The Council for Environmental Education (CEE) is currently researching an information sheet for schools about Local Agenda 21. The sheet will explain what Local Agenda 21 is and how schools can become involved. The Council is therefore looking for examples of involvement by schools in projects specifically related to Agenda 21. They are particularly interested in how schools became involved, who (in general terms) they contacted (or vice versa), what sort of negotation process (e.g. with the local authority or local community) was involved, and what support mechanisms they encountered. The CEE is also interested in finding good, local resource material related to Local Agenda 21 and schools.

Please send offers of examples to:

The Council for Environmental Education
University of Reading
London Road
Reading RG1 5AQ
UNITED KINGDOM

(A report on environmental education, training and awareness in England and Wales)

Following a recommendation from the British Government Panel on Sustainable Development, and a Conference on Environmental Education hosted by the Secretaries of State for the Environment and Education and Employment, the government undertook to issue a strategy for environmental education, training and awareness.

Environment Secretary John Gummer told Parliament that the purpose of the strategy was to provide a clear framework within which a range of initiatives involving schools, education authorities, business and industry and the voluntary sector can fluorish. He went on to say that education in its broadest sense includes not just formal study, but personal awareness, and experience and interests developed over a period of time - at home, at school, college or university, at work, and in the wider community.

The strategy seeks to install in people of all ages, through formal and informal education and training, the concepts of sustainable development and responsible global citizenship; and to develop, renew and reinforce their capacity to address environmental and developmental issues throughout their lives, both at home and at work.

This will be achieved by

• continuing to promote and encourage environmental education and training through relevant programmes and policies, and as part of the continuing dialogue with business and industry, local authorities, the education sector and non-governmental organizations, helping to ensure that appropriate materials for each phase of the education and training process are readily available
• facilitating and supporting initiatives which promote sustainable development and responsible global citizenship to people in the course of their daily lives
• continuing to ensure that the education process is alive to the needs of employers
• establishing suitable arrangements to monitor and encourage progress in the application of sustainable development principles, and the integration of environmental issues in education so that activities may be changed, redirected or reinforced where necessary.

Single copies of The World in our Hands report are available free of charge from:

Mr D.Matthews
RoomC9/11
Department of the Environment
2 Marsham Street
London SW1P 3EB
UNITED KINGDOM
Tel.: +44.171.276 4297
Fax: +44.171.276 4789

One of the projects successfully dealing with "Strengthening Local Capacities" has been coordinated by IUCN and run in cooperation with the Administration of the Protected Landscape Area Kysuce (Kysuce PLA). Its main goals included:

a)analysis of the distribution of competencies in the local management of natural resources;

b)promotion of the joint participatory approach in solving natural resources management;

c)practical implementation of proposed constructive conservation and development measures;

d)strengthening local capacities - experts, institutions, authorities and NGOs.

The Kysuce PLA lies in the north-western part of the Slovak Republic. For the IUCN project almost all of its eastern part was chosen, dominated by Velka Raca National Reserve (1236 m a.s.I. - representing the highest point of the Kysuce region). The Velka Raca National Nature Reserve (area of 313 ha) is part of the core area of national significance in the national Ecological Network, and also represents one of the supraregional biocentres of the Kysuce region in the structure of Territorial Systems of Ecological Stability.

During the implementation of the project we organized a number of meetings, discussions, consultations, round-tables and seminars with representatives of the state administration, the Administration of the PLAs foresters and farmers as well as with representatives of the municipalities and business. On the basis of their conclusions we were able to define more clearly the project aims, and to target financial resources for special action. At the end of the project a model management plan of sustainable development was elaborated, taking into account all the interests of the stake-holders.

