The Tehran Convention, the Framework Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Caspian Sea, is a regional environmental agreement concluded in 2003 by the five Caspian littoral states: Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, the Russian Federation, and Turkmenistan. Established under the Convention and funded by the contributions of its Contracting Parties, the Secretariat operates on an interim basis from UNEP in Geneva, without enforcement powers and without a permanent host in the Caspian region. Despite these structural constraints, the Convention framework remains operational, with protocols ratified, action plans under development, and sustained participation from all five states.
This report, based on a five-month internship placement at the Tehran Convention Secretariat from September 2025 to February 2026, examines how the Secretariat advances environmental governance under these conditions. The central research question is: under what conditions does secretariat diplomacy enable transboundary environmental progress in the absence of enforcement capacity, and what does the Tehran Convention's experience reveal about consensus-based governance in politically heterogeneous regions?
The report draws on two methodologies: participant observation across three regional meetings in Almaty, Kazakhstan in November and December 2025, and documentary analysis of official preparatory and procedural materials, triangulated within a single case study design. An analytical framework of functionalist orchestration, combining theories of secretariat autonomy, external financing, and adaptive data governance, is used to interpret the findings.
Four findings are presented. First, the Secretariat governs primarily through technical framing and convening rather than legal authority. Second, data harmonisation remains the central structural constraint on governance capacity. Third, the Convention's flexibility-over-enforcement approach has sustained engagement but produced a persistent gap between formal commitments and domestic implementation. Fourth, the professional networks formed through repeated intergovernmental meetings constitute a significant and durable component of the governance architecture.
The report situates these findings within the Convention's environmental context, including a Caspian Sea level decline of approximately three metres since 1995, and its alignment with SDGs 13, 14, 16, and 17. Practical recommendations are offered for the Secretariat ahead of COP7, scheduled for Iran in 2026.
