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The Caspian Sea is the largest completely enclosed body of salt water in the world and constitutes a particularly fragile ecosystem. It contains great fishery resources, including 90% of the world’s stock of sturgeon, as well as vast oil and gas deposits in the subsoil. It is crossed by important transportation routes connecting Europe and Central Asia. For much of the twentieth century it was within the exclusive domain of Iran and the USSR, with the latter enjoying naval dominance. With the collapse of the Soviet Union the geopolitical situation in the region changed significantly. Instead of two, there are currently five riparian states – Russia, Iran, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan – each filing differing legal claims.

This Regional Water Quality Monitoring Programme has been developed as part of the project “Caspian Water Quality Monitoring and Action Plan for Areas of Pollution Concern’s (Caspian MAP)”. This project has been financed by the Tacis Programme of the European Union (EU) which amongst others promotes regional co-operation on environmental protection. On of the main objectives of the Caspian MAP is to support the Caspian Environment Programme (CEP), which is a partnership between the five littoral states - Azerbaijan, Islamic Republic of Iran, Kazakhstan, Russian Federation and Turkmenistan, and International Partners like EU, UNDP, UNEP, and the World Bank. The CEP's mission is to assist the Caspian littoral states to achieve the goal of environmentally sustainable development and management of the Caspian environment for the sake of long-term benefit for the Caspian inhabitants.

The Regional Pollution Action Plan for the Caspian Sea (RPAP), has been prepared as part of the project “Caspian Water Quality Monitoring and Action Plan for Areas of Pollution Concern’s (hereafter: Caspian MAP)”. The project is financed by the Tacis Programme of the European Union (EU), which has as one of its objectives the promotion of regional co-operation on environmental protection. The overall objective of the Caspian MAP is to achieve improved quality of the marine and coastal environment of the Caspian Sea. In particular, the RPAP (current Report) provides recommendations to regional strategies for pollution reduction, with a focus on the identified Areas of Pollution Concern. The Caspian MAP also developed a proposal for a Regional Water Quality Monitoring Program.