All project goals have been met. A wide variety of activities has taken place. IUCN helped to launch the Kysuce Ecocentre, to publish material about the Kysuce PLA, to include nature conservation staff in the international publication "Beskyds without frontiers" and to create the first nature trail in this part of Kysuce. The process profited from the enthusiasm of an expert team who were requested to collect data on the natural assets of the territory, on economic activities and to analyse basic conflicts of interests in a rather short space of time. Various groups of stakeholders took part. We believe the whole process has contributed to more effective nature conservation of the area and has also provided local inhabitants with more benefits from the effective and sustainable use of local natural resources.

For additional information:

Peter Sabo, Helena Carska
IUCN Foundation,
Vysoká 18
811 02 Bratislava
SLOVAKIA

ECOSOUTHWEST is a voluntary, nonprofit, non-governmental and non-political organization that attempts to tackle the regional environmental and rural development problems of South West Bulgaria. It was established in 1994 with its main seat in Blagoevgrad. Among the organization's major objectives, priority will be given to providing consultation on ecotourism and ecoagriculture methods and practices, environmental education and lobbying.

The contact address is:

ECOSOUTHWEST
P.O.Box 29
Blagoevgrad 2700
BULGARIA
Tel/Fax: +359.73.65293

A meeting to start IUCN's preparations for the next Conference of European Environment Ministers (Aarhus, Denmark, June 1998) was held in Moscow, Russia, 4-5 February 1997. Sponsored by the IUCN European Programme (Director Dr. Zbigniew Karpowicz) and organized by the Centre for International Projects and the IUCN Russian Country Office (Manager Dr. Vladimir Moshkalo), the meeting was attended by three European Vice-chairs or Deputy Chair of three IUCN Commissions (CEM, WCPA, CEC) and nominated representatives of two other Commissions (CEL, SSC).

The World Conservation Union must be well prepared to make use of all its experience, competence and influence at the forthcoming Ministerial Conference. The last conference in Sofia 1995 adopted the Pan-European Biological and Landscape Diversity Strategy which has become the key document for future protection, management and development of Europe's natural heritage. Despite the adoption of that document, not enough has been done yet for its implementation, the change in land-use aiming towards achieving sustainable rural development is perhaps the most important topic with successful integration of biodiversity into sectors such as agriculture, the major tool.

This timely beginning to our work on IUCN's input to the Ministerial Conference augurs well for a substantive contribution. In the meantime, several more meetings are envisaged as well as regular communication by mail. All IUCN members are encouraged to get involved at their national as well as pan- European level.

For more information please contact:

Dr. Jeffrey A. McNeely, IUCN Chief Scientist
IUCN - The World Conservation Union
1196 Gland
SWITZERLAND

Organized by the European Renewable Energy Association EUROSOLAR

During the recent years, enormous technical progresses were made in the field of Renewable Energies. Costs could be reduced for a large scope of applications. Some Renewable Energy sources became cost-competitive in business-management calculation.

Moreover: Using Renewable Energies makes it possible to avoid other costs - not only for primary energy but also for grid connections or elements of construction in buildings. In addition there are the advantages of avoiding pollutions and other ecological damages.

Renewable Energies enable the initiation of new ways of cost calculations and pay back rules, which could be taken into account when grating loans or deciding on investments. Thus, Renewable Energies are - economically as well as ecologically - a Window for New Opportunities. Yet there is on the one hand a gap as to information for investment planners: there is no sufficient information available on the state of development of the various Renewable Energy technologies and their applications. On the other hand there are a lot of fresh and creative ideas and initiatives for financing Renewable Energies.

It is the task of this International Conference on Renewable Energies, dealing exclusively with the matter of financing Renewable Energies, to overcome this lack of information on the specific economy or Renewable Energy technologies and to multiply the specific investment ideas and methods.

The conference addresses banks, political institutions, Non-Governmental-Organizations, and private investors.

Registration for representatives of non-commercial organizations/ private participants: 720 DEM.

