Programme Cooperation Agreement 2010 – 2011

sociated media programme resulted in a BBC broad- cast 64 , a publication in Wochenzeitung (Germany) 65 and a series of articles by local journalists, trained through- out the press tour. As part of ENVSEC, GRID-Arendal continued its collabora- tion with the Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe (REC), based in Hungary, in implementing Phase 2 of the Druksiai/Drisvyaty Lake Basin Management Programme (DLB MP) . The programme’s strategic goal is to strengthen integrated water resources management in the Druksiai/Drisvyaty lake basin through effective water resources assessment and reporting systems, institutional capacity building, enhanced public participation, improved issue awareness and access to information. As part of its contribution, GRID-Arendal has finalised the DLB MP offi- cial project website 66 with the GeoIQ information manage- ment tool integrated into the site. The Druksiai/Drisvyaty Lake borders 3 countries in Eastern Europe: Belarus, Latvia and Lithuania. The decommissioned Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant on the Lithuanian side is the source of concern for bordering countries. The dismantled nuclear fuel from the reactor is stored in close (500 m) proximity to the lake. A new nuclear facility is planned for construction. It will use the waters of the lake for its cooling system, which has already caused thermal pollution problems to the lake, contributing to the decline of biodiversity. Furthermore, the state protected territory “Braslavskie ozera”, on the Belarusian side, provides recreation areas for its population. The Caspian region remains an important area for EECCA capacity development where GRID-Arendal has long pro- vided support to the Tehran Convention , inter alia through making staff available to the interim Secretariat, and con- ducting regional assessments in close consultation with national authorities. Being the first regional and legally

64. www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p00l7wvp/From_Our_Own_Corre- spondent_Tunisia_and_Ukraine_Moldova/ 65. http://www.woz.ch/artikel/2011/nr33/thema/21054.html 66. http://enrin.grida.no/druksiai/maps.aspx 67. Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russian Federation and Turkmenistan 68. http://www.caspianenvironment.org/newsite/News-RecentLib- MoreInfo.asp?ID=4373 (Russian) http://www.caspianenvironment.org/newsite/News-RecentLibMoreIn- fo.asp?ID=4273 (English) 69. TC/COP3/13/Rev.3 12 August 2011 http://www.caspianenvironment.org/newsite/DocCenter/2011/ COP3%20Ministerial%20Statement%20%28eng%29%20-%20as%20 adopted.pdf 70. http://www.caspianenvironment.org Going forward, additional support to the TehranConvention by GRID-Arendal will take the form of a Caspian Informa- tion Center (CIC) intended to promote unified environmen- tal data collection, sharing and ecosystemmonitoring. The concept of a regionally owned web-based center to promote andmonitoring, and for public disclosure and outreach was developed and approved by the parties to the Tehran Con- binding instrument signed by all Caspian littoral states 67 , the Tehran Convention serves as an overarching frame- work defining general requirements and providing the institutional mechanisms for protection of the Caspian Sea’s marine environment. i For the Third Conference of the Parties (COP 3) in August 2011 in Aktau, Kazakhstan, GRID-Arendal produced the Caspian Sea State of the Environment re- port. 68 The report was approved by the conference and acknowledged in the Ministerial Statement of the Tehran Convention COP 3 (see box below). 69 Country officials were actively involved in drafting the report, an impor- tant indication of ownership. Its final version has since been published on the web. 70 While a number of fiduciary issues highlighted in the report have already been ad- dressed, the decision to implement far-reaching recom- mendations has yet to be taken.

GRID-Arendal participated in the Third Conference of the Parties (COP 3) in August 2011 in Aktau, Kazakhstan

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