Cooperation among environmental NGOs in Central and Eastern Europe is the way of the future and perhaps the key to solving many of Europe's larger environmental problems. This is the conclusion of another REC study titled Beyond Borders. Interviews with twenty-five environmentalists from the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia examined the opportunities and obstacles facing NGOs embarking on East-East cooperative efforts. "Because pollution doesn't stop at national borders, the environmental movements stand to gain more than other sectors from increased NGO cooperation," says Christy Duijvelaar, author of the study. In 1996, the REC's grants programs supported the concept through special cooperative projects.
LOCAL GRANTS Local Grants aim to increase the capacity of CEE NGOs and improve public participation on the local level by providing financing to NGOs for their operating expenses, training and education activities, and for small-scale projects such as education programs for local schoolchildren, water quality monitoring programs and Earth Day events. In 1996 for example, REC local grants funded a bicycle tour in Estonia, helped an NGO in Bulgaria introduce environmentally sound and economically viable agricultural practices in the Stara Zagora region and supported a waste management campaign in Poland.
The emphasis for this program is on local issues. The program is administered by the REC's Local Offices, applications are accepted in the local languages and each Local Office is assisted by an Advisory Board composed of local environmental experts. The maximum grant amount varies in each country depending on prevailing economic conditions, but not exceeding 5,000 ECU per NGO per year. In 1996, the REC awarded 605 grants worth a total of 675,427 USD.
An integral part of the program is the training and advisory support that the local representatives give to NGOs in proposal preparation and project implementation. The result of such capacity building is the gradual development of a strong NGO network within Central and Eastern Europe. Once NGOs develop project capacity they become efficient proponents of public participation and catalysts for improving the environment in their communities. As these NGOs "mature," many become ready to apply for the REC's second level of grants - Earmarked Grants - which finance large-scale international projects. For 1997, an additional layer of granting is proposed for projects of national importance to support NGOs projects in a mid-level capacity.
With this in mind, the Earmarked Grants program developed a program for grants on cooperative environmental projects. As opposed to the traditional program which focused on specific environmental categories such as energy conservation or sustainable agriculture, the 1996 grants were open to all environmental topics. The condition for these grants was that NGOs choose a transboundary or regional environmental issue and that they include at least one cooperative partner from another country.
Recognizing that it is often difficult enough for NGOs to achieve cooperation within their own countries let alone across borders, the REC also revised the application process to these grants. Initially nongovernmental organizations were asked to find at least one partner from another country and to write a brief concept paper. Seventy-one papers were received for the 1996 grant round. Of these, eighteen groups were selected as finalists and were awarded a small grant to facilitate meetings between the applicants in order to develop full project proposals. Eight final projects were selected by an expert panel which represent a range of environmental problems which can only be solved through international cooperation.
With the maximum award per project set at 25,000 ECU, a total of 150,105 ECU was distributed for projects involving more than 20 NGOs in 12 CEE countries. The grants awarded in this round ranged from 10,000 ECU for a campaign for sustainable agricultural systems in Poland and Hungary, to more than 24,000 ECU for a project to protect the high biodiversity of a cross-border wetland complex shared by Latvia and Estonia.
In the framework of Earmarked Grants the REC also issued two special programs in 1996, one for a NGO computer network in Slovenia and one for freshwater ecosystem projects in Albania. Working toward the ultimate goal of a trans-CEE NGO computer network, the REC awarded 60,000 ECU to establish an electronic network to link Slovenian NGOs. The REC has already supported such environmental networks in Hungary, the Czech Republic and Romania.
Two projects were selected under the special grants for Albanian freshwater ecosystems. The first is for the preservation of Lake Shkoda in the north of the country and the second, for the development of a green information and education center at Ohrid Lake. As both lakes are shared by Albania's neighboring countries the projects involve cooperation with NGOs from Montenegro and Macedonia.
