) that were
previously provided under the Soviet regime. Second, the continuing hostile conflict between
Azerbaijan and Armenia over the Armenian occupation of the territory of Daghlig-Garabagh
(Nagorno Karabakh) and surrounding areas has resulted in hundreds of thousands of refugees
living as internally displaced persons. Third, while Azerbaijan’s petrochemical resources
provide a driving force for its economy and is a major source of worldwide oil reserves, the
environment has suffered from contamination as a result of oil production and transport.
Fourth, following Soviet rule, markets (that were previously available in the Soviet Union) for
agricultural and other service products diminished, driving more people into poverty.
Individual species, habitats, ecosystems and ecosystem processes have thus suffered as a result
of a combination of these various factors. It is only over the last few years that the Azerbaijan
Government has successfully initiated efforts to redress these socio-environmental legacies.