FIRST INTERGOVERNMENTAL CONFERENCE
“BIODIVERSITY OF EUROPE”
The First Intergovernmental Conference “Biodiversity of Europe” took place in Riga on March 20–23, 2000. It comprised representatives of 37 states and European communities. As for the former Soviet Union, there were representatives of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Byelorussia, Georgia, Kirghizia, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan.
Representatives of 13 non-governmental organizations participated in the Conference as observers; they included the World Conservation Union (IUCN), the European Centre for Nature Conservation (ECNC, with headquarters in Tilburg, Netherlands), the Pan-European ECO Forum, Birdlife International and several national organizations from Armenia, Moldova, Russia and Uzbekistan.
The Conference dealt with the following major documents prepared by the participating countries in co-operation with the IUCN, the ECNC, and the European Environmental Agency: “Biological Diversity of Agriculture”, “On Further Work in Sustainable Development [of the Biodiversity] Including Tourism”, “Indicators, Monitoring and Reporting in Biodiversity”, “On Further Work in Technical-Scientific Collaboration and Information Interchange Mechanisms”, “Financial Resources and Mechanisms in European Biodiversity”, “Fulfilling the Convention of Biological Diversity in Europe and Regional Collaboration”. The conference adopted a resolution (“Chairman’s Summary”) which will be presented on behalf of the region at the Sixth Conference of the Parties of the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP CBD). All the documents mentioned are available from the author of this item.
The Conference had three objectives:
to work out a coordinate position for the Sixth COP CBD;
to prepare the decision assigning the status of the regional fulfillment instrument of the Convention on Biological Diversity to the Pan-European Biological and Landscape Diversity Strategy;
to establish the need to raise additional funds (from the Global Environmental Facility inter alia) for biodiversity conservation programs in Europe.
Before the Riga Conference, a joint meeting of the members of the Biodiversity Workgroup of the Pan-European ECO Forum (NIS region) and the B-12 Coalition was held in Moscow. The author of this article reported the documents that were adopted here at the first plenary meeting in Riga. Some of the suggestions were made unilaterally by the Pan-European ECO Forum, the rest were made jointly with the B-12 Coalition.
At the same time as the Conference, the yearly PES council was held in Riga.
Here the preliminary plan for the Strategy in 2001–2005 was discussed.
In all 12 documents were discussed (available from the author or at www.strategyguide.org).
The documents relate in part to the subject of the Intergovernmental Conference.
Among the decisions taken, please note the expansion of the PES Executive
Board which now comprises four observers from non-governmental organizations.
The NGO delegation made several suggestions for the 2001–2005 work plan. The
plan includes the following projects: “Creation of an Advisory Board for
PES Object Groups” (jointly with the Moldova government; the coordinator
of the project from the Pan-European ECO Forum is Alexey Andreev, bio@mdearn.cri.md)
and the “Pilot Project on Education and Skill Formation in Projecting
and Functioning of the Ecological Networks in the former Soviet Union
and Central and Eastern Europe” (jointly with the governments of Azerbaijan,
Byelorussia and Hungary and supported by the government of Norway; the
coordinator of the project is the author of this article).
Comments on and amendments to the documents discussed at the Conference were also prepared; constructive collaboration has been established with the ECNC and the IUCN office for the former Soviet Union and most of its official delegations. All materials mentioned are available from the author.
Anton Shchukin, KE Association (Saint-Petersburg non-governmental organization)
Russia, 195160, Saint-Petersburg, Bolsheokhtinskiy prosp., d. 35, korp.1,
kv. 40.
Tel./fax: (812) 328 1472.
E-mail: anton@ke.spb.org