For more information and registration form please contact:

The Trade related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) agreement represents a notable change in international standards for protecting intellectual property required by many developing countries, according to a report from the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

The Trips Agreement and the Developing Countries says the agreement's implementation is likely to engineer fundamental changes in industrial structure, market competition and growth in many countries. The agreement, one of a series adopted at the conclusion of the Uruguay Round in 1994, legally binds all members of the World Trade Organization. It covers many disciplines on intellectual property rights (IPRs), including patents, copyrights, trademarks, industrial designs and trade secrets.

According to UNCTAD, the agreement entails both costs and benefits. "In accommodating their economic development goals to the TRIPS requirements", says the report, "developing countries and economies in transition would do well to safeguard a adequate diffusion of technological knowledge into their economies".

UNCTAD outlines three key conclusions from its assessment of the long-term costs and benefits stemming from TRIPs. First, the agreement requires substantially strengthened protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights in many countries. Strengthening IPRs regimes is expected to have a positive impact in developing countries, such as bringing about more local innovation. However, it could also lead to higher prices for protected technologies and products, and restricted ability for developing countries to increase sales through product imitation or copying.

The second conclusion is that developing nations, when implementing the TRIPs agreement, should try to strike a balance between the needs of innovative firms and their licenses for protection from easy appropriation of their intellectual property, and the needs of follow-on competitors and consumers.

Thirdly, the agreement requires all WTO members to enforce IPRs protection standards that are as strict as those prevailing in developed countries, and in some cases going beyond their existing legislation. This represents a significant burden for poorer countries. For example, Bangladesh will need to spend about US$250,000 in one-time costs for legislative drafting and over US$1.1 million in annual costs for judicial work, equipment and enforcement measures.

UNCTAD has called on industrialized countries and international organizations to provide assistance to developing countries to help them adapt and implement the agreement, since the changes could entail significant expenditures and have social implications, especially for least developed countries.

Contact:

Assad Omer
Division on Investment
Enterprise Development and Technology, UNCTAD
Palais des Nations
CH-1211 Geneva 10
SWITZERLAND
Tel.: +41.22.907 5696
Fax: +41.22.907 0194
E-mail: assad.omer@unctad.org

The resumed 19th session of the Governing Council of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) ended on 4 April at UNEP headquarters with agreement on outstanding agenda item 4/d) on governance of UNEP. After two days of debate, delegates decided to establish a High-level Committee of Ministers and Officials in Charge of Environment, as a subsidiary organ of the Governing Council.

The committee will consist of 36 members, elected from among members of the United Nations and its specialized agencies.

The new committee will have the mandate to consider the international environmental agenda and to make reform and policy recommendations to the Governing Council. It will also provide guidance and advice to UNEP's Executive Director, enhance UNEP's collaboration and cooperation with other multilateral bodies (including the environmental conventions and their secretariats), and will help mobilize adequate and predictable financial resources for UNEP.

The Governing Council decided to strengthen the CPR, which will now hold four regular meetings a year. The CPR's revised mandate includes: to review, monitor and assess implementation of decision of the Governing Council on administrative, budgetary and programme matters; to review UNEP's draft programme of work and budget; to review reports requested of the secretariat by the Governing Council on the effectiveness, efficiency and transparency of the secretariat's work; and to prepare draft decisions for consideration by the Governing Council based on inputs from the secretariat.

The next regular session of UNEP's governing Council will be held in May 1999. A special session, to examine the results of the forthcoming United Nations General Assembly Special Session, is planned for later this year. The new governance structure of UNEP will be reviewed by the Governing Council at its 21st session, with a view to assessing its effectiveness, taking into account any relevant results of the reform process of the UN system.

Contact:

Robert Bisset
Information and Media Officer, UNEP
P.O.Box 30552
Nairobi
KENYA
Tel.: +254.2.623 084
Fax: +254.2.623 692
E-mail: robert.bisset@unep.org

UNCTAD's Commission on Trade in Goods and Services, and Commodities will convene an expert meeting later in the year to discuss how to encourage the integration of trade and development with positive measures, such as opening access to markets and technology transfers. The commission, which met from 19-21 February in Geneva, also decided to convene an expert group to examine environmental management standards and their impact on trade and investment, and it sent a message to the UN Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD). The message to the CSD, meeting from 7-25 April in New York, calls for "renewed efforts at both national and international levels to make trade and environmental policies mutually supportive".

