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CONTENTS:
FOCUS ON SOUTH EASTERN EUROPE
UNEP team finds depleted uranium contamination in
BiH
Black Sea dolphins get CITES
protection
French official says EC will remain firm on
Kozloduy
ELSEWHERE AROUND THE CEE REGION
EC proposes EUR 129 million for Czech flood
relief
EBRD loan to improve water, wastewater
services in Tallinn
Results of 'HEAVEN' project on traffic to be
shown in Prague
Activists block entrance to Hungarian
pesticide plant
Greenpeace seeks criminal charges in Spolana
cleanup
Apply now for REC Young Environmental
Leaders programme
FOCUS ON SOUTH EASTERN EUROPE
UNEP TEAM FINDS DEPLETED URANIUM CONTAMINATION IN BiH
A United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) team announced Nov. 11 that it
found three sites contaminated by the use of depleted uranium-tipped weapons
in Bosnia and Herzegovina after a month-long investigation of 14 different
sites, according to reports. The team, which conducted investigations after
concerns were raised that NATO ammunition used in 1995 could pose health
risks, found traces of radioactivity at two locations in the Sarajevo suburb
of Hadzici and one in the Bosnian-Serb town of Han Pijesak, Bosnia and
Herzegovina, according to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
Depleted uranium-related materials and dust were
discovered inside buildings used by local businesses and by Bosnian Serb
troops, UNEP task force leader Pekka Haavisto said, according to the U.N.
Wire News Service. As early as June 1999, a report prepared by the Regional
Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe pointed out the
potential threat of depleted uranium shrapnel left behind by NATO forces in
parts of South Eastern Europe. Experts are still debating the danger of the
material, which is used as a coating for shells and bullets designed to
pierce armor. There has been growing concern in recent years that depleted
uranium shrapnel left behind in former Yugoslavia could cause cancer or
other problems related with radiation. Health experts say dust particles
from depleted uranium could be inhaled, or the substance could seep through
the ground into the water supply.
Contact: task-force leader Haavisto, tel: (41-22) 917
8530; e-mail: <pekka.haavisto@unep.ch>;
web: <http://postconflict.unep.ch/actbihdu.htm>;
or Damacio Lopez,
International Depleted Uranium Study Team, tel: (1-505) 867-0141; e-mail:
<IDUST@swcp.com>.
BLACK SEA DOLPHINS GET CITES PROTECTION
Georgia achieved some success in its efforts to ban trade of bottlenose
dolphins from the Black Sea, during a meeting of parties to the Convention
on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) in Santiago, Chile,
according to a Nov. 15 press release from the Whale and Dolphin Conservation
Society. A proposal to stop trade in the dolphins, which are sought by
amusement parks, circuses and aquariums because they are playful and
receptive to training, did not receive the required two-thirds majority,
according to Reuters. But a second proposal, to ban export of the dolphins,
was successful, according to the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society
press release.
According to Reuters, environmentalists have said that there
are genetic distinctions between the bottlenose dolphins in the Atlantic and
Mediterranean Sea and those found in the Black Sea, which also borders on
Bulgaria and Romania. "This is the first time that a population of
bottlenose dolphins has been given this vital level of protection by
CITES," Mike Simmonds, Director of Science at the Whale and Dolphin
Conservation Society was quoted as saying. "Today's move is a
dramatically positive first step toward the long-term recovery and survival
of the species in the Black Sea." Russia, the world's top exporter of
bottlenose dolphins from the Black Sea, led the opposition to the proposal,
claiming that existing CITES limits on trade in the animals had already led
to an increase in the population, according to the Reuters report. But
environmentalists disagreed. "The situation in the Black Sea is really
quite a desperate one. A degraded population is now being strongly affected
by a highly degraded environment," Simmonds was quoted as saying.
According to Reuters: "Black Sea dolphins, which form small social
units and breed at about the same rate as humans, were depleted from heavy
hunting from the late 19th Century until the 1980s, first for meat and later
for their oil." Between 1990 and 2001, about 120 live Black Sea
bottlenose dolphins were traded internationally, at a price of about USD
20,000 each, Reuters said.
Contact: Cathy Williamson, Whale and Dolphin
Conservation Society, (44 124) 944-9500; web: <http://www.wdcs.org>.
FRENCH OFFICIAL SAYS EC WILL REMAIN FIRM ON CLOSURE DATES
FOR KOZLODUY
French Minister for European Affairs Noelle Lenoir, after
meeting with her Bulgarian counterpart Meglena Kuneva, said in Paris on Nov.
