🚀 go-pugleaf

Osteuropa-Rundbrief BUND (Bund f�r Umwelt und Naturschutz Deutschland)
Newsletter on Environment in Eastern Europe
Teil 3: In English language / In englischer Sprache
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

21 Environmentalists To Receive United Nations Environment Award

Nairobi, 29 May 1996 - The United Nations Environment Programme
(UNEP) announced that it has recognized the extraordinary
contributions of 21 individuals and organizations to
environmental protection by electing them to the prestigious
ranks of its Global 500 Roll of Honour. These distinguished
environmentalists from around the world will be officially
honoured on 9 June 1996 at a special award ceremony in Istanbul,
which will be attended by the President and Prime Minister of
the Republic of Turkey as well as the Chairman of the Turkish
Parliament. The event - hosted by UNEP and the Government of
Turkey during the Habitat II Conference - is part of this year's
World Environment Day celebrations. Among the laureates who will
be recognized and/or receive their award from UNEP's Executive
Director, Ms. Elizabeth Dowdeswell, there is (...) Tatyana
Stepanenko of Russia for finding ways to limit waste dumped into
the Newa River system and the Baltic Sea. (...) In 1975, when
Tatyana Fyodorovna Stepanenko of the Russian Federation went to
work at Vodokanal, a state enterprise in St. Petersburg, she set
her sights on finding ways to limit the amount of waste being
dumped into the Newa River system and the Baltic Sea. Not only
did she find high levels of extremely polluted waste being
discharged by industry, but that many of those industries were
part of the defense complex. Her work posed enormous challenges.
Environmental protection was not high on the policy agenda and
the defense industry was not obliged to follow the few
environmental regulations in place. Tatyana Stepanenko
perservered. In the end she established an information
collection system of the industrial waste being dumped into the
water, and the findings prompted the Government to draft
regulations for industry that included supervisory measures and
a system of fees structured according to a polluter pays
principle. The goal she set out to achieve took 18 years, and
the policy she helped develop is now in force in all Russian
townships. (...)

UNEP looks to the world community to identify and nominate
environmental advocates so that they too can be recognized for
their efforts. Nominations can be obtained from UNEP's
Headquarters, Global 500 Roll of Honour, P.O. Box 30552,
Nairobi, Kenya, and from UNEP's regional offices. For further
information: Mr. Tore J. Brevik, Ms. Elisabeth Guilbaud-Cox UNEP
Chief, Information Coordinator, Special Events Tel: (254-2) 62
3292, Tel: (254-2) 62 3084 Fax: (254-2) 62 3692,Fax: (254-2) 62
3692 E-mail: Tore.Brevik@unep.org; Elisabeth.Guilbaud
cox@unep.org

Ecodefense! group action update, June 1996

Energy Report: Three ecodefenders are still working to prepare
huge energy report responding to the questions: what's the
renewable energy sources of Kaliningrad region, why the region
need not nuclear power, what's the alternatives to present
energy system in the region, etc. The project is started by mid
1996 and will be ended by December of 1996. It'll be first same
analysis of the energy system in the region for last 60 years.
The energy report will be unique source of information for
scientists and activists.

Environmental Education: The environmental education
coordinators, Alexandra Koroleva and Galina Kucheneva, are
running their educational program with kindergarten' children.
Three days per week they are talking with children about the
Mother-Earth, her ecosystem and teach beautiful childs how to
live in harmony with the nature. "The Green Way" program,
Alexandra prepared and implements, is working with children of
5-7 age for full year, three times per week. Yet, Alexandra is
regularly organizing the excursions and lectures for the
schoolteachers on how to implement environmental education in
the schools. A video of lessons and excursions is available. A
book describing the environmental education program is in
preperation. 

"Stop the murder of wolves" Campaign: The campaign organized
some direct actions, performances and publications in 1995. Big
critical report on Russian Law to protect the wild nature was
prepared by the activist last autumn. At present time the
campaign is working on issues how to free animals from the
zoopark. Activists are also preparing the report for the Wolf
Federation congress which will take place next autumn in
Belgium. It was also the idea in the campaign to organize the
Action Day for Wolf Protection by December 1. 

Publications: New journal on environmental education: "Igorny
Dom" (Playing House) is focused for new methodics in children'
environmental education with deep ecology elements. It was about
2000 copies of first issue which were distributed very fast. The
journal become a top educational journal in Russia. Sent your
request.

"ECODEFENSE!" Moskovsky prospekt 120-34 236006
Kaliningrad/Koenigsberg Russia telephone/fax +7 0112 437286 

Short news

by Natalia Gurushina  - Workers at the Leningradskaya nuclear
power plant in St.Petersburg resumed protest action on 22 July,
Izvestiya reported. Their demands include the payment of 25
billion rubles ($5 million) in wage arrears. The trade union
committee said that the protests will not affect the plant's
security, since the action takes place after working hours in
the station's conference hall. One of the protesters' demands
has already been met: ITAR-TASS reported on 22 July that the
plant's director had resigned.

Financial Situation In Energy Sector (Omri Daily Digest, No.
142, Part I, 24 July 1996)

by Natalia Gurushina - Fuel and Energy Minister Yurii Shafranik
said that in the first half of 1996 the sector contributed 26
trillion rubles ($53 billion) to the budget, ITAR-TASS and
KommersantDaily reported on 23-24 July. Customers' debts to fuel
and energy companies rose by 60% over the same period, reaching
179 trillion rubles (54% of the total customers' debt in
industry). Shafranik noted that high taxes have pushed domestic
prices on fuel and energy products up to 75-95% of the world
price level.

Leningradskii Oblast - A New Legislative Bill "On The Use of
Forest In Leningradskij Oblast"

represents a serious threat to forest in the region, argued
members of Greenpeace and local non-government environmental
organizations at a press conference in St. Petersburg.
Acceptance of the bill would result in the liquidation of
control over the territory by the Federal Agency of Timber and
therefore the introduction of a monopolistic right of commercial
access to that timber by the oblast administration. (Nevskoe
Vremiia, 14 May)

St. Petersburg - Fines For Pollution In The City Have Recently
Increased By 100 Percent.

The increase is the result of the necessity to increase revenues
for city construction projects to protect the environment,
according to the Direction of Environmental Protection in St.
Petersburg. The increase in fines are aimed at those enterprises
which pollute the atmosphere and groundwater. (Delovoi
Peterburg, 14 May)

Sosnovy Bor - A Restricted Safety Zone

has been established at the distance of one kilometer in the
Gulf of Finland from the water outlet from the nuclear power
plant. Boats, including pleasure and fishing, will now be banned
from entry into this restricted area. Fishermen in the area are
reported to have made particularly large catches in this area in
the past due to the warm water discharged from the plant into
the Gulf in this location. (SPb Vedomosti, May)

Aid For Nuclear Safety Declining

Moscow - Western aid for nuclear plant safety in Russia is down
20 per cent this year despite problems at the country's old
nuclear facilities, a news report said Wednesday. Gennady
Nefyodov, deputy chief of the Atomic Energy Ministry's foreign
relations department, said the decline in funds would affect
research as well as projects already under way. Russia has
received some $500 million for upgrading and repairing its
nuclear plants in the past five years (Russia have spent at
least $500 million own money for same goals during last 5 years)
, Nefyodov told the Interfax news agency. The amount slated for
1996 is 20 per cent lower than last year.

Dysentery Outbreak

Moscow - Sewage seeping into tap water in the central Russian
city of Vladimir has caused an outbreak of dysentery that sent
more than 60 people to the hospital. Few of the victims had
drunk the water without boiling it first, but had used it to
wash fruit and vegetables or to brush their teeth, Itar-Tass
reported Monday, citing a doctor with the city sanitation
department. All those hospitalized live in the same neighborhood
of Vladimir, about 160 kilometrs east of Moscow. Breaks in
sewage pipes near a new shoe factory caused sewage to seep into
water mains, the report said.

Svetogorsk, Karelia - The Giant Svetogorsk Paper Processing Plant

is being converted by its new Swedish owners to operate on
natural gas rather than oil. The gas energy source will produce
less air pollution and is more economical for the plant than oil
today, due to the high transportation costs of oil within
Russia. The plant produces much of the cardboard used in Tetra
packaging throughout Russia and the C.I.S. Improvements are also
planned at the plant in future in order to make the present
bleaching process of cardboard stock more environmentally safe.
(Vesti)

Banning Of Green Party in St. Petersburg (by V. Lvova,
Express-Chronicle Weekly News Digest)

On 27 June the Petersburg section of the "Greens" party received
a "notification" of the banning of its activity. The
notification, signed by the governor of Leningrad region
Aleksandr Belyakov, reported that from 1 August the party's
activity in Leningrad region was banned. Until now, the "Greens"
party has won  several cases with the Leningrad region
government for violating nature conservation legislation.

Some 30 cubic meter of hydrogen chloride leaked in to air 

in the Moscow scientific-production amalgamation "Syntez" on
Monday night, Itar-Tass reported (Moscow, July 2).

Russia conducts first multiple missile test: 

Vladivostok, July 1, (Itar-Tass) - The Russian Pacific fleet has
successfully carried out its first simultaneous test launch of
ballistic missiles from three nuclear submarines sailing in the
sea of Okhotsk, a spokesman told.

Ecology of Industrial Regions - Electronic Research Journal:
http://www.volna.donetsk.ua/eir/erj. 