During an informal panel presentation at the Geneva meeting, Ambassador Anthony Hill (Jamaica) spoke on behalf of the Latin America and Caribbean group and suggested that UNCTAD continue to play a role in three key areas. They are policy analysis and debate; conceptual work and research, such as defining positive measures more carefully; and capacity building for member states.

The representative of the European Community called for concrete measures to assess integration of trade and environment objectives in order to avoid discussions that are too abstract. Ms. Santa Cadalina (Philippines), speaking for the Asian Group and China, warned that environmentally-sound processing methods are still too expensive for developing countries. She urged that the search for resources for this purpose, including foreign direct investment, should be high on the commission's agenda. Mr. Lahcen Aboutahir (Marocco), speaking for the African Group, pointed to what he called high dependency on commodity exports as a serious constraint on African countries' ability to protect the environment.

Contact:

Jagdish Saigal, Senior Programme Manager
Division on International Trade in Goods
and Services and Commodities, UNCTAD
Palais des Nations
CH-1211 Geneva
SWITZERLAND
Tel.: +41.22.907 5731
Fax: +41.22.907 0044
E-mail: jagdish.saigal@unctad.org

New energy technology is a key stimulant to improving the economies, health care systems and the status of women in developing countries, according to a report released in March by the UN Development Programme (UNDP). The report, Energy After Rio-Prospects and Challenges, focuses on how increased access to energy would provide improved health care, education, housing and water and sanitation services for the poor. It was prepared by a group of 22 international environment and energy specialists.

UNDP says the poor are being forced to use precious natural resources to supply themselves with energy, which has disastrous environmental consequences - including an important loss of fertilizers for the soil and devastated landscapes. In adoption, the burning of fossil fuel, which generates 76% of the world's primary energy, such as air pollution, acid rain, and increased atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases.

The report says women in particular would benefit from better energy technology . For example, replacing traditional stoves with higher efficiency stoves would cut smoke-related health problems, which disproportionately affect women and children. And relief from time-consuming collection of firewood would allow women to invest their time in income-generating activities.

The report analyzes the opportunities to use energy more efficiently and increase the use of renewable sources. It says developing countries have an opportunity to use modern technologies: wind power is technologically ready to provide electricity, photovoltaic cells are ready for small-scale, stand-alone power applications, and solar energy could be an important source of electric power.

Contact:
Annie Roncerel
Energy Atmosphere Programme, UNDP
1 UN Plaza
New York NY 10017
USA
Tel.: +1.212.906 6616
Fax: +1.212.906 5148
E-mail: annie.roncerel@undp.org

Worldwide deforestation is continuing at a high rate, according to a new UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) report.

State of the World's Forests - 1997 estimates that 11.3 million hectares (ha) of the world's forests are lost each year. "The estimates of forest cover change in the 1990-1995 period", says the report, "indicate a net loss of 56.3 million ha of forests (natural forests plus plantation) worldwide, representing a decrease of 65.1 million ha in developing countries, which was partly offset by an increase of 8.8 million ha in developed countries". The report estimates the annual rate of forest loss in developing countries is 0.65%.

The report was published to coincide with a meeting of the FAO Committee on Forestry, held from 10-13 March in Rome. The meeting brought together senior forestry officials from around the world to review progress toward sustainable forestry management, consider the implications of the World Food Summit Plan of Action for forestry, and guide FAO's forestry programme of work for the coming two years.

