April 11, 2004

INFORMATION LETTER

"Eco-TIRAS" International Environmental Association of River Keepers, which unites environmental NGOs of Dniester River Basin, in cooperation with the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of Moldova, organizes on September 16-17, 2004, in Chisinau, the capital of Moldova, the International Conference “Integrated Management of Natural Resources in the Transboundary Dniester River Basin”. It is supported by the RITA Foundation (Poland) and probably will be supported also by other sources.

The goals of the Conference are: evaluation and discussion of legal, institutional and economic instruments to manage natural resources of transboundary Dniester River, strengthening of transboundary cooperation of state agencies and public, developing proposals for conservation and sustainable use of water, biological and landscape resources of the Dniester River Basin, preservation of wetlands and creation of protected areas, developing complex ecological monitoring of current state of the ecosystem, strengthening of the role of public in these activities and in monitoring of implementation of previous decisions, strengthening networking as well as attracting international organizations to the problems of the river to fight poverty and prevent conflicts. Cultural and historic role of the Dniester River in development of current civilization are also subjects of the conference.

In the end of Conference, the Forum of NGOs of the Dniester River Basin will be held. NGO participation will be supported by the RITA Foundation and National Endowment for Democracy with participation of Lower Silesian Foundation for Sustainable Development (Poland) and Mama-86-Odessa (Ukraine).

The invitation to participate is open for representatives of parliaments, governments and its agencies, local authorities of Moldova and Ukraine, scientists, experts, NGOs and mass-media, working in the issues of Dniester and other transboundary watercources.

Secretariat of the Helsinki Water Convention and Ramsar Convention Bureau already expressed their interest in participation.

To register your participation please fill out the following Questionnaire and send it to e-addressed indicated below:

-  First name and Family Name of Participant

-  Co-authors (if any) – First and Family Name

-  Organization (s)

-  Name of report (not more that two reports from one author) and its preferential form (plenary, session, poster)

-  Mailing address (with ZIP)

-  Tel./Fax (with international code)

-  E-mail address

Deadline for registration – May 15, 2004.

As of April 2004, there are only basic financial means for the conference. Organizers welcome expression of interest to provide additional funding. All inputs will help to bring together more interested people. All inputs will be acknowledged in materials and proceedings of the Conference.

Conference proceedings will be published in the original language. Conference proceedings will be distributed to participants during the conference.

Format for papers:

Papers with the volume not more than five pages Times New Roman (12) should include the name of the paper (in CAPITAL LETTERS), First and Family names of author (s), Name of institution, mailing address, phone number with international and local codes, e-mail and URL. The papers about experimental works should contain introduction, materials and methods, results, discussion and list of literature. Papers in format WORD 6.0/95 should be submitted by e-mail to "Eco-TIRAS" as attachment.

Deadline to submit papers – 15 June 2004.

Address of " Eco-TIRAS ":

P.O.Box 1451, Chisinau-2043, Moldova

Tel./Fax: (+373 22) 550953, from June 1 – also (+373 22) 225615.

E-mail: and

Main information on preparation to the conference will be published at “Eco-TIRAS” website: www.eco-tiras.org

Ilya Trombitsky

Executive Director

«Eco-TIRAS»

International Environmental Association

of River Keepers

Important dates:

Registration of participants – by May 15, 2004

Submission of papers – by June 15, 2004

Form of papers presentation:

TOWARDS INTEGRATED MANAGEMENT OF TRANSBOUNDARY EUROPEAN RIVERS

John Smith, Samantha Spencer*

Institute of European Waters, P.O.Box 12453, Copenhagen DK 20003, Denmark

Tel.: (+45 26) 5599373, Fax (+39 26) 5599375, E-mail: , www.iew.int

*League of Women for Clean Waters, 37, Amsterdam Str., Dublin 2055, Ireland

Tel.: (+37 35) 2299373, Fax (+44 35) 2299375, E-mail: , www.lwcw.org

Text of the paper up to five pages.

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