This new site offers current contents of environmental journals
published in the Ukraine and Russia. Information includes
contents of about ten journals with items also offered in a
topical listing. The site originates in the Ukraine which may
contribute to longer load times than expected.

Slovakia

Nuclear Power Plant Mochovce

Statement Of The Slovakian Ecological Movement "For Mother
Earth":

(...) SIEMENS has a new motto: Let's go east! The Siemens
corporation or its subsidiaries have taken part on construction
of all the nuclear power plants which were under construction in
the former western Germany. Since the disaster at the Chernobyl
NPP on April 26, 1986, there has been no additional nuclear
power plant completed in Germany. Because of this, the nuclear
operations of Siemens is only participating on only some 2.5%
the company's total budget. The managers where forced to find a
new strategy for keeping nuclear technology alive. The break of
the political system in the central and eastern Europe works
well for them; as it was expected to increase the orders to
complete and repair the Soviet designed nuclear reactors.
Mochovce NPP is a priority project for Siemens which wants to
use it as a showcase for many other nuclear reactors in the
region. Director of Siemens, Mr. Heinrich von Pierer, said it
clearly on August 9, in an interview for the Slovak radio, by
claiming that Mochovce is the reference project for some 60
reactors of the same type in the eastern Europe. In the actual
bid to complete Mochovce by the Czech Skoda company, the budget
of the safety improvements is smaller by about 40% in comparison
to the former scenario. That means that Siemens is ready to take
part on the project which will not raise Mochovce NPP to western
nuclear safety standards. It is clear that Mochovce could not
obtain the license to operate in the European Union nor in the
USA due to its lack of safety. Siemens will be misused by the
Slovak government as the garrantor of the western safety
standards; it would be impossible to find western finances for
the Slovak government otherwise. We should all boycott Siemens
products in order to pressure them to abandon the Mochovce
project. By buing any Siemens product, you've paid for Mochovce
as well! Stop Mochovce, boycott Siemens! Send a protest letter,
fax, and email to Siemens to let them know about your position
on this crucial issue. Send your statement to this adress:
SIEMENS Attn: Dr. Heinrich von Pierer WITTELSBACHERPL. 2 80333
Munchen, Germany Fax: -89- 234 42 42 Email:
roland.huegel@mchw.siemens.de. Copy this letter and send it to
them via email at the very least. It will take you mere seconds,
but you can have a tremendous impact. The European Bank for
Recontruction and Development is out of the project partialy
thanks to some 200,000 letters and cards protesting their
participation on the project.

"Dear Mr. Pierer, Siemen's corporate image is being tremendously
damaged because of your willingness to take part in the
completition of the Slovak Mochovce nuclear power plant. It is
obvious that neither your company nor any other is able to
upgrade Mochovce's safety to acceptable standrads. Mochovce
would not get the license to be oerated in the EU nor in the
USA. It would be impossible to build a Mochovce somewhere in
Munchen; do not take part in a project which would not be
acceptable in your country. Drop the double standards. It is
clear that Mochovce is not the most cost-effective method for
the Slovak energy system. There are many other options of
cheaper and more environmentally friendly energy production. By
halting your further participation on the Mochovce project, you
will contribute enormously to nuclear safety in Slovakia and the
central European countries. It may be only business for you, but
it is dirty money you want to earn. I want to let you that until
you halt your participation in the Mochovce project, I will
boycott any Siemens products. I will not buy any Osram,
Siemens-Nixdorf, and Siemens products. Stop Mochovce!
Antinuclear greetings,..."

The international campaign focuses on Germany: Parliamentary
inquires to the German Bundestag have confirmed that the
HERMES-guarantee loan to Siemens for work on Mochovce have not
yet been signed. German groups are asked to write to the four
ministeries making the decision [the economy, finance, foreign
affairs and development ministreies], with the Ministry of
Economy playing the most important rule. Non-German groups are
being requested to contact their governments to pressure Germany
not to support Mochovce and give a guarantee from Hermes. There
already exist government decisions against Mochovce [f.e. by the
Danish, Dutch, Norwegian, Turkish, Portugesse, Austrian,
Swedish, Luxemburg govts.]. Also good to point out is that
Siemens actually has a contract for upgrating the Bohunice NPP
in the Slovak republic which concludes in 1999. Almost certainly
insuring that Bohunice will not be switched off in 2000, as was
already promised. Here are the adresses:

Auswartiges Amt BM des Auswartigen Dr. Klaus Kinkel PF 1148
D-53107 Bonn.

BM der Finanzen Dr. Theodor Waigel PF 1308 D- 53003 Bonn.

BM fur Wirtschaft Dr. Gunter Rexrodt Briefpost D- 53107 Bonn.

BM fur wirtsch. Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung, Carl- Dieter
Spranger PF 120322 D- 53045 Bonn.

Construction Status: Not long after the contract was signed,
Hydrostav, the largest construction company in Slovakia, brought
workers back from Russia and began construction work again at
Mochovce. The Russian firm Atomenergoexport plans to begin work
in the next two months [thus July]. Control and security systems
will be supplied by the French Framatome and German Siemens,
presumably work will begin when financing is secured. 42 tons of
fuel were transported from Bohunice to Mochovce in April.

Mochovce Least Cost Study Discredited: The public criticism of
EBRD project manager Blaicklok of the PHB study justifying
Mochovce was widely reported in Slovakia. A demonstration in
front of the Ministry of Economy was also widely covered in the
media. Additionaly, we are planning the re-release of the US DOE
analysis which completely discredits the study. But
unfortunately, the ministry will probably rely on this study for
new documents, it is forced to produce for the parliament.

Slovakia Democracy Under Attack: Laws continue to come into
effect which restrict the press and threaten the non-profit
sector of the country. The foundations law has been actively
opposed by many groups within the country with a recent
demonstration reaching a crowd of over 2.000. Criminal Justice
Law similar to the communist law, you can go to prison for
distributing information or critizing the Slovak state or its
policy.

AtomicLaw Rushed: It is likely that some of the financing for
Mochovce will require the completion of the atomic law, which
the government is trying to rush through. The atomic law has
many of the same deficiences as the Czech law: unrealistically
low levels of total victim compensation for an accident, serious
conflict of interest between those making decisions about waste
and those producing it, little to no public participation in
decision making etc.

For Mother Earth, Slovakia, zamatkuzem@seps.sanet.sk,
tel./fax.:-42 7 713 506


SLOWENIEN

Slovenia ecologists fail to get nuclear plant shut

By Marja Novak, Ljubljana, May 21 (Reuter) - Slovenian
environmentalists conceded defeat on Tuesday in a campaign to
secure early closure of their country's only nuclear power
plant, saying they had too little money and lacked political
support. "We didn't have money for more publicity," Leo Seserko,
spokesman for the Slovenian Ecological Movement told. "(Most)
political parties didn't support our initiative or were opposed
to it." Despite two months of campaigning, the movement only
managed to collect 2,463 signatures of the 40,000 needed to
force a referendum on the plant's premature close. Seserko said
complex bureaucratic procedures required to sign the referendum
petition were partly to blame for the small number of
signatures. The group, which was backed by international
environmental group Greenpeace, was pushing for the close of the
nuclear plant Krsko (NEK) in 10 years. It had scheduled the
initiative around the 10th anniversary of the April 1986
Chernobyl disaster, the world's worst nuclear accident, in hope
that it would encourage people to participate. The government
said early closure of NEK would hurt the nation's economy and it
would take Slovenia more than 10 years to secure alternative
sources for energy provided by the plant. "Our plan is to
abolish nuclear energy in the future, but only when other
sources of energy are available," State Secretary of Energy
Boris Sovic said. The nuclear plant, built in cooperation with
Westinghouse Electric Corp, lies about 100 km (60 miles) east of
Ljubljana and is scheduled to close in 2023. The plant, which
started operating in 1983, recently said it expected to spend
180 million marks on two new steam generators to be replaced
over the next five years. NEK is jointly owned by Slovenia and
Croatia and produces about 20 percent of the annual electricity
consumed in the two states.

EU "sabotaged" bid to close Slovenian Nuclear Power Plant

Brussels, July 4 (Reuter) - A campaign to force a referendum on
closing Slovenia's only nuclear plant was "sabotaged" by an
European Commission-backed media trip on nuclear safety,
Slovenian politician Leo Seserko said. Seserko described as "a
serious case of democratic interference" the Commission's
funding of a nuclear safety visit by Slovenian reporters to
various EU reactors, slap in the middle of a domestic campaign
for a referendum on nuclear power. "We failed to collect the
40,000 signatures. One of those reasons was this study trip,"
said Seserko. He said media coverage resulting from the trip was
biased in favour of nuclear power because of a one-sided
itinerary. A Commission official denied that the $56,000
expenses-paid trip for 15 Slovenians to nuclear power plants in
Belgium, Germany and Sweden had anything to do with influencing
efforts to call the referendum. "The objective of the visit was
to learn more about nuclear safety not whether to use nuclear
power as such. We have had dozens of these visits in the energy
sector... This was the first one which had a nuclear safety
aspect," the official told. The official would not say if the
Commission knew beforehand that the trip, which was organised by
Europe's FORATOM nuclear lobby, would coincide with the
referendum campaign. "I cannot comment on that," he said.

