The Causes of Deforestation in the South Caucasus
Deforestation is one of the most tentative environmental problems since the decrease of forests leads to ecosystem imbalance and species extinction. The policies and the exhaustive economic routes employed during the Soviet rule in the South Caucasus had a long-term impact on deforestation. Firstly, the economic collapse that resulted from the disintegration of the Soviet Union intensified the use of forests as a primary resource for exportation. Moreover, due to financial problems, the reforestation efforts during and after the Soviet period were insufficient (Meyer, 2010). Thus, the economic challenges of the post-Soviet era have significantly impacted the deforestation problem in the South Caucasus.
Secondly, the early economic management policies used in the Soviet Union in the 1920-1950s shifted South Caucasus to industrialization, focusing on natural resource extraction. According to Sayadyan and Moreno-Sanchez (2006), “during these decades, the country switched from an extensive agrarian economy to an economy that emphasized industrial activities with great impact on its natural resources and environment” (p. 5). It hindered the quality of soil and water resources, ultimately damaging forests. Thirdly, a significant cause of deforestation in the South Caucasus was the population’s use of timber as a primary energy source during the energy cost increase due to the post-Soviet energy crisis.
The Causes of the Caspian Sea Pollution
Like deforestation, water pollution leads to chain-like disastrous processes in the ecosystems, putting the environment at risk. The first cause of the exhaustive pollution of the Caspian Sea is the intensive extraction of oil and gas from the sea. According to Khalilova (2010), the unsafe practices in oil extraction combined with the large-scale oil production industry in the Caspian Seas significantly threaten the environment due to the environmental disaster risks. Such an economic trend toward the increase of oil and gas extraction from the Caspian Sea was influenced by the post-Soviet developments in the energy and natural resource exploitation sphere.
The second reason for the Caspian Sea pollution was the uncontrolled and extensive caviar production. The volumes of the exploitation of sturgeon by the caviar mafia have reached the level of an environmental disaster, which caused significant ecosystem imbalance (Cornell Caspian Consulting, 2002). This issue is also related to the post-Soviet economic developments since the countries of the Caucasus were challenged with economic downfall that motivated exhaustive practices.
Reference List
Cornell Caspian Consulting (2002) ‘Environmental issues’ in The South Caucasus: a regional overview and conflict assessment, SIDA, Department for Central and Eastern Europe, pp. 39-41.
Khalilova, K. (2010) ‘Caspian Sea oil boom raises pollution fears’, BBC News.
Meyer, A. (2010). Protecting endangered forests in the Caucasus.
Sayadyan, H.Y. and Moreno-Sanchez, R. (2006) ‘Forest policies, management and conservation in Soviet (1920–1991) and post-Soviet (1991–2005) Armenia’, Environmental Conservation, 33(1), pp. 1-13.