8 that, regardless of the findings of a security check at the Kozloduy
nuclear power plant, the European Commission will not change its stance that
blocks No. 3 and 4 of the plant must be shut down by 2006, according to
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE). Bulgarian legislators have voted to
demand that they should be allowed to keep the reactors open longer if
European Union experts find the plant is safe. But the Bulgarian government
has not pushed that demand, sparking criticism from domestic politicians,
according to RFE. Bulgaria wants to maintain its position as the main energy
exporter in South Eastern Europe, and it is in competition with neighbouring
EU member Greece, so it is looking to delay Kozloduy's closure as long as
possible. Meanwhile, Bulgaria is also considering restarting work on a
nuclear plant in Belene, which was about 40 percent completed when it was
abandoned in 1990, due to concerns about the environment and the costs.
Contact: Bulgarian Atomic Energy Committee, tel: (359-2) 720-217; or the
Bulgarian Ministry of Environment and Waters Press Office, tel: (359-2)
940-6231; web: <http://www.moew.government.bg>.
ELSEWHERE AROUND THE CEE REGION
EC PROPOSES EUR 129 MILLION FOR CZECH FLOOD RELIEF
The European Commission on Nov. 13 proposed providing the Czech Republic
with EUR 129 million in aid to help cope with the damage caused by floods
this August, according to a report by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE).
The proposal is not yet approved by the European Parliament and the EU
Council of Ministers. The money would come from the recently created
European Solidarity Fund, which will also grant flood-relief funds to
Austria, France and Germany, according to the report. The Czech Republic
announced in September that it sustained EUR 382 million (CKR 11.7 billion)
in industrial damage due to the August flooding. Environmentalists note
several ways in which unsustainable human activity may contribute to the
increasing severity of flooding in Central and Eastern Europe, including
human-induced climate change and clear-cutting of trees.
More information
about the flooding phenomenon and its environmental aspects can be found in
an earlier issue of Green Horizon, at: <http://www.rec.org/REC/Programs/MIS/GreenHorizon/GH414.html>.
Contact: Vaclav Vucka, director, T.G. Masaryk Water Research Institute, tel:
(420-2) 311-8091; e-mail: <vucka@vuv.cz>; web: <http://www.vuv.cz>.
EBRD LOAN TO IMPROVE WATER, WASTEWATER SERVICES IN TALLINN
Tallinn's water company, Tallinna Vesi will receive a EUR 80 million loan
from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) to improve
the environmental standards of its water and wastewater services, according
to a Nov. 11 press release from the EBRD. Part of the loan to the Estonian
capital's water utility, which is co-owned by the city and International
Water and United Utilities, will also be used to help the company
"improve the efficiency of its balance sheet following its
privatisation in 2001," the release said. The EBRD was established in
1991 to assist transition economies in this region. "Today the EBRD
uses the tools of investment to help build market economies and democracies
in 27 countries from Central Europe to Central Asia," according to
their web site.
Contact: Jazz Singh, tel: (44-207) 338-7931; e-mail: <singhja@ebrd.com>;
web: <http://www.ebrd.com/new/index.htm>.
RESULTS OF 'HEAVEN' PROJECT ON TRAFFIC TO BE SHOWN IN
PRAGUE
The final results of a two-year project to monitor and model air
quality, noise pollution and urban traffic congestion in six European cities
will be presented at a conference in Prague, Dec. 5-6, according to an
announcement from the Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern
Europe (REC). The project, called HEAVEN (an acronym for Healthier
Environment through the Abatement of Vehicle Emissions and Noise), was put
in place in Berlin, Leicester, U.K., Paris, Prague, Rome and Rotterdam,
Netherlands, the announcement said. HEAVEN "offers a platform for
decision-makers and the public for easy access to ambient air quality and
noise level information - and combines this with a decision support tool to
assess impacts of different traffic management scenarios on the urban
environment and health," according to the REC, which lent assistance to
the project.
The HEAVEN project was intended to help improve the ability of
the six cities involved to monitor problems caused by traffic and analyse
these problems. "In Prague for instance, mechanisms have long been
established for both air quality and real-time traffic data monitoring.
However, involvement in the HEAVEN project has helped the city to integrate
these two major databases, along with data on emissions from other sources,
short-term meteorological forecasts and digital topographical models,"
the REC announcement said. Full information about the conference can be
found online at: <http://heaven.rec.org/conference-prague.html>.
Contact: Martina Blochova, conference secretariat, tel: (420-20-24) 308-339;
e-mail: <Blochova@urm.mepnet.cz>.
