Activity report

REReP 2.3: Environmental NGO Electronic Networking in South Eastern Europe
Romania report – May-November 2002

Activity report summary according to the 2 year workplan objectives, end of November 2002

installing and testing the Action Apps software on the StrawberryNet server (installation and testing done);

translating the software interfaces into Romanian (done);

redesigning the web site (see http://www.ngo.ro) (done);

modifying generic Action Apps training and marketing materials to fit the Romanian context, and translating these into Romanian (80% done);

translating the Action Apps manual (done);

training a network of trainers in how to use the Action Apps, and in how to train others to use them (will be implemented from other funds – no funding yet);

training NGO authors, editors and webmasters to use the Action Apps (implemented during on-site support activities, ongoing);

developing a marketing strategy specific to the Romanian context to promote the Action Apps (activity started);

carrying out promotional activities – elaboration/dissemination of a brochure, developing a demo for using Action Apps on web site www.ngo.ro (ongoing);

offering on site technical support to collaborating organisations (ongoing);

reconfigure the mailing list server on a more feasible base – the "Mediu" (Environment) list has 140 users. This mailing list facilitates NGOs debates on most actual environmental issues on NGOs agenda (done);

Meetings with 9 existent working groups on different environmental issues: transport, energy, agriculture, public participation/Aarhus Convention, biodiversity, ecological education, environmental journalism, water, rural development/local communities (ongoing);

Elaboration and dissemination of a brochure about "How to build an information community" (draft revised and corrected);

Working with 9 groups for developing web sites for their domains (taxonomy, layout, Action Application use, …) (activity started);

Integrating these thematic pages in www.ngo.ro web site. (activity started);

Attracting new groups for developing new information communities (ongoing);

Support for development and maintenance of the thematic web pages (ongoing);

Free Internet access for NGOs in the Internet Centre administrated by UNESCO Pro Natura in Bucharest (ongoing);

Free dial – up access for NGOs to Internet Centre for NGOs server (installed);

Elaboration of a fund raising strategy of used equipment from big companies (not started yet);

Implementation of Strategy/distribution of equipment to active NGOs (not started yet);

Meetings with Ministry of Environment representatives regarding the co-ordination of the REReP 1.8 project "Development of National Environmental Information Systems" and REReP 1.15 project "A Regional Environmental Information Portal for SEE" with our REReP 2.3 project (ongoing);

Synchronising networking activities at national, regional and international level - meetings, participation to forums, mailing lists, trainings, workshops (ongoing).

Activity report details, for the period May – November 2002

Action Area I - On-line publishing services and web content development and maintenance

All objectives were fulfilled under this Action Area according to the workplan, excepting objective I.7. Developing a marketing strategy specific to the Romanian context for Action Apps promoting. However the development of marketing materials is ongoing. A Visual Identity Project were carried out, resulting a new logo and specification of printed/web materials design. We also refined with our partners the definition of our mission statement, goals, objectives, values and methods. The main ideas were outlined during national coordination meetings.

According to the tasks the following activities were carried out in this period:

I.1 the ActionApps software was tested on the StrawberryNet server; (NHA)

as new functionalities are introduced, the software is upgraded and tested periodically; (NHA)

I.3 The new website design was launched and is accessible on http://www.ngo.ro; (NHA+UPN+CET) We received positive feedback on the new look. The News section, coordinated by ARZM, was launched and is very active. We also developed new project description and coordination tools, and launched new sections of the website like http://eco-scoala.ngo.ro or http://aarhus.ngo.ro. More details at the Building information communities section. Emilian Burdusel from Unesco Pro Natura worked together with the technical person on finalizing the structure of content, architecture of the web site, layout and feeding mechanism for the web site.

I.6 Training activites
CET carried out the following training activities:
- AA training for PATRIR in Cluj and Alburnus Major in Rosia Montana
- AA training for The National Federation for Ecological Agriculture's representatives who will administer the agronews webpage
- AA training at Ecotop Foudation's office for using the "MiniEcoJurnal" webpage
- Internet basics training for representatives of local administration and other villagers in the Finis-Remetea Microregion (in Finis village, Bihor county) on demand from Ecotop Foundation together with an assesment of the possibilities to promote the local community and develop the community by using ICT)
- mailman mailing list administration training for Clubul de Cicloturism Napoca

I.8 the brochure "4 steps for becoming member of an Informational Community" was revised and updated; (UPN). UPN, CET and NHA also promoted the electronic networking and attracted NGOs to the project at different national meetings;

