International Union for Conservation of Nature started the Regional Conservation Forum for Europe, North and Central Asia that will take place from 14 till 16 December in Helsinki, Finland. EPL participates in the Forum as IUCN member.
One of the key objectives of the Forum is discussion of the Work program for countries of Eastern Europe and Central Asia for the period of 2017-2020. The Working Plan will be reviewed on 15-16 December and conclusions, comments and discussion results will be included to the next version and another round of discussions will be started. The document will contain the basic principles of IUCN functioning in countries of Eastern Europe and Central Asia for next 4 years. The final version of the document is planned to be prepared and released by the end of February 2016.
On the first day of the Forum there was an opening ceremony attended by former President of Finland, two ministers of environment of Finland, vice mayor of Helsinki, head of the Berne Convention, and IUCN President. Among the issues raised the most topical was the issue of natural capital and its assessment. This is a comparatively new method of involving nature interests to the process of decision-making through monetization of its ecosystem services that is currently at the stage of active development. Other issues raised include new research of the state of environment in Europe, environmental targets for sustainable development until 2030 as well as optimization of environmental knowledge.
Referencenote
International Union for Conservation of Nature is an international organization aimed at biodiversity preservation and environmentally friendly and sustainable methods of using natural resources, in which it helps organizations of various types. 735 NGOs including EPL are members of IUCN. Since 1963, IUCN has been issuing the Red List, which is the most comprehensive collection of data on conservation status of plants and animals all over the world.
For further information please contact
Kateryna Norenko, EPL environmentalist
+380 3222 57682, office@epl.org.ua