TSCHECHISCHE REPUBLIK

"Black Ostrava" shows other face of Czech reform

By David Stamp (Ostrava, May 24, Reuter) - A visit to Prague
reveals how much the Czech Republic has achieved economically
since the 1989 fall of communism. But a trip to the home of
Czech heavy industry, Ostrava, reveals how much the country
still has to do in cleaning up the filthy legacy of state
central planning. Few visitors experience the grime and stink of
Ostrava, the foremost Czech coal and steel city tucked away in
northern Moravia near the Polish and Slovak borders. In fact
Ostrava, a city of 330,000 people, is a much cleaner place than
it was a decade ago. All coal mines within the city limits have
been closed, along with some factories which long spewed
carcinogens over the area. But one breath of the local air,
acrid from the city's steel mills and coking plants, reminds
visitors that such environmental devastation cannot be ended in
six years. "Our area is one of the most polluted in Europe,"
said Professor Vaclav Roubicek, who runs a European Union-funded
laboratory set up at Ostrava's technical university to analyse
contaminated air, water and soil. North Moravia, notably Ostrava
and the nearby mining district of Karvina, was the cradle of the
Austro-Hungarian empire's industrial revolution in the 19th
century. Iron and steel mills sprang up near Ostrava over the
deposits of high-quality black coal, becoming the powerhouse of
the Czechoslovak republic created after World War One. "Black
Ostrava" soon grew to the factory gates and people now live
right against the local Vitkovice mills. Perhaps worst were 40
years of communism when production was worshipped and the
environment counted for little. "The environment is in a
critical state in many parts of the region, particularly in the
Ostrava and Karvina districts," said a profile of North Moravia
released by the EU. Local officials, balancing the environmental
priorities with limited budgets and unemployment considerations,
say the clean-up will take well into the next century. "It would
be difficult to find a radical and immediate solution," Ostrava
Mayor Evzen Tosenovsky told a group of reporters and EU
diplomats. But Tosenovsky defended work done so far, saying that
emissions of some pollutants had fallen by up to 80 percent.
Some factories, trying to raise efficiency in the tough new
market economy, have slashed energy consumption while others are
switching to natural gas. Three out of seven coking plants,
which are among the worst polluters, have closed. Up to 75,000
jobs have gone from steel and mining in the region since 1989,
and local unemployment is almost double the admittedly low
national average of three percent. But the "Karolina" story
shows that simply closing plants is not always enough. Karolina
was a coking plant making fuel for local steel mills from coal.
It was closed a decade ago and dismantled but hidden damage
remains -- tar, coke and other toxic materials run at least 10
to 15 metres (30 to 45 feet) deep in the ground. What makes
Karolina special is that the site, now wasteland, lies in the
middle of town. "There are several hectares of the city centre
which are highly contaminated," said Mayor Tosenovsky. "Rarely
in Europe will you find such a big site in a city centre."
Tosenovsky says that under a contract with OKD, the last coking
plant in Ostrava is not due to close until 2009, although he
hopes demand from coke will dry up earlier.

ADONIS Advisory Centre for Sustainable Development in Mikulov

ADONIS has for several years been conducting innovative programs
in sustainable tourism and development. They have a close
working relationship with the administration of the Palava
Biosphere Reserve. WWF organizations in Europe have worked
closely with environmentalists in the region for many years on a
wide range of projects. For further information, contact Lad'a
Ptacek, ADONIS, Namesti 32, 692 01 Mikulov na Morave, Czech
Republic. Phone/Fax (42 625) 2855. Phone (42 625) 3239.

by Lad'a Ptacek (October 1995) - Major Accomplishments:
Institutional development. During the past four years many
environmental groups have been established in the Czech republic
and many of them continue to grow. They often employ
professional coordinators which further stabilizes the NGO
structure. There are also first signs of bottom-up networking,
joint projects between related groups, joint fundraising,
educational programs. For example, starting in January 1995,
five NGOs formed a network of ecocounselling offices.

Innovative Activities: Speaking from the limited experience of
ADONIS, I feel that our most innovative (and successful) project
is in sustainable tourism. One year later, ADONIS established a
for-profit branch to deal with projects that are profitable,
such as regional promotion and promotion of individual towns and
villages in Southern Moravia. This office should soon start to
cover a part of costs of our NGO.

Unaddressed Needs of NGOs: There is not much state support for
development of NGOs. The tax system does not encourage
sponsoring and donations to charities. Because of financial
uncertainties, it is very important to have access to diverse
sources of funding, including foreign foundations.

Major Positive Surprises: Good acceptance of our tourism project
by the regional and local authorities and people was the major
surprise. Also surprising is the extent to which it is possible
to influence development.

Major Unexpected Problems and Possible Solutions: (The following
paragraph was written before the elections held in June 1996
weakening the existing government) Lack of a consistent state
environmental policy. The recent Minister of Environment is
especially weak and, consequently, is the entire ministry. This
is very damaging to the environmental cause. This is of course
reflected in many concrete ways including public funding. A
possible solution is new elections and consistent and
constructive work on all levels. In the case of ADONIS this
means working mostly on the local and regional level. The
environment is not taken seriously by the general public. There
has been a shift in values and priorities. Right after 1989,
environmental issues were on top of the list of peoples'
priorities. Partly due to real progress in some areas (sewage
water treatment, air quality, etc.) and partly due to
unprecedented economic pressures, environmental problems seem to
be less pressing.

Major Changes Impacting Our Work Positively and Negatively:
These changes range from privatization of land, restoration of
"owners' mentality", through political changes - strong
conservatism, the uncertain position of environmental issues on
the national government's agenda to psychological tiredness of
bad news and the new demands posed by the free society. Any of
these has some good and some bad sides in respect to our work.
(WWF-US CEE Environmental Affairs Newsletter, June '96)

Kurzmeldungen:

Activists Blockade Czech Nuclear Plant: (by Jiri Pehe, (OMRI
Daily Digest No. 132, Part II, 10 July 1996) - Environmental
activists, who for several days have been demonstrating at the
Temelin nuclear power plant, entered the plant on 9 July and
smuggled out a copy of the plant's blueprint, Czech media
reported. That evening, they set off fireworks at the plant's
cooling tower. A spokesman for the activists said those actions
were to prove that the nuclear plant is insufficiently guarded.
On 8 July, police arrested about 40 activists who were
blockading plant entrances. Various ecological groups say the
plant will soon become unsafe and should be closed down.

Neue Forstgesetzgebung in Kraft getreten: (aus: Ochrana Prirody,
No.3/1996) Nach fuenfjaehrigen komplizierten Verhandlungen
zwischen Forsteigentuemern, Verfechtern oeffentlicher
Interessen, Gesetzgebern, etc. ist Anfang 1996 das neue
tschechische Forstgesetz No. 289/1995 in Kraft getreten. Es
regelt als erstmals das forstwirtschaft- liche
Ressourcenmanagement und setzt den Eigentuemern Grenzen in den
Moeglichkeiten der Waldnutzung.

Ukraine

Ukrainian President Meets With Gazprom Delegation.

by Chrystyna Lapychak (Omri Daily Digest No. 136, Part II,
16.07.96) - Leonid Kuchma met with visiting Gazprom officials to
discuss expanding business links, Ukrainian agencies reported.
The talks focused on how to improve the current system of
supplying gas to Ukraine and transporting it across its
territory to Eastern Europe. There was also discussion of the
possibilities for mutual investment in the Russian and Ukrainian
gas industries. Commentators on Ukrainian TV speculated the
visit was spurred by Russian gas and oil industry concerns that
Ukraine is seeking alternative sources of energy. They claimed
recent talks between the Ukrainian and Iraqi governments about
trading Iraqi oil for Ukrainian food supplies has made Russian
gas and oil barons nervous about losing a major customer.

TWO ACCIDENTS AT UKRAINIAN NUCLEAR PLANT KILL WORKER.

by Chrystyna Lapychak (Open Media Research Institute, 29.7.96)
Two accidents at the Khmelnytsky nuclear power plant on 25 July
killed an employee and leaked radiation inside the station,
Western and Ukrainian agencies reported the same day. The
incidents occurred as the station's only working reactor was
being tested for a planned restart since it was shut down on 20
April for maintenance. One employee sustained fatal injuries and
burns when a steam pipe burst during the testing. Several hours
later, radioactive water leaked into a nitrogen storage area
after workers failed to make a safety check. Plant managers said
radioactive contamination was limited to inside the plant and
that the leaks measured level three on the IAEA's seven-level
scale for nuclear accidents.

UKRAINE OPENS INSTALLATION TO DISMANTLE SS-19s. 

by Doug Clarke (Omri Daily Digest, No. 144, Part II, 26 July
1996) - Ukraine will open a facility on 26 July to dismantle and
"neutralize" the 130 SS-19 intermediate-range ballistic missiles
left on its territory by the collapse of the Soviet Union,
ITAR-TASS reported on 25 July. The facility is located at the
Yuzhmash plant in Dnepropetrovsk where the Soviet giant SS-18
missile was built. Sources in the Ukrainian Defense Ministry
told the agency that the facility would be able to process four
missiles per month. The U.S. provided financial support for the
project.

TSCHERNOBYL

Chernobyl: No Problems Since 1986, Officials Told

by David Stickney ("ECODEFENSE!inform", Nr. 84, May 1996) - Here
is the official press release from the Chernobyl Nuclear Power
Plant Regarding the tenth year anniversary of the Chernobyl
Disaster given by PR staff.

