BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 8. The Caspian Sea
region should prioritize nature-based solutions and preserve
ecological balance when developing new areas, Co-Chair of the
Nizami Ganjavi International Center Ismail Serageldin said,
Trend’s correspondent
reports from the event.


He made the remarks during the panel session titled “Climate
change challenges on the inland water bodies: Caspian Sea case”
held as part of Baku Climate Action Week 2026.


Serageldin stressed that when developing new territories, it is
not appropriate to focus only on the immediate economic aspects of
creating infrastructure. “We all have to remember that cutting down
trees led to our failure to properly appreciate the importance of
the ecosystem services provided by forests. As a result, we faced
floods and a number of other problems that were not anticipated at
the time. All of this happened because we failed to take into
account nature’s capacities, focusing only on obtaining timber and
other resources,” he said.


According to him, if a regional cooperation program is developed
to address the current situation, it should focus on three key
areas. “First, there should be cooperation in science, modelling,
measurements and early warning signals related to the processes
taking place. This information should be shared at the technical
level across the region and should serve as a basis for political
decision-making,” Serageldin noted.


He identified the involvement of local communities as the second
important area. “Local communities are the part of society that is
directly affected by these processes. They can immediately suffer
from changes occurring in coastal areas or, on the contrary,
benefit from them,” he said.







Serageldin highlighted the use of nature-based solutions
wherever possible as the third priority. “The third and, in my
view, extremely important issue is to prioritize nature-based
solutions as much as possible and find ways to preserve this
balance,” he added.


He also noted that human activity is having a significant impact
not only on the climate but also on the hydrological cycle. “As the
Global Commission on the Economy of Water has pointed out, for the
first time we are now affecting not only the climate but also the
hydrological cycle through human activity. We all used to think
that the hydrological cycle was unchanging: water evaporates here,
then moves and falls as rain somewhere else. However, today the
balance between water resources known as ‘green water’ and ‘blue
water’ is changing, and a large part of this is driven by human
activity,” Serageldin said.


According to him, protecting the hydrological cycle should be
recognized as a global public good and incorporated into economic
assessments of projects. “It is time to take care of this and
recognize that the protection of the hydrological cycle, as a
global public good, must be included in economic evaluation
frameworks. Human activity affects this process, and this factor
must be taken into account when assessing projects and
investments,” he emphasized.