I.9 on-site support for collaborating organizations were provided on an ongoing basis (CET+NHA+UPN)

Unesco Pro Natura offered on site technical support to 16 NGOs including collaborating organizations, from Bucharest area. Main activities consisted on coordination of the starting up of:

on-line environmental news service maintained by ARZM (Romanian Environmental Protection Journalists Association) on the front page of the ngo.ro;

eco-scoala.ngo.ro for the Eco-Schools program maintained by CCDG;

aarhus.ngo.ro for the implementation of Aarhus convention in Romania maintained by the REReP 2.1 NGO focal point and Ecosens;

On site technical support of CET consisted in:

E-mail lists maintenance:

- crse@greenagenda.org

- eco-cluj@greenagenda.org

- ape@ngo.ro

- new e-mail list for Clubul de Cicloturism Napoca: provelo@ngo.ro

Desktop publishing:

- desktop publishing and prepearing for print of Eco-Aqua brochures: 1. "Să cunoaştem apa", 2. "Apele de suprafaţă", 3. "Apa potabilă", 4. "Epurarea apelor", 5. "Calitatea apei Someşului Mic", 6. "Calitatea apei Crişului Repede şi Crişului Negru", 7. "Apa Clujului" , 8. "Apa Oradiei", 9. "Noi şi apa" [manual practic pentru cetăţeni] şi 10. "EcoAqua XXI"[prezentare proiect]. Most of the brochures were also published on the web at http://www.greenagenda.org/eco-aqua

- design and dtp for promotional materials: 1. Bioterra: Advertisement in "Top ghid Alimentar", 2. StrawberryNet – Advertisement, 3. Asociatia de Dezvoltare Zonala Huedin - Poster

- design for the Huedin Microregion leaflet (the design included redrawing of the microregion's map)

Developing the local network. system administration and tech support for the Eco-Cluj coalition, offering this way a larger connectivity and acces to IT for more local NGOs.

ACT Nemira carried out:

server-side technical support, consisting of: maintaining the ngo.ro domain name space, including allocation of new domains (registered domains are over 40 at the moment), support for setting up new websites for ngos, allocating webspace, ftp accounts, e-mail redirection, domain-name registration, helping NGOs to update their webpages, ICT consultancy services by phone. ACT Nemira also offered support for maintaining mailing lists, like the mediu mailing list, the most active environmental mailing list in Romania, and other lists with national and regional importance, like the lists used by SEEENN executive board, gtz-meeting regional list, etc. ACT Nemira offered technical support for the StrawberryNet Associated Members, Unesco Pro Natura and CET to their activity described in this report.

Action Area II - Building information communities

According to the workplan core activities were started under this action area.

The Romanian Environmental Journalists Association (ARZM) started the on line environmental news service, helped by Unesco Pro Natura.

It is producing and editing news for the ngo.ro web page since May 2002.

The program coordinator/news editor Dumitriţa BOBÎNĂ started in May working part-time. Since October, she is working full-time (with FDSC/PHARE Access financial support - project MIP 153).

Number of ARZM/Perspective contributions:

May 20
June 59
July 35
August 28
September 45
October 56

The monthly average for the May-September period was 37.4 contributions.

A major contribution made between 28 August – 4 September was a series of 10 on-site, real-time correspondences by Alexandru R. Săvulescu from the World Summit for Sustainable Development, held in Johannesburg, South Africa. Therefore our website offered the best coverage of the event in Romania thanks to ARZM.

In October 2002, as expected, the total volume increased to 56 contributions - 44 in Romanian and 12 in English. Out of them, 11 articles in Romanian and 2 in English represented original papers of ARZM/Perspective members. The rest are selections of articles from different sources.

A detailed search by category for October shows the following distribution:

All categories Romanian English

Environment
Agriculture 1 1
Animal rights 1 0
Biodiversity 1 1
Climate change 2 0
Education 6 0
Energy 1 2
European integration 5 2
Forests 1 0
Genetics 1 1
Legislation 1 1
Pollution 11 2
Public participation 4 1
Rural development 1 0
Sustainable transport 1 1
Urban ecology 2 0
Waste management 2 0
Waters 3 0

Total: 44 12

The work of ARZM/Perspective for the ngo.ro website is announced in issue 43 of the Perspective magazine.

Thanks to the new informations available, the audience of the site http://www.ngo.ro increased to an average hit rate of 30000-40000 hits per month. For example in October totalled 37000 hits and in the beginning of December (at 11^th) already reached 28000 hits. The number of distinct visits are about 3000-4000 per month, from various countries all over the world.

