Gulia, Hajieva creator Gallardo, Wenresti G. Chairperson Dabbadie, Lionel Co-Chairperson Yakupitiyage, Amararatne Examination Committee UNEP Scholarship Donor AIT Fellowship Scholarship donor text th Pathum Thani, Thailand Asian Institute of Technology 2012 monographic eng 75 leaves : maps, charts Due to the high concentration of natural resources in Turkmenistan's coastal area, and the increase in the number of users of these resources with each year, conflict situations between the biodiversity advocates and users of mineral resources cannot be avoided. In the present study, Hazar Reserve was selected due to its location, as it covers almost the entire coastal zone of Turkmenistan, thus creating an opportunity of a single management mechanism inorder to preserve biodiversity.In this study, the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of Hazar Reserve were evaluated. There is evidence of the abundance of weaknesses over strengths, and there are more threats than opportunities. The basic principles of ICM have been defined by analysis of the relevant legislation. There is uncontrolled management of industrial sectors in the coastal zone and a weakness in the coordination of environmental laws and authorized organizations. In general, the environmental legislations of Turkmenistan related to biodiversity conservation of the Caspian Sea are mostly based on integrated coastal management principles. But implementation of the environmental laws is a problem due to the fact that sectoral laws are contrary to articles of the ICM principles, particularly concerning participation of authorized bodies to conduct EIA, limited access to ecological information of sectoral agencies, restricted rights of other stakeholders on the use of benefits from development of sectoral agencies (especially, oil companies) and lack of arrangement/mechanisms on interaction between different users in the coastal areas of the Caspian sea.As a result of this study, several recommendations have been developed based on the principles of ICM for the conservation of biodiversity. In particular, there is a need to change the attitude of the local people and governmental agencies on the use of coastal resources, update environmental standards and improve supervision inthe implementation. A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Aquaculture and Aquatic resources management, School of Environment, Resources & Development Thesis (M.Sc.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2012 Coastal zone management Turkmenistan Biodiversity conservation Turkmenistan Asian Institute of Technology. http://203.159.5.9/ait-thesis/detail.php?q=B01803 http://203.159.5.9/ait-thesis/detail.php?q=B01803 131114 20260817163653.0