Contact:

Steven A.Dembner
Forestry Department, FAO
Viale delle Terme di Caracalla
I-00100 Rome
ITALY
Tel.: +39.6.5225 4778
Fax: +39.6.5225 3024

DG XII (Science, Research and Development) and, more especially, the unit in Directorate B (International Co-operation) responsible for relations with the Central and East European countries and the Newly Independent States has created a scheme which is aimed at promoting the mobility of scientific co-operation. This will include the payment of a grant to cover travel and subsistence expenses and will enable scientists from these countries to take part in seminars, conferences, colloquia and workshops being held in Europe. The subject of the event must be among the areas covered by the fourth framework and covers full board and lodging. Grants will be available for younger scientists, in particular those from less favored regions in Europe.

For information and application forms, contact the Head of the EURESCO unit:

• ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION IN THE 20TH AND 21ST CENTURY

  A 300 page compendium documenting environmental education practices in the 20th century and setting an agenda for the 21st century is being prepared by ERTCEE. The book will contain the views and ideas of those who have influenced environmental education in the 20th century, as well as reviewing the matters which these people have dealt with.

  The compendium will not only be a useful tool in documenting present initiatives, but will also serve the purpose of influencing the ways environmental education should proceed in the next century.

  For further information on the compendium and for details on how to participate as an author:

  Prof. Walter Leal Filho
  University of Luneburg
  Institute of Environmental Sciences
  Wilschenbrucher Weg 84
  D-21335 Luneburg
  GERMANY
  Tel.: +49.4131.714 373
  Fax: +49.4131.714 202

• ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION RESEARCH

  Environmental Education Research is an international referred journal which publishes papers and reports on all aspects of environmental education. The purpose of the journal is to help advance understanding of environmental education through a focus on papers reporting research and development activities.

  The journal carries more diverse papers including, for example, conference reviews, retrospective analyses of activities in a particular field, commentaries on policy issues, comparative aspects of an environmental education issue and critical reviews of environmental education provision in a particular country or region.

  The criteria for acceptance of papers are that they are analytical and critical; that the ideas being discussed are transferable to other educational systems and cultures; and that they are accessible to an international audience.

  For ordering information:

  Carfax Publishing Company
  P.O.Box 25
  Abingdon
  Oxfordshire OX14 3UE
  UNITED KINGDOM
  Tel.: +44.1235.521 154
  Fax: +44.1235.553 559

• ECOLOGY & LEARNING

  Berlin Recommendations, Volume 4

  Edited by Gerhard de Haan, Departmental Office of Ecology and Education at the Berlin Free University.

  Countless new titles are published every year on the topic of ecology and learning on the media market. Many materials interesting for teaching and learning are published by well-know publishers, others in environmental associations, initiatives or even schools. Some of them are hard to access or are not even sold in bookstores. This book reviews all important new publications and sales addresses are indicated. The Arbeitsstelle fur Okologie und Padagogik in its Berliner Empfehlungen Okologie & Lernen gives a survey on the whole market of materials and media.

  Every autumn another volume of the Berliner Empfehlungen Okologie & Lernen on the latest editions is published.

  The book is available from:

  Verlag an der Ruhr
  Alexanderstr. 54, Postfach 10 22 51
  D-45422 Mulheim an der Ruhr
  GERMANY

• STATE OF THE WORLD 1997

  (Lester R.Brown, Christopher Flavin, Hilary French, Norton&Co.,

  New York 1997, 229pp., $13.95 USA)

  Launched in 1984 as the flagship publication of the Worldwatch Institute, this annual review of global efforts toward a sustainable world has become a handbook of the world ecology movement and is now published in 30 languages. Its reach and influence are considerable. Therefore it is troubling to find a curious set of priorities in the current edition. For example the report - to its great credit - spends twelve pages detailing the destructive influence of alcohol, yet only one passing reference is made in the book to nuclear disarmament, one to the dangers of nuclear power and no mention at all of the great looming problem of nuclear waste disposal.

  Perhaps the editors have fallen victim to what might be called the "Rio Effect". Nuclear issues were curiously omitted from the otherwise encyclopedic agenda at the Rio Earth Summit five years ago. In fact the Rio conference features prominently in the 1997 edition of The State of the World.