"For ten years since the accident, Chernobyl NNP's life has been
complicated and controversial. After the heroic phase
liquidating the aftermath, of constructing the sacophagus, of
restoration and restart of the undamaged units, of making the
new town, there followed the phase of personnel replacement.
Eight times the decision was taken and revoked to shutdown the
station. They compelled the staff to leave their Kiev
appartments and to move to Slavutich, which was built, as it was
found out, on a caesium patch. To profile themselves, many of
today's famous public and political figures, mass media were
particularly stigmatizing Chernobyl NPP and were demonstrating
negative attitude to the nuclear industry in general, calling
for immediate renunciation of nuclear power. Nevertheless the
station kept on working. The collective body of staff was
formed, safety and reliability were improved. Slavutich was
developed and equipped with services and utilities. Since the
accident, Chernobyl NPP has generated more than 127 billion kWh
of electricity of over US 5.5 billion total worth. (...) More
than $300 million have been invested in Chernobyl NPP's safety.
Safe opperation is in the hands of skilled personnel. In 1995
Chernobyl NPP produced 10 percent more electricity than in 1994,
and it had the least number of malfunctions - two per one unit
the best showing in Ukraine and the CIS. Last year 17.5 thousand
square meters of dwelling space were commisioned in Slavutich as
well as the main building of health care day center. Actually,
Slavutich is a modern town of 25,000 inhabitants. It has
developed infrastruture: telephone communication and cable
television are availible for every family. The station's staff
is committed to their duty ensuring safe operation of the and
producing electricity. The workers strongly believe in good
sense of leadership of the country and are confident of the
future."

The PR rep at the station stated that he felt that people should
not have been evacuated from local towns, and they should
return, as this is a greater injustice than the accident itself.
They constantly repeated that the area was a safe working place.
Our readings outside the reactor from our personal equipment
showed more than 660 Roentgen (Gomel 10). Slavutich is the
newest town in Ukraine, food is imported, and the standard of
living is of a western standard. The staff continually related
station's situation with their high standard of living. In fact,
the "spokesman" in a private conversation with me stated "I
don't care if the EU gave 3.1 billion to shut down the plant, if
it reduced my standard of living, I would take a machine gun to
the council and say 'up against the wall guys'... Well I'm just
kidding". I don't believe he was kidding, only saying this after
seeingour reaction.

What the G7 has done so far on nuclear safety

Moscow, April 20 (Reuter) - The world's leading industrialised
nations have spent several billion dollars on trying to improve
nuclear safety in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe
over the last five years. Leaders of the Group of Seven (G7) are
meeting Russian President Boris Yeltsin in Moscow for talks on
the problems involved. The following is an account of
international efforts so far to make ageing nuclear reactors
safer and to ensure the security of nuclear weapons and highly
dangerous material. The G7 began coordinating nuclear safety
assistance to former Soviet republics and to Eastern Europe in
1992. None of the reactors identified as dangerous by Western
standards has been closed so far. But the 7 nations, along with
other members of the EU, have either spent or committed more
than $1 billion in loans and grants to help improve reactor
safety. In addition, the G7 has pledged some $3 billion to help
Ukraine close down Chernobyl, site of the world's worst nuclear
accident a decade ago, by the year 2000. 

The U.S. has taken the lead in efforts to make sure Soviet
nuclear weapons remain firmly under control. Since 1992, it has
committed more than $1.5 billion to help Russia, Ukraine,
Belarus and Kazakhstan with the process, including transport,
storage and dismantling. Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan have
agreed to give up all nuclear weapons on their soil, leaving
Russia as the sole nuclear weapons state in the former Soviet
Union. Washington has also tried to make sure bomb-grade nuclear
materials do not fall into the wrong hands, through smuggling.
In 1994, the U.S. secretly purchased 600 kg (1,323 lb) of
highly-enriched uranium (HEU) from Kazakhstan in a deal worth
$10 million. Washington has also agreed to purchase a minimum of
500 tonnes of Russian HEU over a period of 20 years, in a deal
worth $20 billion. The U.S. is paying half of the $300 million
cost of building a Russian nuclear storage site at Mayak in the
Urals. It will hold 40 percent of Russia's weapons-grade
plutonium. 

The 15-member EU has concentrated its efforts improving nuclear
safety in the civilian area: more than $500 million for the
former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe since 1991 ($400 million
to Russia and Ukraine).

Other efforts: Japan, Russia, the EU, the United States and
Russia want to prevent a "brain drain" of disaffected scientists
involved in Soviet nuclear and military affairs. In 1994, these
countries set up the International Science and Technology Centre
in Moscow. With total funding of more than $70 million, the
centre is supposed to sponsor almost 10,000 scientists in
employment projects for up to three years. There is a similar
centre in Kiev, although smaller. Last month, European and U.S.
nuclear experts agreed new efforts to help Moscow clamp down on
illicit traffic in nuclear materials. A centre at Obninsk, near
Moscow, will be opened this year to train Russian experts in
Western safety procedures. Millions more have been spent in
other bilateral efforts by major Western countries and Japan,
which is particularly concerned about the disposal of Russia's
radioactive waste. The IAEA is helping coordinate safety
efforts, technical assistance and the exchange of information.
Western energy companies are involved for upgrading nuclear
reactors.

Chernobyl Ten Years Later: The True Price Of Nuclear Power

By Renfrey Clarke (Moscow) - On April 19 this year, a week
before the tenth anniversary of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster,
leaders of the G7 group of industrialised nations met in Moscow
with the presidents of Russia and Ukraine for a two-day summit
on nuclear safety. The assembled leaders proceeded to give a
firm thumbs-up to nuclear power. (...) While reiterating an
earlier pledge to aid the shutdown of the remaining reactors at
Chernobyl, the G7 leaders had made no moves to encourage the
closure of the 13 similar RBMK-type reactors still operating in
Russia and Lithuania. (...) Skimming a wide range of
nuclear-related questions in only five hours of formal talks,
the G7 leaders never intended to debate these issues in depth.
Nevertheless, the period of the summit did see serious
discussion of nuclear safety. This took place at an alternative
Moscow summit sponsored by the US-based Natural Resources
Defense Council and by the Centre for Russian Environmental
Policy. Here, the long-term costs of the Chernobyl disaster and
the broader danger posed to humanity by the nuclear power
industry - received a thorough accounting. Ten years down the
track, speakers at the alternative summit made clear, the costs
of Chernobyl have only begun to be paid, and the suffering has
only begun to be endured. For example, cancer cases resulting
from the accident are not expected to reach their peak until the
year 2005. (...) One message that emerged clearly at the
alternative nuclear summit was that the Chernobyl disaster
released far more radioactivity than was reported at the time.
In February this year the Nuclear Energy Agency published an
assessment indicating that more than 140 million curies were
dispersed into the environment, more than three times the
initial estimate by the International Atomic Energy Agency. The
World Health Organisation recently cited a figure of some 200
times the radioactivity released in the 1945 nuclear bombing of
Japan. These conclusions are borne out by studies of chromosomal
mutation in the human population around Chernobyl. This research
shows mutation rates four to five times higher than in control
regions, a finding consistent with much heavier exposure to
radioactivity than was admitted in 1986. (...)

Is the world safer after nuclear summit?

By Nicholas Doughty (Diplomatic Correspondent, Moscow, April 21,
Reuter) - With a pledge to make nuclear safety an "absolute
priority," world leaders have promised real action to prevent
more Chernobyls and to stop more people acquiring the power of
the atomic bomb. But a combination of harsh economic realities
and political sensitivity could make it difficult to turn the
summit's fine words -- a decade after the Chernobyl disaster
-into reality. The Moscow meeting, which brought Russia and
Ukraine together with rich industrialised nations, agreed a
joint programme to tackle nuclear problems. Between them, these
countries hold most of the world's nuclear weapons and material.
"Today we took yet another step back from the nuclear
precipice," said U.S. President Bill Clinton after the summit
ended on Saturday. "We must not rest until these dangers have
been reduced, until the cloud of fear has been lifted." At the
meeting, Russia joined its Western partners for the first time
in agreeing to a complete ban on nuclear tests. Ukraine
confirmed a decision to shut down Chernobyl by the year 2000, in
exchange for several billion dollars of aid. Neither decision
could be described as radical. Russia had been expected to make
the commitment on nuclear tests for some time and there are much
more difficult problems -- involving China and India -- in
completing a test ban treaty at negotiations in Geneva.
Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma confirmed the closure of
Chernobyl only under pressure from Western leaders, who reminded
him that he had already agreed to this in principle at a
previous meeting with the Group of Seven (G7) rich nations. Kiev
wants more Western help and wants it faster, suggesting that the
$3 billion pledged in aid so far will not be enough. French
President Jacques Chirac, noting that ageing reactors considered
dangerous by international standards were still operating in
Eastern Europe and former Soviet republics, said they should be
shut down if they could not be modernised. This was the line
taken at a G7 summit in Munich four years ago but the Moscow
meeting took a softer approach. The final communique said that,
while progress had been made in improving reactor safety,
"substantial progress is still required." The United States and
its European allies have spent several billion dollars on
helping with the safety of nuclear reactors and warheads to be
dismantled under arms control deals. They are unwilling to dig
much deeper into their pockets. International studies put the
cost of closing the riskiest Soviet-era reactors down as fast as
possible at around $20 billion. Russia and other countries say
they cannot afford it and that they need the energy generated.
Economic realities have left environmentalists unimpressed. "The
summit was an absolute disaster when it comes to these questions
of nuclear safety," said Joshua Handler of Greenpeace. "The fact
that they now endorse not shutting the oldest unsafe reactors
but trying to upgrade them, fix them up, is a big step backwards
for nuclear safety." "The big losers are the citizens of the
former Eastern bloc who will have to endure a higher level of
nuclear risk than their counterparts in the West," said Thomas
Cochran of the U.S. Natural Resources Defence Council. The
summit programme promised intelligence cooperation to prevent
the growing trade in nuclear materials that could be used to
make weapons, and it urged countries to stick to international
standards on safety, liability and waste dumping. There were no
pledges of extra cash from the world's rich nations to help with
these problems, despite the threat of pollution and the risks of
nuclear weapons proliferation. Existing efforts to help Russia
secure nuclear material and weapons have been far from
trouble-free, Western officials say. Moscow is sensitive about
military secrets and suggestions that it is not able to keep
full nuclear control. One of the unstated aims of the summit was
to give President Boris Yeltsin a boost at home as he prepares
for June elections, with Western leaders worried that Yeltsin
could lose to Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov. For all of
these reasons, G7 leaders politely avoided singling Russia out
for any criticism on nuclear issues. But even Russia's Deputy
Nuclear Energy Minister, Nikolai Yegorov, admitted that the
problems of nuclear waste - most it from Soviet military
installations - was "close to a catastrophic situation" in some
regions.

