Makhachkala, March 30, 2015. The Russian Foreign Ministry’s Commission on UNESCO Affairs approved Dagestan State University’s application to establish a UNESCO chair of biodiversity of the Caspian Sea and coastal ecosystems in the context of intensive development of oil and gas industry, the press service of the university told RIA Dagestan.

The chair aims at helping develop relevant educational and research programs on preserving biological diversity of the Caspian Sea and coastal ecosystems and sustainable use of its components amid rapid growth of oil and gas industry – programs of international, national and regional levels.

As an international educational and scientific center with a mandatory system of relations with similar departments or other educational and research institutions home and in other countries, the chair focuses on international educational and scientific cooperation with counterpart UNESCO chairs worldwide, educational and research institutions in Russia, CIS countries, and other regions of the world as part of the UNESCO programs named «UNITWIN / UNESCO Chairs".

The project will help establish equal partnership between universities and research organizations, governments, business communities, and the civil society, allowing all the regions of the world to participate in implementing the chair’s projects under the auspices of UNESCO that are engaged in preserving biodiversity and its balanced use as an important source of livelihood.

The main areas of the chair’s research are studying the biological diversity of coastal ecosystems, landscape diversity, development of methods for measuring and evaluating the stability of geosystems, structural and functional organization and sustainability of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems and their patterns of human-induced change, sustainable development of territories, development and protection of natural resources and natural heritage, environmental education for the sake of peace and sustainable development, etc.

The chair is in partnership with 32 scientific and educational organizations from six countries. The Russian partners are the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Commission on UNESCO Affairs, Dagestan government, Dagestan Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Russian Geographical Society, Moscow State University, and others.