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Last changed: 3/12/11
In a project financed by the Advisory Assistance Programme, experts trained representatives of Bulgarian governmental and non-governmental nature conservation institutions in the establishment and management of the European protected areas network Natura 2000. They developed collaboratively guidelines in Bulgarian, for example for assessing the compatibility of construction projects with the conservation goals of protected areas.
The Baltic Republics intend to erect offshore wind turbines on a major scale. No guidance exists as yet on how to identify and assess resulting impacts on the marine environment. UBA has published guidelines suggesting an impact assessment tailored to the circumstances of the Baltic Republics. The guidelines have been developed with support from the Advisory Assistance Programme.
A flyer informing about the goals, contents and services of the Advisory Assistance Programme for Environmental Protection in the Countries of Central and Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia is now also available in Russian. Since the inception of the programme in 2000, the UBA has coordinated, managed and supported some 200 projects, partly jointly with the Federal Agency for Nature Conversation, the Federal Office for Radiation Protection and the Federal Environment Ministry.
This report aims to raise awareness of the various perspectives on, and perceptions of, quality of life with a specific focus on cities and towns. The report, published by the European Environment Agency, sheds light on certain aspects of the current quality of life discussions in order to illustrate how different conceptions of quality of life influence the quality of life of others, and provides ideas for ways to meet the challenges that lie ahead.
The German Federal Environment Ministry has published a new edition of its brochure ”Environmental Cooperation with Central and Eastern Europe”. It describes different environmental cooperation programmes and provides an overview of bilateral and multilateral cooperation with countries in Central and Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia over the past years. The cooperation is illustrated by project examples from the Advisory Assistance Programme and EU Twinning projects in which UBA was involved.
On 20 February 2009, the new ”Neumayer III” research station in the Antarctic became operational. UBA had approved the construction and operation of the station, with some ecological restrictions, after an intensive environmental impact assessment. In its updated Visitor Guidelines, the UBA has compiled guidance on what visitors to the Antarctic should keep in mind.
In order to protect the Antarctic environment including its wilderness value, internationally binding rules of behaviour are in place for visitors to this region. Updated guidelines and a flyer inform visitors and tourists on how to protect the Antarctic’s unique flora and fauna and look out for their own safety.
Germany has been an active party to conservation efforts in the Antarctic since 3 March 1981. Tourism and scientific activity have attracted a great number of people during the Antarctic summer to this as yet largely untouched natural ecosystem. Any planned expedition to the Antarctic must be granted authorisation by the Federal Environment Agency (UBA).
The European Environment Agency (EEA) has published its fourth The European Environment – State and Outlook report (SOER 2010). The environment agencies of 38 European countries have contributed to this survey, including the German Federal Environment Agency. The report provides topic-specific assessments on key environmental issues, such as climate change, biodiversity, land use, air pollution, marine environment and consumption, and can be consulted by the general public for information on environmental trends and forecasts.
As a supra-regional water supplier in Europe, the Alps are particularly affected by climate change. Some inner-alpine regions are already taking measures to adapt to changing water availability. On behalf of the EEA and in cooperation with other renowned institutions in Germany and abroad, the UBA has analysed possible measures, key factors of success in their implementation and barriers to be overcome.
The Regional Environmental Centre for Central Asia (CAREC), established in 1999 within the Environment for Europe Process, is operating in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, working to improve the environmental situation in these countries. One goal of this advisory assistance project was to reshape CAREC’s organisational, management and financial structures in order to strengthen its position in the region.
Olkhon Island in Lake Baikal becomes the Irkutsk region’s tourist hot spot every summer. A very visible problem is the waste polluting beaches and woods. In a German-Russian university project sponsored by the German Federal Environment Ministry in the scope of its Advisory Assistance Programme, faculty and students together with the local population developed a waste management concept for the island.
Within the context of an Advisory Assistance project, members of the Armenian public, operators of industrial sites and disaster relief agencies are testing out disaster scenarios. This is an important step on the way to minimising the effects of large-scale hazardous incidents in the immediate vicinity of industrial sites. The Advisory Assistance Programme is financing a training programme, thus making a contribution to the implementation of the ”Industrial Accident” Convention of the UNECE.
Besides protection of rare animal species and ecosystems, the 9th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity also had the establishment of a global network of protected areas on its agenda. With its project to establish a system of national parks in Turkmenistan, the Advisory Assistance Programme is supporting a major contribution to the network.