ACTIVISTS BLOCK ENTRANCE TO HUNGARIAN PESTICIDE PLANT
More than 20 Greenpeace activists chained themselves to the gates of the EMV
chemicals plant in Sajobabony, northern Hungary on Nov. 11, to publicise
their claim that the factory pollutes the environment with pesticides,
according to a report from Reuters. "EMV makes pesticides that are
banned in Germany and in the United States and pollutes the Babony Creek,
flowing into the Tisza River," Greenpeace Hungary spokeswoman Judit
Kalovits was quoted as said. "The goal of our protest is to make EMV
stop producing these poisonous chemicals and polluting the water."
EMV
environmental manager Ferenc Zakar reportedly told Reuters that the plant
produced about 5,000 tonnes of active pesticide ingredient a year, 98
percent of which went for export to western Europe, the United States, South
Africa and Australia. "We produce chemicals fully in line with current
environmental regulations," Zakar was quoted as saying. "If these
chemicals were banned in Germany and the U.S., how could we sell them
there?" Zakar also said EMV had spent HUF 800 million (USD 3.4 million)
on environmental protection projects in the past three to four years,
according to Reuters.
Contact: Greenpeace spokeswoman Kaolovits, tel:
(366-209) 333-221, web: <http://www.greenpeace.hu>.
GREENPEACE SEEKS CRIMINAL CHARGES IN SPOLANA CLEAN-UP
Greenpeace announced in a Nov. 7 press release that it had asked the Czech
high state prosecutor to file criminal charges over the decision to contract
the French-owned waste firm SITA Bohemia to use "BCD technology"
to handle dioxin decontamination work at the at the Spolana chemical plant
in Neratovice, Czech Republic. The firm would receive EUR 100 million from
the National Property Fund to do the work, using technology that involves
incineration, according to Greenpeace. Greenpeace has been campaigning since
spring 2001 to have clean-up work done at the site in a manner that they
feel is safe and effective.
"The fact that the (National Property) Fund
prepared a study that practically only considered one serious technology and
with that argues that there is no need for a public tender, calls for
questions," the release quoted Greenpeace's Executive Director in the
Czech Republic, Ing. Jiri Tutter, as saying. "Also the hurry with which
the Fund decided about commissioning this order only a few days before
parliament had to choose new top management is conspicuous." The
contamination at Spolana occurred in the 1960s, when the plant produced the
herbicide Agent Orange. Production was reportedly stopped in 1968, after
more than 80 employees of Spolana fell ill due to dioxin poisoning.
"During the destructive floods from last August, almost the entire site
of Spolana was flooded, including the two dioxin-contaminated
buildings," Greenpeace has said. "Analyses from samples taken
around Spolana confirm that dioxins and other dangerous substances,
including carcinogens, have leaked out from the plant."
Contact: Jan
Haverkamp, Greenpeace campaign director in the Czech Republic, tel: (420-60)
356-9243; e-mail: <jan.haverkamp@cz.greenpeace.org>; web: <http://www.greenpeace.cz/agentorange/index_en.htm>;
or Dr. Miroslav Suta, toxic expert for Greenpeace in the Czech Republic,
tel.: (420-2) 2432-9667; e-mail: <miroslav.suta@cz.greenpeace.org>.
APPLY NOW FOR REC YOUNG ENVIRONMENTAL LEADERS PROGRAMME
The Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe (REC) has
announced that it is taking applications from young environmentalists from
South Eastern Europe and the Newly Independent States for the next session
of its Training for Young Environmental Leaders initiative. The four-week
programme, which takes place in Szentendre, Hungary, is designed to give
useful training for people from the region who are between 20 and 30 years
old and are active in an environmental non-governmental organisation in the
region, "The training programme consists of integrated and interactive
workshops, as well as practical activities, addressing the particular needs
of the region and its younger NGO members," according to the REC's web
page. "Attention is paid to organisational and project management,
campaign strategy, media work, communication skills, fundraising, public
participation in environmental decision-making, business planning for NGOs,
NGOs and civil society, new approaches to environmental problem-solving and
much more."
For more information, see the web site at: <http://www.rec.org/REC/Programs/JFellows.html>.
Contact: Adriana Craciun, REC, tel: (36-26) 504-068; e-mail: <ACraciun@rec.org>.
The Regional Environmental Center for Central
and Eastern Europe
Ady Endre út 9-11
2000 Szentendre
Hungary
Tel: (36-26) 504-000
Fax: (36-26) 311-294
E-mail: GreenHorizon@rec.org
Web: http://www.rec.org/
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