Last week Ukraine, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Hungary, and the Czech Republic signed the Carpathian Declaration. “The Carpathian Convention establishes the fundamental principles for international cooperation on the protection and sustainable development of mountainous areas in general and the Carpathian mountains in particular,” said Minister of the Environment Vasyl Dzharty at a press conference after the two-day meeting of the parties to the Carpathian Convention ended in Kyiv on Dec. 13.
“We will formulate mechanisms for utilizing all possible resources in the framework of the Carpathian Convention,” the Ukrainian minister said and added that the document also makes provisions for working groups in Ukraine, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Hungary, and the Czech Republic at the environmental ministry level, which will develop concrete projects aimed at resolving the problems of the Carpathian region.
According to Interfax-Ukraine, the document also specifies sources for financing future projects. “As of today we have agreed that each participating country will contribute И20,500 toward existing mechanisms that involve specialists from the countries in the Carpathian region,” said the Ukrainian minister.
Answering a journalist’s question about possible ways to resolve the problems of Zakarpattia oblast, one of Ukraine’s poorest regions, Dzharty said that the Framework Convention proposes new environmentally-sound production facilities for this region.
The minister also said that Ukraine will be drawing on the experience of its neighbors to create a modern infrastructure and additional jobs in mountainous areas. Dzharty voiced his support for alternative types of businesses “that can be created specifically in the Carpathian region.” “If it is a forest, there must only be a sanitary zone there...If we are talking about natural resources, there should not be any mining there at all,” the minister added.
Participating in the work of the conference on the Carpathian Convention were the delegations of the seven Carpathian countries as well as delegations from Italy, Austria, the Netherlands, France, Belgium, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Greece, the UK, Germany, Georgia, and Switzerland. There were also representatives of the Alps Convention, UN Environment Program, environmental NGOs, and Ukrainian and international movements concerned with environmental problems and nature conservation. A total of 150 participants attended the conference, during which procedural rules and financial procedures for the Carpathian Convention were adopted, and two final documents were signed: the Memorandum of Understanding between the Carpathian and Alps Conventions, and the Carpathian Declaration.
