Cooperation is the best strategy for creating strong economies, working democracies, and a healthy environment in Central and Eastern Europe.This was one of the most important conclusions of Strategic Environmental Issues in Central and Eastern Europe, a report which the Regional Environ-mental Center released in the spring of 1994. The report was the result of a survey of 150 environmental experts from ten countries. It mapped each country's environmental problems, and it confirmed that cooperation among different sectors, although difficult to achieve, is our best hope for solving those problems.
Creating and maintaining a healthy environment requires cooperation among all sectors of society within a country. Government, business, non-government organizations, academia, media, and individuals must all work together to understand each other's needs and to develop their country in ways that have minimal impact on natural systems. But Regional cooperation, that is cooperation among different countries and peoples in Central and Eastern Europe, is just as important. In fact, it is essential for ensuring the health of international waterways such as the Danube and Elbe rivers, for eliminating dangerous transboundary pollution, and for protecting some of the continent's richest and most biologically diverse areas.
It is easy to tell people that they must cooperate, and it is just as easy to present convincing evidence of the benefits of cooperation. But in Central and Eastern Europe a necessary ingredient for cooperation is often absent: trust. For nearly fifty years we learned not to trust anybody, to always suspect others, to never reveal our true motives. Yet cooperation is obviously impossible in such an atmosphere of distrust.
That's where the Regional Environmental Center is doing some of its most important work. By bringing people together, face-to-face, to design projects, to prepare reports, to explore crucial environmental issues, the Center is building trust. With trust will come cooperation. And through cooperation, hard work, and luck, we can begin to re-create a healthy environment in Central and Eastern Europe.