What they said at the Moscow summit on Nuclear Safety:

Moscow, April 20 (Reuter) - Here is a selection of notable
quotes from the two-day nuclear safety summit in Moscow which
ended on Saturday: "Today we took yet another step back from the
nuclear precipice. We must not rest until these dangers have
been reduced, until the cloud of fear has been lifted." -- U.S.
President Bill Clinton. "In the years of the Cold War the atom
was a factor of division, terror, deterrence and confrontation.
Today we have a possibility of making the atom a factor of
partnership, cooperation and peace." -- Russian President Boris
Yeltsin "We are committed to give an absolute priority to safety
in the use of nuclear energy. As we approach the 10th
anniversary of the Chernobyl accident, it is our shared
objective that such a catastrophe cannot reoccur." -- the summit
communique. "The safety culture (at Chernobyl) remains
inadequate...We must consider closing down nuclear reactors
which cannot be sufficiently modernised." -- French President
Jacques Chirac. "This country is seriously polluted. We will all
die soon with such nuclear safety, and I want to raise my
daughter first. What can you expect of a country which has a
mutated two-headed eagle as its national symbol?" -- Alexander
Kotenko, 42, visiting Moscow from suburban town of Balashikha.
"Instead of a state dinner, the G7 countries should perhaps hold
a prayer breakfast. The only thing standing between us and
another Chernobyl is the grace of God." -- Tom Cochran of the
U.S. environmental organisation Natural Resources Defense
Council.


Kiev, July 1 (Reuter) - A small amount of radiation leaked out
at the Chernobyl NPP at the weekend.

Pervomaisk (South-Ukrainian Nuclear power Plant), June 1 - All
the cities in the 30 km zone around South-Ukrainian NPP are
cleaned up by disactivating substances. It's possible that
South-Ukranian Nuclear Power Plant have released a big amount of
radioactivity to the atmosphere on May 27, - special
correspondent reported from Pervomaisk, a small city is located
in 32km from the NPP. It's a tradition in Ukraine to cleanse
cities by disactivating chemicals after serious accidents with
radioactivity release from NPP, but nobody knows is it helping
anybody. It wasn't any press-release from plant or state
officials following accident days. aus: "Anti-Atom Press" N 56,
June 1996 a russian newsletter of nuclear news

ZENTRALASIEN

(sowiet nicht anders bezeichnet aus: ECOSTAN NEWS- Ecol. and
Pol. News from Central Asia, Vol. 4/Number 4, April 1, 1996 Eric
Sievers, 569 Whitney Ave. #3 New Haven, CT 06511 USA, (203)
776-5220, esievers@igc.org

The Kazakhstan Red Book

by S. Malostvolov - The Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of
Kazakhstan, in its decree of March 13, 1995 (#1258), affirmed
the Status of the Red Book in the Republic of Kazakhstan.
According to this decree, Kazakhstan's Red Book consists of two
tomes (fauna and flora) and contains collected reports and
evidence about the condition of rare, endangered, and threatened
species of plants and animals, as well as necessary measures to
study them, restore them, and provide for their rational
utilization. The populations and environmental conditions
necessary for species restoration and genetic viability are also
established. The taking of any species listed in the Red Book is
prohibited over the entire territory of the Republic of
Kazakhstan, except in circumstances established by law. Further
species may be included in the Red Book based on established
criteria of population decrease, habitat disappearance, unsafe
changes in the environment, or other data establishing the
necessity of adopting urgent measures for the preservation and
restoration of a species. The preparation of the Red Book, and
issues regarding the inclusion and exclusion of species from it,
will be handled by two interagency commissions, one for zoology
and one for botany, the composition of which (and, later, the
decisions of which) must be approved by the government. The
management of Red Book issues is entrusted jointly to the
Ministry of Ecology and Bioresources and the National Academy of
Sciences, with the participation of other interested ministries
and agencies encouraged. (...) In what manner can this important
government document be reconciled with the hard currency hunts
on Red Book species being conducted in Kazakhstan for foreign
tourists? Unfortunately, it is necessary to reveal that the
government, in this document, does not forbid, but essentially
gives the green light to, foreign hunt tourism. Thus, in the
text of the decree, in the section discussing research,
preservation, and restoration of Red Book animals and plants,
"rational use" is listed as a definite and necessary measure.
Also in the section entitled "Means of collecting data and
developing measures for the preservation of animals and plants,"
there is a separate phrase allowing the taking and collection of
Red Book animals and plants, their nests, eggs, fruits, seeds,
parts, or products. (...) There can be only one conclusion: In
the government of Kazakhstan, there is no interest in restoring
rare, endangered, and threatened animals and plants. Rather, Red
Book animals are seen as a potential economic resource.

Appeal From Ecologists of Kazakhstan

(source: Express-Chronicle Weekly News Digest, 27/6/96) - Dear
Colleagues! A tragic event has occurred: the government has
transferred the [nature] reserves of the republic to the
Committee for the Forestry Industry. This signifies the ruin of
the reserves, since the Committee for the Forestry Industry has
shown its lack of ability and willingness to head the affairs of
reserves in the republic. A direct and conscious destruction of
the nature reserves is in progress: reduction of their area and
their transformation into forest industry contractors
[zakazniki], the development of foreign hunting..., the
mismanagement and virtual destruction of natural monuments,
[and] Barnaul National Park ekes out a miserable existence. This
fate awaits the reserves: everything that is valuable, which has
accumulated over decades, will be destroyed within 2-3 years.
(...)  - Ecocentre "Vita" 

