Environment and Security Initiative (envsec)
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NEWS FROM THE REGIONS
Following the 2003 Ashgabat consultations and the ENVSEC regional assessment, the Ferghana valley (Ferghana – Osh – Khudjand area) belonging to the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan was identified as one area of regional concern, and was consequently selected for an in-depth study of environment and security issues and linkages. A desk assessment prepared in the first half of the year identified hotspots related to the use and sharing of water, land and bio-resources, as well as to transboundary effects of industry and waste storage aggravated by risks of natural hazards. In order to deepen and verify the findings as well as to prepare ground for remedial actions, an ENVSEC international field mission was organised in December 2004. The mission was composed of some 20 local and international experts working on three different tracks (natural resources, industry and uranium mining waste), visiting and evaluating a selection of sites. A regional workshop in Osh with 80 representatives from the three countries immediately followed the field mission and discussed in-depth both its findings and the follow up. So far this has resulted in detailed elaboration of projects on Uranium mining waste and tailing sites (lead and supported by NATO), Industrial enterprises with cross-border environmental effects (lead and supported by Italy), Natural disasters, Land and water management (lead by UNDP with support expected from GEF). Implementation of all these activities will start in 2005. As a regional coordination mechanism, a first meeting of provincial-level environmental authorities from the three countries was held as part of the workshop at the newly opened Osh Aarhus Centre1. The meeting was very appreciated as a useful tool to strengthen regional dialogue on environmental matters, and such meetings will continue in 2005 (tentatively Khudjand in April and Ferghana in September 2005). A Ferghana valley in-depth assessment report will be officially launched in 2005 (tentatively in Almaty – Dushanbe in May on the occasion of ministerial-level meetings), this will add momentum to further discussing and implementing the work programme. In 2004 ENVSEC supported the 4th Regional Festival of Environmental Journalism creating a special nomination on ’Environment and Security’. The three winners in the nominations will be contracted in 2005 to work on ENVSEC-related stories for publication in electronic and printed media. A workshop held as part of the festival gave an opportunity to Uzbek journalists to investigate environment and security hotspots (Almalyk smelter, Arday-Arnasay lake system) together with experienced environment reporters from Western Europe. Support to media networking and training will continue in 2005. An Aarhus centre in Osh (Kyrgyz Republic) was the first to be opened in Central Asia on the local level, promoting access to environmental information and offering a platform for a dialogue between the government and civil society on environment and security issues. Plans for 2005 include similar centres in Khudjand (Tajikistan), Ferghana (Uzbekistan) and Astana (Kazakhstan). Areas in Central Asia that may be the focus of extended ENVSEC work in 2005 are Kazakhstan (OSCE and NATO already work in the Semipalatinsk area) and Turkmenistan, including the Caspian coast where ENVSEC may contribute to a security dimension of the Caspian Environmental Programme, not least with regard to a protocol on land-based pollution sources under the Caspian Environmental Convention whose entry into force is expected in 2005. ENVSEC plans and work progress in Central Asia are regularly presented in the political context of regional processes and institutions such as the International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea and the Regional Environment Action Plan. Synergies are created with related projects implemented by ENVSEC partners outside the initiative, such as the whole portfolio of UNEP’s and UNDP’s activities related to Regional Environmental Action Plan for Central Asia (REAP) (including UNDP’s regional information network for civil society CARNET), programs of OSCE field presences, OSCE-UNECE cooperation in the Chu-Talas basin, UNEP-UNECE support to the regional water information portal (CAREWIB), NATO’s research projects in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, and IAEA’s planned capacity-building for managing radioactive waste in the countries.
