The Caspian Sea is facing an escalated environmental crisis, driven by the rapid decline in its water levels. Climate change (rising temperatures and declining river inflows) has caused the water level in the Caspian Sea to fall by almost two and a half metres since 2006. Governments and corporations are increasing pollution levels in the Caspian Sea by expanding offshore oil and gas extraction operations and increasing maritime freight transport.
The Caspian Sea is shrinking and dying! The consequences are already being felt across all five Caspian littoral states (Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Turkmenistan). Sturgeon are no longer a symbol of the Caspian Sea; a moratorium on their commercial fishing has been in place since 2014, and commercial fishing is fading into history. The mass deaths of the unique Caspian seals have sadly become a regular occurrence. Around 2,000 carcasses of dead seals were discovered in 2024 on the Kazakh coast alone, and in 2026, this tragedy is repeating itself.
12 August is the International Day of the Caspian Sea. Twenty years ago, on this date, the Framework Convention on the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Caspian Sea (the Tehran Convention) entered into force. This environmental agreement was presented to local communities as a reliable international instrument for the conservation and sustainable development of the Caspian Sea.
Two decades have passed, yet the implementation of the Tehran Convention remains far behind what is needed to address the Caspian Sea's growing environmental crisis. This is unacceptable and cannot continue this way. The ambitious promises made at the time the Tehran Convention was drafted have not even led to basic steps towards its implementation. In this anniversary year, a permanent secretariat has still not been established; and the Convention's website is not up and running. The steady decline in water levels over several decades is being masked by the bureaucratic wording of the Tehran Convention regarding fluctuations in the level of the Caspian Sea.
We do not have another 10–20 years or a spare Caspian Sea to remain idle. Sign this petition and call on the governments of Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan to take real and immediate action to implement the Tehran Convention to preserve the Caspian Sea!