Mining and Environment in Tajikistan

by Oleg Baratov (Geological Society) and Yuri Skochilov (Youth
EcoCenter) - (...) In Tajikistan, two large regions stand out
for their widely distributed natural and anthropogenic
anomalies: Northern Tajikistan and Central Tajikistan. The
Kuraminsky Range, also known as the Karamazar Mountains, is the
principal area of natural anomalies in Northern Tajikistan. They
are composed primarily of granite and saturated with radioactive
elements, rare metals, and metallic compounds. Roughly 200
mining sites are concentrated in this area. The most important
mining operations are for lead, zinc, copper, silver,
molybdenum, wolfram, bismuth, gold, uranium, and iron. Moreover,
the ore contains commercial quantities of or compounds of
fluorite, cobalt, cadmium, selenium, tellurium, indium,
thallium, gallium, germanium, arsenic, mercury, antimony, and
strontium. The most toxic of the Karamazar elements are uranium,
thorium, lead, cadmium, molybdenum, arsenic, fluorine, and
selenium. Within the borders of Northern Tajikistan, because of
the geo-chemical nature of igneous rock containing uranium and
thorium, there are five areas (Adrasmanskaya, Eastern,
Tabosharskaya, Northwestern, and Kiiktalskaya) of elevated
radiation containing territories that are radiation anomalies
and uranium mines. The natural radiation level at Adrasmanskaya
fluctuates between 18 and 45 microroentgens/hour. It also has
six local radioactive anomalies covering roughly three square
kilometers where gamma activity is 75 to 300
microroentgens/hour. The Eastern area coincides with a strip of
development of Chokadambulak granite, which contains elevated
concentrations of thorium. The background gamma radiation
fluctuates between 18 and 25 microroentgens/hour, but there are
five uranium mines with gamma radiation up to 2000
microroentgens/hour and four others with levels up to 900
microroentgens/hour. The total area of elevated radiation in
Eastern is roughly 5.2 square kilometers. The most radioactive
area, however, is Tabosharskaya. Within its borders are more
than ten uranium mines and a large number of radioactive
anomalies. While mines in other areas may yet to have been
developed, in Tabosharskaya they are almost all developed, and
its territory is a significant zone of anthropogenic radioactive
pollution. Outside the borders of these anomalies, the
background radiation level is between 15 and 40
microroentgens/hour, but in the slightly more than five square
kilometers which is within their territories, it reaches 3000
microroentgens/hour. Northwestern has a background radiation
level of 12 to 35 microroentgens/hour, also explained by the
presence of granite with high levels of thorium. On its
territory are three uranium mines with levels up to 2000
microroentgens/hour and eight other radioactive anomalies with
levels up to 500 microroentgens/hour, comprising a total area of
2.5 square kilometers. Kiiktalskaya is situated in the Muzbek
Mountain Range and contains a developed eponymous uranium mine
whose territory contains radiation levels up to 4000
microroentgens/hour, while the surrounding area has levels of
from 10 to 35 microroentgens/hour. Natural springs here have
uranium concentrations of up to 3.2 grams/liter. It is important
to note that these areas of anthropogenic pollution in the
Karamazar Mountains exert negative influences on nearby regions
and are tending to increase in size. Waste products have been
shown to be dispersing themselves dozens of kilometers away in
the Mirzarabat and Samgar valleys, both areas of intensive
irrigated agriculture. The primary effects are acidification of
the soil and introduction into the water cycle of toxic
compounds that will eventually reach the Syr Darya River and the
Kairakum Reservoir, thereby polluting all of the eastern part of
Central Asia up to the Aral Sea. In Central Tajikistan, there
are three areas in the Gissarsky and Zeravshansky mountain
ranges (Shing-Mangianskaya, Iskanderkul-Yagnobsky, and
Barzobsky) of elevated radiation and pollution from mercury,
antimony, gold, wolfram, tin, and other developed and
undeveloped mines. All three areas of pollution are typical
mountainous territories prone to landslides and mudslides. In
other words, they are territories with rapid and intensive
migrational processes. As a rule, pollution sources (processing
industries and developed and undeveloped mines) are situated on
small territories on either steep mountain faces or flood
plains, sites which restrict normal utilization of mining waste
products. Shing-Mangianskaya encompasses an eponymous watershed
in the Penjikent district and contains many antimony-mercury,
gold-sulfides, and gold-rare metals mines. The main source of
pollution here is water run-off from the mercury mining of
Kavnok, the gold-antimony-wolfram mining of Jilau, and the
gold-antimony mining of Taror. The latter and several analogous
and closely situated mines (Gijarv, Badog, and others) are the
most aggressive polluters because their ore and wastes contain
appreciable amounts of arsenic. The wastes (arsenic, selenium,
lead, and other heavy metals) are untreated and are washed away
into the Shing, Magian, and Zeravshan rivers. Not only are these
wastes the major source of heavy metal pollution in these
rivers, remarkable quantities of mercury, antimony, and
molybdenum are introduced into the Zeravshan River. The
Iskanderkul-Yagnobsky region largely specializes in
mercury-antimony mining. Two areas are notably polluted with
mercury, antimony, arsenic, lead, and, possibly, thallium. The
major area consists of the Jijikrut Mine and the Anzob
Processing Facility situated in the middle stretch of the Yagnob
River. This mine and its processing facility have been
operational for over 30 years. During this period, several
million tons of mercury-antimony mining waste have been
accumulated and occasionally washed into the river. The other
pollution source contains the Konchoch-Skal mines. Several
hundred thousand tons of waste have been accumulated here and
are responsible for mercury, antimony, arsenic, lead, and,
possibly, thallium pollution of the Konchoch River, the unique
Iskanderkul Lake, and the Yagnob and Zeravshan rivers. Since the
Zeravshan River's watershed encompasses several countries, this
pollution threatens much of the drinking water and industrial
water supply of Central Asia. Barzobsky is tied to the river of
the same name in the Gissarsky Range. This area is of critical
importance because it directly impacts such densely populated
areas as Dushanbe and important agricultural areas such as the
Gissar Valley. In the middle stretches of the Barzob River,
because of a unique geological formation (the immense South
Barzob granite massif containing high levels of uranium and
thorium), there is a large (100 square kilometers) area of
elevated radiation, up to 60 microroentgens/hour, the Guskharv
uranium deposit (up to 1500 microroentgens/hour), and more than
50 radioactive anomalies (up to 1000 microroentgens/hour). This
area coincides with a region of fluorite-polymetallic mines,
such as Takob, Kondara, and Bigar. The Takob Fluorspar
Processing Facility is located here; in conjunction with the
mines, this facility is the Barzob's major polluter of fluorine
and lead. In the upper reaches of the Barzob River,
sulfide-gold-rare metal mining is particularly developed. The
Maikhur and Kabuta sulfide-tin-wolfram mines process ore
locally. These untreated wastes, eventual sources of arsenic
water pollution, are washed into the Maikhur and Zidda rivers,
both tributaries of the Barzob. While there are some undeveloped
gold and uranium mines here (Shutur-Gardan, Pyanj-Khok, and
Gazara), large amounts of waste ore were exposed during
exploration and are sources of arsenic, uranium, and lead
pollution for the Barzob watershed. Because of the unconsidered
economic and industrial activities of a range of mining and
processing ministries and agencies during the era of the Soviet
Union, Tajikistan has been bequeathed a legacy of immense
polluted areas, polluted soil, and polluted water, as well as
millions of tons of waste ore and materials suffused with
ecologically dangerous compounds from the mining industry. At
the present time, in order to liquidate the consequences of the
exploitation of mines and the processing of ore, significant
technical and fiscal resources are required, resources which
Tajikistan is not in any condition to provide unilaterally. The
environmental problems that face the republic today as a
consequence of the mining industry, problems exacerbated by
Tajikistan's unique geological history and its geographic
position in Central Asia, have grown far beyond the modest
borders of Tajikistan itself. They urgently demand international
attention and assistance. (...) 

The Reconstruction Of The Port Turkmenbashi

by Timur Berkeliev (Ashgabad Ecological Club Catena) - (...) The
EBRD is currently considering extending credit to Turkmenistan
for the rehabilitation and/or expansion of this port. For
background, Port Turkmenbashi is located on the Caspian Sea.
Founded in 1869, it was formerly named Krasnovodsk and held the
appellation "Sea Gate to Central Asia". At present, this largest
of Turkmenistan's ports links the Central Asian states, Iran,
and the Caucasus. With the dissolution of the USSR, trade
through the port decreased. However, increasing North/South
ties, high tariffs for Russian rail freight, and the existence
of oil refineries in Krasnovodsk itself give the port
possibilities for an advantageous position in the region. The
dilapidated technological condition of the port's
infrastructure, occasioned by both worn-out equipment and the
rising level of the Caspian Sea, prevents expansion of its
capacity. Ironically, the reconstruction of the port in the late
1950s and its relocation in the 1960s were occasioned by the
increasing shallowness of port areas because of a drop in the
Caspian Sea's level. During the course of the scoping
discussions, it became evident that there was no established
project plan yet. The question of whether an oil refinery
terminal would be included in the port area had not yet been
fully addressed. However, the current petroleum holding and
transportation facilities in Krasnovodsk are in miserable
condition. In our opinion, the major problem of the past and
present is the lack of space for the port, a condition
exacerbated by the rising level of the Caspian. There is a very
narrow beach between the sea and the mountains, bounded on one
side by the city and on the other by the village of Ufra and a
nature reserve. This beach is increasingly submerged; already
now water pipes and electrical lines are partially underwater.
The remaining dry land simply cannot accommodate necessary
processing facilities for solid and liquid wastes. There is also
no space for the storage of dredged materials. This problem is
already apparent in current dredging to deepen the port area and
would become much more serious considering the scale of the
proposed reconstruction of the port. The result would be more
dredged materials flowing back into the waterway, clouding the
water of the region, and possibly facilitating the introduction
of pollutants into the sea. However, the reconstruction of the
port, and the rest of the seaside infrastructure of Krasnovodsk,
is imperative from an ecological point of view. In the near
future, the situation in this region will be determined by two
factors, flooding and the condition of the oil refinery's
facilities. Against the background of these dangers, the
reconstruction of the port is not as significant. On the other
hand, exactly what kind of port will come into existence is an
important issue. In other words, the work of the environmental
movement will begin after proposals for the new port hit the
tables.In conclusion, we want to point out that the EBRD and its
consulting firms have conducted a number of research projects
already, for example on the proposed reconstruction on the
Ashgabad-Mary highway. Up to now, these efforts have ceased
after the stage of collection of information has been completed.
We'll see if the same thing happens with this port project.

