Handbook Facilitates Implementation of Convention Pursuing a Comprehensive Policy and Protection of the Carpathians Mountains

The Handbook on the Carpathian Convention was released earlier this year to help local authorities increase compliance with, and enforcement of, the Convention on the Protection and Sustainable was Development of the Carpathians (Carpathian Convention). The Carpathians are one of Europe's largest mountain ranges, a unique natural treasure of incredible beauty and ecological value.

The Handbook was produced by the Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe in partnership with the European Academy Bolzano under an umbrella project - Support for the Implementation of the Carpathian Convention in the Framework of the Alpine-Carpathian Partnership. It has been financially supported by the Italian Ministry for Environment, Land and Sea and is targeted at local authorities in Carpathian countries.

The Carpathian Convention, signed in May 2003 in Kiev, entered into force on January 4, 2006. The Convention is an important vehicle for helping to achieve the protection and sustainable development of the Carpathian Mountains region. The Carpathian Mountains are a major ecological, economic, cultural, recreational and living environment in the heart of Europe.

The Carpathians are home to almost 4,000 plant species, including about one-third of the plant species existing in Europe that are found nowhere else in the world, as well as to Europe's largest populations of brown bears, wolves, lynx, European bison and rare bird species including the globally threatened imperial eagle. Some 45 percent of Europe's wolves - a species extinct in many Western and Central European countries - can be found here.

The Handbook is intended to be a practical tool for local authorities to assist them in taking action and developing policies and practices to help in the protection of, and the promotion of sustainable development in, the Carpathians through the international framework for cooperation set up under the Convention.

While it is the states that have obligations under the Convention, all actors in society have their roles to play. Local authorities will be faced with policies, legal provisions, plans and programs adopted by their governments to meet the Convention's obligations.

But more importantly, the Convention may be a source of strength for local authorities' own efforts to protect the Carpathian region, for example by introducing new possibilities for trans-boundary cooperation. The goal of the Handbook is to encourage local authorities to make progress in this direction. As a result, environmental compliance and enforcement in this region will be increased.

The Handbook includes an introduction providing background information on the Carpathian Convention, a chapter on the preamble of the Convention, a section divided into chapters analyzing article by article the substantive provisions of the Convention (articles 1-13, with articles 3 and 5 being presented together), a section on institutional aspects (referring to articles 14 to 16 of the Convention) and annexes.

A full copy of this manual can be downloaded at this address (PDF).

For more information, contact: Mr. Stephen Stec at .