ARZM started to upload the "Perspective" environmental magazine to the web as well.

UPN worked on elaborating the presentation materials regarding the informational community and NGO networking and coordinating the development of different informational communities on different environmental issues/ domains.

In this framework coordinated the starting up of: on-line environmental news service maintained by ARZM (Romanian Environmental Protection Journalists Association) on the front page of the ngo.ro; eco-scoala.ngo.ro for the Eco-Schools program maintained by CCDG; aarhus.ngo.ro for the implementation of Aarhus convention in Romania maintained by the REReP 2.1 NGO focal point and Ecosens.

CET contributed on starting up the set up and administration of the webpage for the Romanian section of the Rosia Montana campaign on the site http://www.rosiamontana.org. The webpage contains 6 AA slices (for News, Problems, Mass Media, Documents, Achaeology, Links and Mobilization) and it is completely interactive (visitors can comment on-line every information or can reply to comments made by other visitors). With the support of the Partnership Foundation this webpage will be developed into a special campaign website starting from January 2003. Other activities:

- set up of a webpage (based on APC AA) for news from the European Sustainable Agriculture at http://www.ngo.ro/agronews

- creating a webpage for publishing the EcoEd (ecological education) Manual at http://www.ngo.ro/eco-scoala/ecoed.shtml

- a new section for Ecotop Foundation's webpage containing a newsletter of the "green youth" called "MiniEcoJurnal" at http://ecotop.greenagenda.org/mej.shtml

- integration and training on APC Action Applications on bioterra website at http://www.greenagenda.org/bioterra/stiri.shtml

CCDG, assisted by UPN started the development of the web-page http://eco-scoala.ngo.ro. The first version of the site was launched on 8 October, with the opportunity of the National Seminar "Partnership in the Education for Environmental Protection" in Bucharest, with 100 participants, students, professors, EPA and County School Inspectorates’ representatives. The final version of the site will be ready as of 15 January 2003.

The web page will be presented in Terra Magazine (issues December 2002 and January 2003), printed in 100 000 copies/month and distributed in schools. A leaflet was edited and printed in 1000 copies and a 22 page brochure about the program printed in 100 copies.

Action Area IV - Development of intersectorial communication

Under this action area Unesco Pro Natura continued the periodic updates with the Ministry representatives. As a result our activity is more recognised by the Ministry, and several links from the page of the Ministry is pointing to our website.

Action Area V - Synchronising networking activities at national, regional and international level

During the reporting period we carried out activities under this action area, both in national and international level, including:

6 national coordination meetings, 4 in Bucharest, 1 in Sfintu Gheorghe and one in Tirgu Mures in this period
formalising our relationship with the Greenagenda working group by signing a cooperation agreement
Participation at the national seminar "Public Participation and the Implementation of the Aarhus Convention in Romania", Busteni
National meeting on Electronic Networking in Sustainable Agriculture organized by CET in Cluj
November – Seminar on Environmental Networking in Kosovo, delivered in cooperation with Bluelink, NHA
Participation on the APC on-line meeting, Miihaly Bako, NHA
promotion of the Electronic Networking among NGOs and authorities at 4 national meetings by UPN

NHA provided regular coordination and representation activities, carried out by Mihaly Bako, the Executive director of StrawberryNet.

CET Cluj carried out:

- set up of the RERep project monitoring webpage and discussion forum using APC Action Apps at http://www.ngo.ro/rerep/monitor. A chat system has been installed for direct on-line communication at http://www.ngo.ro/rerep/chat

- set up of the project webpage at http://www.ngo.ro/rerep/

Emilian Burdusel - Director of UNESCO Pro Natura was connected mainly with content activities but also he was invested also with the responsibility of fundraising, in order to attract extra funds for implementing the work plan.

Unesco Pro Natura successfully carried out the fundraising activities, assisted also by Mihaly Bako and Rozi Bako from NHA in finalising some of the project proposals.

Emilian Burdusel wrote project proposals (already approved) as partners of other NGOs (Enviromental Experts Association and UNESCO Pro Natura) in order to develop informational communities for POPs and Black Sea basin environmental issues - which will be implemented very soon.

A project proposal was written and it is already approved as PHARE ACCES project (in partnership with ARZM) in order to develop on sustainable basis of the on-line environmental news service and to provide training for 63 NGO representatives and journalists which will be implemented beginning with January 2003.

Another proposal also approved by the Environmental Partnership Fundation was elaborated in order to develop electronic tools for NGOs to support on-line campaigns which will be implemented beginning with January 2003.