Technogenic Environmental Transformations in Turkmenistan

by Nikita Barsuk (Citizens' Laboratory for Geo-Ecological
Modeling) - The territory of Turkmenistan, like large areas of
Africa, Asia, and America, is located in an arid zone with
limited water resources. Therefore, industrial development is
intimately intertwined with water allocation and, primarily,
with irrigation and its attendant structures of canals,
reservoirs, and drainage systems. Today, in the Aral Sea
watershed 56 cubic kilometers of the flow of the Amu Darya and
Syr Darya rivers are dedicated to artificial canals.
Consequently, the sea has virtually ceased to exist while
roughly eight million hectares have been brought under
cultivation. Roughly five cubic kilometers of "Aral" water are
diverted into Turkmenistan through the Karakum Canal to irrigate
approximately one million hectares. In illustrating basic
technogenic environmental transformations in Turkmenistan, the
most vivid example may be the Kopetdag industrial region, which
claims 3200 square kilometers and includes Ashgabad. This region
is responsible for 21% of the industrial output of the country
and 17% of the agricultural output. Therefore, the region is
subject to factors from both cities and croplands and processes
of transformation are both intense and sizable. The region has
80,000 cars and 50,000 motorcycles that consume up to 1.5
thousand tons of petroleum products daily. Roughly 100 large
factories produce up to 5.4 cubic meters/second of liquid waste.
Industries and power stations daily burn up to 200 tons of oil,
27 tons of coal, and more than four million cubic meters of
natural gas. Out of all the large cities in the region
(Ashgabad, Bezmein, Geoktepe, and Bakharden), only Ashgabad has
a completed sewage system; Bezmein has a partial system.
Disposal of waste water is direct (up to 3.5 cubic
meters/second) and seeps into the soil as well as into the water
supply of the cities. Irrigated lands comprise 115,000 hectares
and employ 44.5 cubic meters of water per second. The normal
delivery is between .3 and .7 liters per second per hectare.
Each hectare of cultivated land also annually receives between
270 and 500 kilograms of mineral fertilizer and between 4 and 10
tons of organic fertilizer. Most widely used is saltpeter:
ammonium nitrate, potassium nitrate, sodium nitrate, calcium
nitrate, ammonium sulfate, Ca(H2PO4)2xH2O+CaSO4, and potassium
chloride. Thus, at the beginning of the 1990s, every year 30-35
thousand tons of mineral and 500-520 thousand tons of organic
fertilizer were being applied to cultivated lands in the region.
Annual norms of biocides are from 6 to 13 kilograms/hectare,
three to four times above the world average. Thus, 1700 to 2600
tons of biocides are applied to the region annually. The most
widely used are the herbicides dalapon, tetral, and nitrofen,
and the defoliant "khlorat magniya". As a result of these
factors, all components of nature (surface and ground waters,
soil, and atmosphere) are subject to intense transformation.
Because of rising ground waters (rising at rates four times
faster than normal), flooding and swamps now claim 623 square
kilometers, 380 of them salinized at levels of more than 3%.
Because of the lack of remediation facilities for industrial
waste water, waste water has concentrations of up to 14.4
milligrams of ammonia, 1 milligram of phenols, .5 milligram of
asphaltenes, .6 milligram of aldehydes, .4 milligram of highly
reactive substances, and 8 milligrams of petroleum products per
liter; concentrations of up to 300 mg/liter of nitrates and 7
mg/liter of nitrites filter directly into the ground water.
Waste water from irrigation contains up to 180 mg/liter
nitrates. Fertilizers result in concentrations in ground water
of up to 18 mg/liter nitrites and 39 mg/liter nitrides.
Concentrations of agricultural chemicals in the water usually do
not exceed .017-.005 mg/liter; however, during autumn, it can
reach .12 mg/liter. The filtration of sewage water into the
ground water of urban areas creates bacteriological pollution.
The coliform index is generally 10-30, but in some places
reaches 1100. Roughly 90 thousand tons of industrial pollutants
are sent into the atmosphere annually, including up to 12
thousand tons of solid wastes such as cement, dust, and ash, up
to 60 thousand tons of carbon, and up to 500 tons of heavy
metals. Intensive automobile use accounts for the concentration
of lead (from 400 to 2000 grams per ton) and zinc (from 300 to
3000 grams per ton) in soil. Industrial areas characteristically
have up to 200 grams per ton of chrome, 5000 grams per ton of
strontium, and up to 500 grams per ton of arsenic, as well as
lithium, strontium, and cadmium pollution of vegetation.
Involving dozens of cubic kilometers and thousands of square
kilometers, the most powerful and immense influence on the
environment and human health is effected by water pollution
caused by technogenic alterations of, primarily, ground water.
In arid conditions, the quality of drinking water determines the
physical health of the population, and hydrologic conditions
determine the health of the land. They are affected by changes
in the structure of water flows, in the balance between water
supply and demand, in the chemical composition (and pollution)
of ground water, in the pollution and salinization of soils, and
in the external natural world (climate, landscape, flora, and
fauna). These factors determine consequent evaluations of the
effects of quantitative parameters of the technosphere, most
importantly the volume of water supply, extent of water loss and
filtration, and the volume of drainage systems. Subsequently,
these alterations effect transformations in chemistry, climate,
and the living world. The complex variety of factors involved in
the technosphere complicates prognosing the consequences of
industrial activities. Therefore, the Citizens' Laboratory
considers that in the conditions described above, the most
rational method of geo-ecological prognosing is quantitative
modeling. This quantitative model should be based on a
geo-filtration model of the surface and ground waters of
technogenic subjects such as towns and irrigated lands and
itself serve as a model for geo-chemical processes such as
pollution and salinization.

Chimgan NGO Seminar

by Ibragim Domulajanov (For an Ecologically Clean Fergana)
During the first two days in June, in Chimgan, in the mountains
of Tashkent Region, a seminar was held for Central Asian NGOs in
which environmental NGOs from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan,
Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan took part, as well as
UNDP and the Netherlands foundation NOVIB. Among the
participants were Aral-SOS (Nukus, Karakalpakstan), the Union in
Defense of the Aral Sea and Amu Darya (Nukus), For an
Ecologically Clean Fergana (Fergana, Uzbekistan), Perzent
(Nukus), the Ecological Union of Karakalpakstan (Nukus), the
Ukuk Fund for International Legal Cooperation (Bishkek,
Kyrgyzstan), the Tabiat Ecological Movement (Bishkek), the
Institute for Human Ecology (Dushanbe, Tajikistan), EcoCenter
(Karaganda, Kazakhstan), the Kokjiek Society for Cooperation in
Resolution of the Problems of the Aral Region (Aralsk,
Kazakhstan), and Dashkhovuz Ecological Guardians (Dashkhovuz,
Turkmenistan). These organizations reviewed questions concerning
possible cooperative efforts to study the condition of the
ecosystems along the Syr Darya River, the Amu Darya River, and
the Aral Sea. The first result of the seminar was that the
Association of Central Asian Ecological NGOs was formed and
selected the following representatives to sit on its governing
board: Ibragim Domulajanov (Fergana), Karat Moldashev (Tabiat,
Bishkek), Abdurakhim Khasanov (Dushanbe), Farid Tukhvatullin
(Dashkhovuz), Kuryshbek Izmagambetov (Aralsk), Yusup Kamalov
(Nukus, Union in Defense of the Aral Sea and Amu Darya), and
Vladimir Ryaguzov (Karaganda). The second result of the seminar
was the formation of goals for the newly formed association,
including:

monitoring of the condition and pollution of waters, soils, and
aquatic and riparian biodiversity along the Syr Darya River, the
Amu Darya River, and the Aral Sea;

deepening the environmental education of the population living
in these ecosystems;

improving human health in the region, with special emphasis on
maternal and child health issues;

establishing a lobbying program;

developing better means of communication.

Through the period until October, these NGOs will be collecting
information about monitoring programs and attempting to build
cooperation with governmental agencies regarding cooperative
research and efforts in all the areas mentioned above. In
October or November, a follow-up seminar will be held to
facilitate future cooperative efforts. At that meeting, the
issue of the status of the association will be resolved and the
possibility of seeking funding from donor organizations for
cooperative projects will be discussed.

Contact Information: Ashgabad Ecol. Club:
catoffs@cat.glasnet.ru. Biostan: tashkent@glas.apc.org. For an
Ecolog. Clean Fergana: fergana@glas.apc.org. Scientific
Pedagogical Society Ecolog: karatag@td.silk.glas.apc.org.
Socio-Ecological Union: seu@glas.apc.org. Youth EcoCenter:
root@pamir.tadjikistan.su.

GABCIKOVO DAM TRIAL DUE TO START NEXT FEBRUARY

(The Hungary Report, No. 2.6, July 27, 1996) - Hungary and
Slovakia's long-standing dispute over a dam on the Danube could
be settled next spring with a ruling by the International Court
of Justice in the Hague. The court has set the start of the
verbal stage of a trial related to the controversial Gabcikovo
hydropower plant for February 17, 1997. The verbal hearing is
likely to take three to five weeks and the verdict should come a
few weeks later, said Gyorgy Szenasi, head of the international
legal division at the Foreign Ministry. He said the court will
pass a ruling of principle, and the two sides will have to reach
an agreement on the implementation of the verdict within six
months. Szenasi represents the Hungarian government in the legal
suit. Hungary and Slovakia asked the international court in May,
1993 to pass a ruling on their dispute related to the Danube
dam. The court will have to weigh four questions: 1.) Whether
was it legal on the part of Sloakia to unilaterally build a
so-called C variant dam; 2.) whether it was legal for Slovakia
to divert the water of the Danube; 3.) whether the 1977
Hungarian Czechoslovak treaty on the joint investment ceased to
be in force after Hungary declared it terminated; 4.) whether
Hungary was legally justified in suspending and stopping
construction work at Nagymaros in 1989. Szenasi said experts
representing Hungary are prepared for the verbal stage of the
trial, and are optimistic regarding Hungary's position.

Environmental Cooperation Between East & West Europe

Good environmental information in Central and Eastern Europe is
essential to ensure that enlargement of the EU does not
compromise environmental standards. A 7 million ECU programme
from PHARE (1) is at the heart of a unique partnership announced
today between the European Environment Agency (EEA), the EU and
countries of Central and Eastern Europe. The programme is
focused on providing practical tools to improve the quality of
environmental information from Central and Eastern European
countries. The activities will include: the extension of the
EEA's European Information & Observation Network, EIONET (2), to
Central and Eastern Europe; close co-operation with UNEP's ENRIN
network (3); personnel training; technical back-up with
hardware, software and other equipment; and help with
disseminating information via workshops, publications etc. This
programme will help Central and Eastern European countries to
protect their environments, reduce their contribution to
European and global pollution, and help pave the way for the
successful enlargement of the European Union. In particular,
this co-operation will directly contribute to the work leading
from the last pan-European environment ministers conference held
in Sofia, Bulgaria in October 1996, to the next to be hosted by
the Danish government in May 1998.

