Adoption of the draft law will make it possible to create a legal framework to regulate the catching of sturgeon and other marine biological resources in the Caspian Sea.
Reference
The draft federal law On the Ratification of the Agreement on the Conservation and Rational Use of Marine Biological Resources of the Caspian Sea (hereinafter, draft law) was submitted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Agriculture.
At present, cooperation between the Caspian states in the conservation and rational use of marine biological resources of the Caspian Sea is based on the Protocol of the Meeting of Official Representatives of the Caspian States of 23 December 1992, which served as the foundation for the establishment of the Interagency Commission on the Marine Biological Resources of the Caspian Sea.
This Commission is the only functional mechanism for the management of marine biological resources of the Caspian Sea. Its decisions are enforced at the level of corresponding fisheries control authorities.
On 29 September 2014, in Astrakhan, representatives of Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan signed the Agreement on the Conservation and Rational Use of Marine Biological Resources of the Caspian Sea (hereinafter, agreement).
To ensure the implementation of the Agreement, a commission on the conservation and rational use of shared marine biological resources and their management (hereinafter, Commission) shall be established.
The Commission shall have the authority to:
- coordinate activities to ensure the conservation, reproduction, and rational use of shared marine biological resources;
- establish annual catch limits on shared marine biological resources and distribute them by national quotas;
- establish criteria for the distribution of catch limits on shared marine biological resources by national quotas;
- regulate the catching and conservation of shared marine biological resources by limiting commercial fishing;
- establish fishing regulations regarding shared marine biological resources; and
- establish export quotas on the fishing of sturgeon and products thereof.
The Agreement empowers the Commission to make decisions binding on the state signatories to the Agreement. Therefore, the Agreement is subject to ratification pursuant to Article 15 of the federal law On International Treaties of the Russian Federation.
Adoption of the draft law will make it possible to create a legal framework to regulate the catching of sturgeon and other marine biological resources in the Caspian Sea.
The draft law was considered and approved at a meeting
of the Russian Government on 28 May 2015.