European ECO-Forum News Digest

1.CALL FOR CASE STUDIES ABOUT GOOD PRACTICES IN BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION: DEADLINE - 30 APRIL 2007

The 'Environment for Europe' (EfE) process is a unique partnership of the 56 member States within the UNECE region, intergovernmental organizations, NGOs and other stakeholders. The Belgrade Conference will be the 6th Ministerial Conference within this process since its launch in 1991, but at the same time the last one before 2010 deadline to achieve halting the loss of biodiversity at all levels.

In order to contribute to the necessary efforts to reach the 2010 target at Pan-European level, the European ECO-Forum (Pan-European coalition of environmental citizens organisations (ECOs)) is preparing a publication with recommendations for future cooperation in biodiversity field. Through disseminating good practices within this publication at the Belgrade Conference, ECO-Forum would also like to facilitate practical implementation on regional, national and local levels.

Thus ECO-Forum calls for case studies by NGOs, which show best practices of the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity in the Pan-European region.

Special attention is given to best practices, where:

Selection of the submitted case studies will take place on the basis of short summaries (maximum 350 words), which shall briefly describe the problem, activities by NGO(s), results, key to success, as well as possible recommendations. Selection will take into account the quality and relevance of the study, as well as regional and thematic balance.

Deadline for submitting the short summaries: 30 April 2007.

The selected case studies will be asked for further elaboration (maximum 1000 words).

The summaries shall be submitted to the regional coordinators:

For further information please contact your regional coordinator or Klara Hajdu (hajdu@ceeweb.org tel: +36-1-398-0135).

2.REGISTRATION OF SIDE EVENTS FOR BELGRADE "ENVIRONMENT FOR EUROPE" CONFERENCE: DEADLINE - 1 MAY 2007

An organizer of a side event at the 6th "Environment for Europe" Ministerial Conference (Belgrade, 10-12 October 2007) may be a Government, an intergovernmental, international or non-governmental organization or another major group. Organizers from the UNECE region should be given preference.

Official delegates may not be invited to side events organized during the plenary sessions of the Conference or during official social occasions.

The theme and content of a side event should be a subject of direct relevance to the Conference agenda. The language of the event should be at least one of the official UNECE languages (English, French or Russian).

Registration forms for side events should be submitted to the Belgrade secretariat by 1 May 2007. All practical arrangements for side events are subject to the agreement made between the host country and the organizer.

The final list of side events will be available at the fourth meeting of the Working Group of Senior Officials, 30 May - 1 June 2007.

Materials for exhibitions and side events should be shipped to the venue by the delegations themselves and should reach Belgrade by 1 September 2007. Alternatively, delegations may bring them to the Conference venue upon their arrival (subject to the arrangements made between the host country and delegations).

More information on the organization of the side events and exhibitions, including the registration form, is available at
http://www.unece.org/env/efe/wgso/Belgrade/SideEvents.htm
and at the host country's website http://www.efe-belgrade2007.org/

3. MEETING OF THE COUNCIL OF THE PAN-EUROPEAN BIOLOGICAL AND LANDSCAPE DIVERSITY STRATEGY

The 11th meeting of the Council of the Pan-European Biological and Landscape Diversity Strategy (PEBLDS) took place in Geneva on 29-30 March 2007. European ECO-Forum was represented by Alexei Andreev from Biotica Ecological Society (Moldova). CEEWEB represented by Klara Hajdu participated as an observer member.

The Council's agenda originally did not include the issue whether biodiversity will be a "parallel" agenda item in Belgrade "Environment for Europe" Conference or part of the main Belgrade agenda. However due to intervention by IUCN, ECNC and CEEWEB, the PEBLDS Council addressed this issue. The PEBLDS Council gave its unanimous support to place the issue of biodiversity on the main agenda. The PEBLDS Council decided to send a letter to the Ministers of Environment, WGSO Chair and EU Presidency asking for efforts towards renaming the session to "thematic".

The Council addressed the agenda of biodiversity roundtable jointly organized by the PEBLDS and the European ECO-Forum. The originally proposed biodiversity roundtable agenda included three main topics (financing, PEEN and agriculture along with a communication segment), which was based on the ECO-Forum Strategy meeting discussions. However, the Council decided to emphasise the links between climate change and biodiversity at the roundtable. It is still not decided, how this will be realized.

Another very important decision was made on the future of PEBLDS. This offers a huge potential for NGO involvement in future activities, because the emphasis will be put much more on implementation with more governmental involvement and funding involved. These decisions are the outcomes from the last year's reform process of PEBLDS, including a Pan-European survey and consultations. The future direction can be summarised as follows:

- PEBLDS remains a unique forum for cooperation on a Pan-European level;
- It focuses on the implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Kyiv Resolution on Biodiversity in a bottom-up approach;
- Two-yearly "Biodiversity in Europe" conferences will take place after CBD COP meetings closely following up the decisions made there, within a framework of the Kyiv decisions;
- It will be a platform for sharing best practices and transfer of knowledge both from the West to the East and from the East to the West;
- It focuses on projects (including practical implementation projects and workshops) on subregional, regional levels.

It was also suggested that Pan-European preparatory meetings for CBD COP meetings should be organised preferably 1-2 days before COP meetings, where regional positions can be developed for the CBD negotiations.

This mandate will have to be confirmed at the Belgrade Conference, while the next Biodiversity in Europe conference is foreseen for 2008 September, after CBD COP-9 (May, 2008).

The documents of the 11th PEBLDS Council are available in English and French at:
http://www.coe.int/t/e/cultural_co-operation/
environment/nature_and_biological_diversity/
Biodiversity/straco_2007_1_en.asp

For more information please contact:
Klara Hajdu
CEEWEB
E-mail: hajdu@ceeweb.org

Alexei Andreev
BIOTICA Ecological Society
E-mail: alexei.andreev@biotica-moldova.org

4. HOST COUNTRY WEBSITE

Serbia - the host country of the 6th "Environment for Europe" Ministerial Conference (Belgrade, 10-12 October 2007) operates a website aimed to provide practical information to participants of the Conference. The website http://www.efe-belgrade2007.org/ contains information about conference venue, agenda, exhibitions and side-events, travel information, visas, accommodation, etc. There is a link to Serbian diplomatic missions around the world http://www.mfa.gov.yu/Worldframe.htm