A first-stage ‘screening’ assessment was initiated through a technical workshop in November 2003 and further developed in May-June 2004 through a series of national-level consultations with governments, civil society and academia in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. The assessment was officially launched in October 2004 at Tbilisi Ministerial Conference under the ‘Environment for Europe’ process. In addition to bringing attention within and outside the region to Caucasian environment and security concerns, the assessment has formed the base for the ENVSEC sub-regional work programme, implementation of which has started in 2005. The work on strengthening capacities for integrated policy development i.a. through national Strategic Environmental Assessments progressed well in 2004 and development plans for Yerevan and Batumi are now under scrutiny. A groundwater assessment dimension was added to the on-going Kura-Aras cooperation. (Both UNDP and OSCE are already strongly involved in activities in the Kura-Aras river basin, and ENVSEC will be complementary to efforts of these and other organisations, not the least to a UNDP/GEF project, which is currently under preparation.) The ENVSEC support to the river monitoring in Caucasus builds upon the OSCE and NATO efforts. The ENVSEC catalytic support to a feasibility study for cleaning up rocket fuel in Armenia has generated interest of ca. USD 7 million, to cover not only Armenia but also other countries such as Ukraine and Uzbekistan. As part of the ENVSEC media programme, a workshop in environmental reporting was organized in Yerevan in May 2004 in cooperation with the Caucasus Media Institute. Armenian and international journalists jointly investigated issues such as the Metzamor power plant, the drinking water and shrinking of green spaces in Yerevan. The result was a special supplement to ‘Armenia Now’ on-line newspaper. ENVSEC also supported a special December issue of the ‘Caucasus Environment’, a quarterly publication that is produced by the Caucasus Environmental NGO Network in Tbilisi and publicizing findings from the regional assessments. Media networking will continue in 2005, ENVSEC will for instance support an ‘Ecological Radio Bridge’ programme by local NGO Radio-stations. Among other studied opportunities is support to a Southern Caucasian festival of environmental journalism following the Central Asian model, in which journalists from the countries as well as several regional organisations already expressed their interest. To further promote local awareness of environment and security linkages, a cooperative project with GTZ and CENN started in the Marneuli – Gazakh – Tavoush transboundary area covering all the three countries. The project combines sensitization of people on environmental issues of security relevance, setting up of local public information (Aarhus) centers and provision of small grants for relevant infrastructure projects in bordering districts. The project will continue in 2005. OSCE considers a possibility to open an Aarhus center in Tbilisi following experience with Yerevan and Baku. One priority action in the regional work programme is an international investigation of environmental issues in territories of frozen conflicts (Nagorny Karabakh, South Ossetia, Abkhazia). There, upon confirmed political interest and support, ENVSEC plans to start desk assessments.
A regional consultation in Skopje in September 2004 gave a new momentum to ENVSEC’s South-Eastern European work programme. The meeting reviewed progress with respect to both ongoing projects such as the assessment of security risks from mining practices and discussed starting work on the interface of nature conservation and peace building, promotion of dialogue and sustainable management in shared water basins (Sava, Tisza, Prespa), and planned remediation studies of specific industrial facilities (e.g. Lojane mine in Macedonia). The assessment of risks and hotspots associated with mining started in 2004 will be concluded in 2005 and presented to a regional meeting at the ministerial level in Romania. The meeting will also discuss concrete follow-up such as needs and opportunities for rehabilitation and promoting of public accountability of mining industrial enterprises. In late 2004 UNEP published a rapid assessment of the situation in the Tisza basin, which is an input to a number of Tisza-related activities, such as the integrated water resources management in the Tisza basin for which UNDP is securing GEF funding. Other UNDP- and OSCE-lead projects in the Sava basin and the Prespa park region will go on, and UNEP will start a project on biodiversity cooperation in the mountain regions (Sharr/Sara Mountain National Park, the Bjeshket e Nemuna / Prokletije / Cursed Mountains, Korab Massif and Kopaonik National Park). ENVSEC plans for South-Eastern Europe are regularly presented and discussed in the context of the Regional Environmental Reconstruction Programme for South-Eastern Europe and other relevant fora such as the ICPDR, as well as in the context of UNEP’s cooperation with REC Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). On-going initiatives of ENVSEC partners in the region are also linked to ENVSEC programming, such as UNEP’s follow-up to post-conflict rehabilitation, support to cleaner production and environmental information management and reporting (including the Carpathian Environmental Outlook process), work in biodiversity conservation including the implementation of the Carpathian Convention, environment education initiative of OSCE and REC CEE in Serbia, and OSCE and UNDP capacity building for national and transboundary issues.
Throughout 2004 environmental authorities of Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine expressed their interest in being part of the ENVSEC initiative, starting with a closer investigation of environment and security linkages in the region (1st stage assessment). ENVSEC is now initiating an official dialogue with the countries, and, provided that funds are available, will start an assessment in 2005. As in other regions, the assessment will identify needs for intervention and help shape a work programme. The work programme will integrate also some already on-going work by ENVSEC partners, such as assessment in the Dniester basin supported by OSCE and UNECE, and the rehabilitation of abandoned military sites in Ukraine where support may be provided via NATO and OSCE. Support to education and mass media through integrating environment and security topics into respective national agendas has been discussed too. |