  In the first of the nine essays, "The Legacy of Rio", Christopher Flavin provides a critical report on the failure of the major nations - and particularly the United States - to fulfill the agreements made in Rio to increase support for sustainable development. Flavin notes that in the first three years after Rio, U.S. assistance declined from $12 billion to $7 billion.

  In another essay, "Transforming Security", Michael Renner draws attention to the bloated military budgets of governments around the world. However he also notes the increasing role in disarmament played by the Non Governmental Organizations, the rapidly emerging global civil society. Renner points out that the number of international NGOs grew from 176 in 1909 to 28,900 in 1993.

  As in other editions of The State of the World, the richest and most authoritative articles are concerned with the Earth itself - the use and abuse of land around the world in farming and forestry. In the essay, "Preserving Global Cropland", Gary Gardener delineates with impressive charts, maps and graphs the global degradation of cropland giving rise to fears of what he calls "a land scarce world".

  As always, the volume is an indispensable work. Let us hope that next year they will be able to report in more detail on the work now under way by NGOs to tackle the nuclear menace.

  Source:

  WAW & PEACE DIGEST, No.2, Vol.5, Apr/May 1997
  Office: The War & Peace Foundation
  32 Union Square East
  New York, NY 10003
  USA
  Tel.: +1.212.777 4210
  Fax: +1.212.777 2552
  E-mail: warpeace@interport.net
  Internet: http//www.interport.net/~warpeace

• SVIT V DOLONYAKH - WORLD IN PALMS

  A quarterly public environmental illustrated magazine - a supplementary edition to the journal Oykumena - Ukrainian Ecological Review.

  This is a new magazine about nature and environment protection in Ukraine. It was launched by the national Ecological Center of Ukraine with support from the International "Renaissance" Foundation and the Royal Netherlands Embassy in Ukraine.

  The magazine is targeted not only at specialists, but also at the general public, not only in Ukraine, but also "everywhere in Europe". Therefore it is bilingual: in Ukrainian and in English. The first issue published in 1996 (32 pages, semi-hard cover, colour photographs and pictures) was devoted to the European Nature Conservation Year (ENCY) 1995 in Ukraine, the second one to the tenth anniversary of the Chernobyl catastrophe.

  The Editor's address is :

  P.O. 89/7, 252025 Kiev-25
  UKRAINE
  E-mail: palms@ecocentre.freenet.kiev.ua

  • ENVIRO-MAGAZÍN O TVORBE A OCHRANE ŽIVOTNÉHO PROSTREDIA

    (Magazine on creation and protection of the environment. In Slovak)

    Also in 1996 the "zero" issue of a new Slovak environmental magazine was published, launched by the Slovak Environmental Agency. It is addressed to everyone in the Slovak Republic involved and interested in both national and global environmental issues. The pilot issue contains 36 pages and is lavishly illustrated by mainly colour photographs.

    The Editor's Address is:

    ENVIROmagazín
    Slovenska agentúra životného prostredia -
    Slovak Environmental Agency
    Tajovského 28
    975 90 Banská Bystrica, Slovakia
    Tel.:+421.88.732 153
    Fax: +421.88.355 31
    E-mail: onviro@sun.sazp.sk

  • PLANTA EUROPEA

    (First European Conference on the Conservation of Wild Plants,

    2-8 Sept. '95, Hyeres, France)

    Edited by John Newton, pp.273, Plantlife, London, 1996.

    The first conference of high significance dedicated to the conservation of European flora and also fully taking into account the new political European context, has been a real landmark in the development of the conservation of European wild flora. Papers presented at the Conference are arranged along the five main themes:

    1)The use of legal instruments to conserve wild plants;

    2)Land use policy and plant conservation;

    3)Habitat and species management;

    4)Plant use and trade;

    5)Getting people involved.

