P R O F I L E

  Deep in the heart of the well-known "Black Triangle", close to where the Elbe River flows out of the Czech Republic in North Bohemia, you will find the staff of the nonprofit, nongovernmental Center for Environmental Analysis (CEA) hard at work helping to improve the environmental conditions of the region.

  CEA accomplishes this goal by adapting environmental methods of analysis from the U.S. and European countries and then transferring these methods via management trainings, so that they can be used effectively by members of local, regional and national governments, industries, universities, interested citizens and other nongovernmental organizations.

  CEA was established in 1994 and since then 10 trainings and workshops have been organized with more than 150 participants in attendance. All of the environmental management training courses given by CEA focus on interactive participatory workshops containing a diverse group of participants, which allows for cross-sectoral communication; relevant and interesting case studies; lectures followed by small group work; use of small group discussions; and brainstorming sessions. CEA also focuses on strengthening the capacity of local organizations and the training of trainers to broaden the base of regional knowledge.

  In addition to developing trainings, CEA focuses on developing and/or adapting methodologies from elsewhere for use in the Czech Republic.

  Currently, CEA is an active member of the Environmental Management Training Centers Network (EMTC-N). The Network receives technical and organizational support from the Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe in Hungary. In April 1997, the three Czech EMTCs (CEA, Decin; Center for Cleaner Production, Prague; and Information Center of the Project Silesia, Ostrava) organized the 5th meeting of the EMTC Network, which took place in the Czech Republic April 3-5, 1997. At this meeting, the network decided on the form of their future cooperation within the framework of the EMTC.

  CEA is also currently a partner of the Environmental Training Project - International (ETP-I), an informal, non-profit international organization, whose member organizations in Central and Eastern European countries work together on regional educational issues and environmentally-focused research projects.

  With support of the ETP-I, CEA organized and led an international conference on Life Cycle Assessment in November 1996, which brought together experts from the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia and the United Kingdom and has paved the way for future cooperation between the countries regarding Life Cycle Assessment. One of the concrete results coming from this conference was the formation of an international coordinating group, which will develop cooperative projects, databases, and future national trainings.

  CEA was founded as a follow-up of the ETP project, which had the goal of strengthening the environmental management capacity in six countries of Central and Eastern Europe through interactive, short-term management training.