The European Union's PHARE programme provides grant finance to
support its partner countries in Central and Eastern Europe
(CCEE) to the stage where they are ready to assume the
obligations of EU membership. Apart from the CCEE co-operation
with the European Environment Agency, launched today, the
multi-country environment programme of PHARE supports projects
in a wide number of areas including the Black Triangle, the
Danube Basin, the Black Sea and the Baltic. 

The EEA's European Information and Observation Network (EIONET)
links together the EEA, the EU Commission, the national
environment centres of EEA countries (EU + Norway, Iceland and
Liechtenstein) and European Topic Centres in a computerised web
of data monitoring and analysis. Part of the new programme
involves extending the Topic Centres on Air Quality, Air
Emissions and Inland Waters to the PHARE countries. 

The UNEP ENRIN programme (Environment and Natural Resource
Information Networking), which began in 1994, was established to
improve access to environmental data and information for
governments and decision-makers, and to promote the development
of national and sub-regional capacities for environmental data
management. Where appropriate the activities may be used to
develop further Global Resource Information Database
(GRID)-compatible centres in Central and Eastern Europe. Thus
far, significant progress has been made in the Baltic States,
Georgia, Hungary, Russia, Ukraine and the Black Sea region.

EEA, contact: David Gee, EEA, Kongens Nytorv 6 DK-1050
Copenhagen K Tel: +45.33.36.71.00 Fax: +45.33.36.71.99. PHARE,
contact: Mr. Griepink, The European Commission DG I PHARE, Rue
de la Loi 200 B-1049 Brussels, Tel: +32.2.296.25.80 Fax:
+32.2.296.80.40. UNEP, contact: Michael Williams United Nations
Environment Programme 11, chemin des Anemones CH-1219 Chatelaine
Tel: +41-22-979.92.42 Fax: +41-22-979.90.29

WWF-US is disengaging from Central and Eastern Europe

by Richard Liroff (WWF-US CEE Environmental Affairs Newsletter,
June '96) - (...) WWF-US staff have helped launch energy
efficiency centers in Poland and the Czech Republic, and have
advised the Environmental Partnership for Central and Eastern
Europe, the Global Environment Facility, and numerous other
organizations and projects. WWF's most far-reaching success has
been the Environmental Training Project coordinated by the
University of Minnesota with funding from the U.S. Agency for
International Development. Through ETP, WWF staff, consultants,
and grantees have trained huge numbers of trainers and trainees
in organizational management and conflict resolution skills in
five countries. WWF has also helped establish the International
Organization of Information Specialists and has supported
numerous training meetings for electronic networking. These are
designed to foster electronic communication of environmental
information, and a bolder role for libraries in strengthening
environmental management in the region. WWF has also helped
establish an environmental trust fund for the Eastern Carpathian
Mountains, with funds from the World Bank and the MacArthur
Foundation. WWF-US is disengaging from Central and Eastern
Europe. WWF organizations elsewhere remain active in Central
Europe and the former Soviet Union. WWF organizations in Western
Europe and the WWF-International secretariat in Switzerland
support WWF program offices in Latvia, Hungary, and Moscow,
programs for the Danube River and Baltic Sea, and a host of
other activities. WWF-US continues its work in the Russian Far
East.

REC receives new home and vote of confidence

Szentendre, Hungary (June 19, 1996) - In an address to the
General Assembly of the Regional Environmental Center, Ferenc
Baja, Hungarian Minister for Environment and Regional Policy,
will announce today the official opening of the Center's new
headquarters in Szentendre. The site, appraised at $2 million,
was donated by the Hungarian government at the Sofia Conference
of the Ministers of the Environment last year. The donation
represents a tremendous vote of confidence for the REC's
activities, which have been ongoing in Central and Eastern
Europe since 1990. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for the
Environment Eileen Claussen and the Commission of the European
Communities Deputy Director General for DG XI Tom Garvey will be
among the government representatives from the REC's 27 member
nations joining Horn for the dedication. (...) Bedrich Moldan,
the Chairman of REC's Board of Directors, sees the facility as
the first step towards the Center's quest for financial
sustainability. "It is our hope that other governments and
funding agents will join the Hungarian initiative and support
the financial security of the REC," says Moldan. (...) The
Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe is
an independent, international organization established in 1990
by Hungary, the United States and the Commission of the European
Communities. Twelve countries have since joined these founding
sponsors. All of the REC's programs are unified in their resolve
to promote regional cooperation among diverse interest groups in
Central and Eastern Europe, to build the capacity of
stakeholders to solve environmental problems, and to promote the
development of civil society. Beneficiary countries are Albania,
Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia,
Lithuania, FYR Macedonia, Poland Romania, Slovak Republic and
Slovenia. Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Federal Republic of
Yugoslavia are expected to join the organization at this
session. In these countries, the REC supports environmental
organizations (NGOs), local authorities, national governments,
the media, businesses and academic institutions.

Janos Zlinszky, Tel: (36-1) 250-3401, Fax: (36-1) 250-3403,
e-mail: janos@fs2.bp.rec.hu 

NGO Models In Transition Conditions

(IEA "Altair") - In June 3-5, an NGO conference under the name
"NGO Models in Transition Conditions: Examples of Working Social
Projects" took place in Kiev. It was organized and carried out
by the American organization COUNTERPART Foundation for
International Partnerships. The participants of the conference
non-governmental organizations from Belarus, Moldova, Ukraine,
Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kirgizstan, Uzbekistan and Russia
presented their projects, which were realized with the support
of this Foundation. During the working sessions 25 projects have
been presented in three fields of activities: Disabled People
and Social Services; Society Development and Working Places
Creation and Information, Training, Education. The indices of
the NGOs' success, proposed by the American colleagues for
discussion, were analyzed and added. The representatives of the
World Bank, the European Council, the USAID Programme, EURASIA
Foundation and "VOZROZHDENIYE" International Foundation spoke at
the plenary meetings.

The Blue Danube Centre Of Attention Of The European NGOs Forum

by Petru Cocirta (Coordinator of Moldovan NGOs in the
Environmental Programme for the Danube River Basin, member of
the NGOs Forum Council of the Environmental Danube Forum) - On
February 15-18, 1996 in the city of Kosice, Slovakia, the Second
General Assembly of NGOs took place in the framework of the
Danube Environmental Forum. About 70 delegates - representatives
from the Danube basin countries' NGOs took part in the Forum
along with the representatives of the international
organizations of the World Wild - Life Fund, CEE-WEB, IUCN and
Coordinating Council of the Danube Basin Programme. From Moldova
the following delegates took part in the meeting: Petru Cocirta,
vice-president of the Ecological Movement of Moldova,
coordinator of the Moldovan NGOs within the framework of the
Environmental Programme for the Danube River Basin, Vladimir
Javgureanu, member of the Journalists-Ecologists' Union, Lidia
Romanchuk, member of the Association for Ecological Education
and Information "Terra Nostra". At the Assembly there were
elected three representatives for the Danube Task Force, a group
of leaders for the Danube Environmental Forum: one
representative for each section of the Danube basin - the upper,
the middle and the lower area. Gheorge Catalin, the NGO
representative from Romania, was elected for the lower section,
which includes areas in Bulgaria, Moldova, Romania and Ukraine. 

News From Moldova, #4, April 1996, Altair Ecological Union: P.B.
91, Chisinau 277012, Moldova Tel./Fax: (3732) 568844 E-mail:
altair@glas.apc.org

Short news

SPAN (Sustainable Packaging Action Network) is an informal
association of groups and individuals in Europe dealing with
waste campaigning and sustainable packaging strategies. The
network issues a newsletter (presently produced by the ECO Trust
in Bristol, UK). Interested groups and individuals can receive
the newsletter free of charge by contacting ECO Trust at 10-12
Picton St., Montpelier, Bristol BS6 5QA Great Britain, e-mail:
ecotrust@gn.apc.org. (Taiga News no 15)

Russian Federation Association Of Indigenous Peoples Of The
North, Siberia, Far East, 117876 Moscow, ul. Stroitelei, 8, k.
2, kom. 707 tel: (095) - 930 - 7078 (General Secretary
Association of Indigenous Peoples of the North, Siberia and Far
East V.B. Shustov)

Regional Environmental Expert Database (REED): If you are person
who has extensive skills or knowledge in the environmental field
you may be interested in becoming a "REC Expert". We are looking
for environmental experts who can offer advice and assistance
that can help solve all kinds of environmental problems. We
would like to invite you to participate in the REC's latest
initiative, the Regional Environmental Expert Database (REED).
If you think you are qualified as an environmental expert and
you are located in the Central and Eastern Europe, please fill
out the attached expert form and return it to the Regional
Environmental Center. - Ivelin Roussev Information Services
Officer REED Project Coordinator, Miklos ter 1, Budapest 1035,
Hungary. Tel: (36 1) 250 3401. Fax: (36 1) 250 3403. E-mail:
rec-info@rec.hu REC Home Page: http://www.rec.hu REED.

The Environmental Management Training Center (EMTC) Network is a
special project of the Regional Environmental Center for Central
and Eastern Europe. The mission of the EMTC Network is to link,
support and strengthen the leading environmental training
institutions and individuals in Central and Eastern Europe in
order to achieve sustainable environmental training in the
region. This mission is being accomplished through working in
four areas: Providing information - Facilitating the exchange of
experience and expertise - Initiating international projects
Increasing visibility

Miroslav Chodak EMTC Network Project Manager Regional
Environmental Center EMTC Network Miklos ter 1 1035 Budapest
Hungary tel: +36-1-250-3401 fax: +36-1-250-3403 E-mail:
miroslav@fs2.bp.rec.hu