    With the participants list containing names and addressed of key European botanists and plant conservationists and the appendix with a provisional directory of institutes and NGOs relevant to plant conservation in Europe, this publication represents an invaluable and unique manual on contemporary plant conservation in Europe.

    The volume can be ordered from:

    Plantlife, The Natural History Museum
    Cromwell Road
    London SW7 5BD
    UNITED KINGDOM
    Tel: +44.171.939 9111
    Fax: +44.171.938 9112

    Price: 18 GBP (including postage)

  • BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION IN TRANSBOUNDARY PROTECTED AREAS IN EUROPE

    (Papers presented at the pan-European Conference on "Biodiversity Conservation in Transboundary Protected areas in Europe", held in the Bohemian-Saxonian Switzerland, 26-30 June 1996)

    Edited by Jan Cerovsky, pp.1-108, black-and-white photographs and maps plus 4 pages with 7 colour photographs, ECOPOINT, Prague 1996.

    The complete set of conference papers is available. After general review (with a particularly valuable contribution by Lawrence S. Hamilton) there are remarkable reports e.g. about Mountains Transborder Parks in Europe (L.S.Hamilton and J.Thorsell) the Bohemian-Saxonian Switzerland (W.Hentschel and J.Stein), the Finnish-Russian Friendship Nature Reserve (A.Finne, B.Kashevarov, S.Tarkhov), Transboundary Protected Areas in Russia (L.V.Kuleshova, N.M.Zabelina, L.S.Isaeva-Petrova) or a casestudy from the Czech Republic about Transfrontier Microreserves (H.Janackova).

    The publication can be obtained from the publisher:

    ECOPOINT Foundation
    Kalisnicka 4
    CZ-130 00 Praha 3
    CZECH REPUBLIC

    Note: For persons and organisations from Central and Eastern Europe free of charge, for other countries after the payment of 10 DEM or equivalent on the account No.01-3267080/0300 - Foundation ECOPOINT, with the CSOB (Czech Commercial Bank), Na prikope 14, 115 29 Praha 1.

• FOREST POLICY IN COUNTIRES WITH ECONOMICS IN TRANSITION-READY FOR THE EUROPEAN UNION?

  (August 21-23 '97, Prague, Czech Republic)

  Contact:

  Dr. Ivo Kupka
  E-mail: kupka@efi.joensuu.fi

• 13TH INTERNATIONAL SEMINAR ON FOREST AND NATURAL RESOURCES ADMINISTRATION AND MANAGEMENT

  (A study tour through USA, Aug.24-Sept.18 '97, Colorado, USA)

  Contact:

  Dr. James R. Meiman, Seminar Director
  Colorado State University
  College of Natural Resources
  Fort Collins, Colorado 80523-1401

• V. INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF NATURE CONSERVATION IN KARST AREAS: LIMESTONE QUARRYING AND PROTECTED LANDSCAPE

  [Landscape protected Area "Moravsky Kras" (Moravian Karst), September 10-12 '97, Blansko, Czech Republic]

  Contact:

  Administration, CHKO Moravsky Kras (PLA Moravian Karst), Sadova 2, CZ-678 01 Blansko, Czech Republic
  Tel.: +420.506.417 825

• LOCAL PARTICIPATION AND GRASSROOT DEMOCRACY

  (Study session of Youth and Environment Europe-YEE, September 20-28 '97, Utrecht, The Netherlands)

  Contact:

  YEE, Oudegracht 42, 3511 AR Utrecht, The Netherlands
  Tel.: +31.30.231 1537
  Fax: +31.30.234 3986
  E-mail: yee@antenna.nl

• INTERNETTING FOR ENVIRONMENTAL ORGANISATIONS

  (YEE Training course, September 20-28 '97, Utrecht, The Netherlands)

  Contact: YEE-see above

• BIODIVERSITY

  (YEE Training course, September 20-28 '97, Utrecht, The Netherlands)

  Contact: YEE-see above

• 6TH WORLD WILDERNESS CONGRESS

  (October 11-16 '97, Bangalore, India)

  Contact: Dr. M.A.Partha Sarathy, Congress Chairman,1, 12 th Cross, Rajmahal, Bangalore 560080, INDIA

• NATURE CONSERVATION IN EASTERN AND SOUTH-EASTERN EUROPE

  (October 12-14 '97, Sofia, Bulgaria)

  Contact: Dr. Christoph Goppel, Director, Bavarian Academy for Nature Conservation and Landscape Management - ANL, Postfach 1261, D-83406 Laufen/Salzach, GERMANY
  Tel.: +49.8682.8963-0
  Fax: +49.8682.8963-17
  E-mail: naturschutzakademie@t-online.de

  Note: On special invitation only.

• FORESTRY FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT: TOWARDS THE 21ST CENTURY: WORLD FORESTRY CONGRESS

  (October 13-22 '97, Antalya, Turkey)

  Contact:

  Mesut Kamiloglu
  Tel.: +90.312.417 7724
  Fax: +90.312.417 9160
  E-mail: obdi-f@servis.net.tr

• IUCN/WCPA EUROPEAN REGIONAL WORKING SESSION ON PROTECTING EUROPE'S NATURAL HERITAGE

  (November 9-13 '97, Island of Rugen, Germany)

  Contact:

  Dr. Reihard Piechocki, Bundesamt fur Naturschutz, Internationale Naturschutzakademie Insel Vilm, D-18581 Lauterbach, GERMANY
  Tel:+49.38301.861 32
  Fax:+49.38301.861 50
  E-mail: bfn.ina.vilm@t-online.de

• AN NGO REPORT ON THE APRIL 1997 WORLD BANK-IUCN DAMS WORKSHOPS AND ON THE PROPOSAL FOR AN INDEPENDENT DAM REVIEW COMMISSION

  On April 10-11, 1997, the World Bank's Operations Evaluation Department and IUCN-The World Conservation Union hosted a workshop entitled Large Dams: Learning from the Past Looking at the Future. The workshop was held at IUCN headquarters in Gland, Switzerland and paid for by Swiss bilateral aid agency SDC. The 37 participants included representatives from the World Bank, IUCN, the private dam industry, public dam-building agencies, academia, and NGOs critical of large dams.

  The main outcome of the workshop was agreement to work together to form an independent international commission to review the performance of dams and their effectiveness as "engines of growth", assess alternatives, and recommend international standards on dam planning, construction, and operation. The commission is to be established by November 1997 and will have two years to prepare its report. The 5-8 expert members of the commission and its terms of reference are being prepared by a joint team from IUCN and the World Bank in consultation with the participants in the Gland workshop.

  NGO participants present at the meeting believe that an independent international dam review commission has great potential to seriously restrict the building of destructive dams. Its findings on the actual performance of completed dams would presumably show that many promises made by dam builders have not been realized.

  Recommendations on international standards for dam construction would provide a set of guidelines which NGOs could insist be followed by both public and private dam builders.

  Recommendations on sustainable and equitable methods of land and water management would also be useful campaign tools.

  Recommendations on reparations for people who have suffered because of dam construction and on ecological restoration could help provide justice to dam-affected people and highlight the costs of dam construction which dam builders have so far avoided paying.

  For more information:

  Patrick McCully
  International Rivers Network
  1847 Berkeley Way
  Berkeley, CA 94703, USA
  Tel.: +1.510.848 1155
  Fax: +1.510.848 1008
  E-mail: patrick@irn.org

The Greenway Newsletter, No. 33, 1997

Publisher: Greenway, P.O.Box 163, 814 99 Bratislava, Slovakia, tel/fax: +421-7-5414674 ; E-mail: greenway@changenet.sk

Edited by: Elena Vartíková

Printed in: CANON COPY SHOP, Seberíniho 1, Bratislava, Slovakia