of
the International conference
“Mountains and People (in the context of sustainable development)”,
dedicated
to the International Year of Mountains
(14th-18th
October, 2002, Rakhiv, Transcarpathian region, Ukraine)
The International conference “Mountains and People (in the context of
sustainable development)”, dedicated to the International Year of Mountains,
was held from 14th to 18th of October 2002 in Rakhiv
(Transcarpathian region, Ukraine). The Conference was organised by the Ministry
of ecology and natural resources of Ukraine, Transcarpathian regional state
administration, Carpathian biosphere reserve, Regional ecological centre
“REC-Kyiv” and Institute of ecology of the Carpathians of the NAS of
Ukraine. In the conference took part executives of the Ministry of ecology and
natural resources of Ukraine, regional state administrations, scientists,
representatives of local authorities and NGOs from Ukraine, Poland, Hungary,
Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Romania, the Slovak Republic, Russia and other
countries – in general 220 persons. A speech of welcome for the conference
participants was made by the Head of Transcarpathian regional council M.I.
Andrus and Head of Transcarpathian regional state administration I.M. Risak,
Minister of ecology and natural resources of Ukraine S.I. Kurykin, people’s
deputies of Ukraine M.A. Markush and O.D. Klympush, famous native and foreign
scientists.
In the process of conference work 88 presentations and reports were
represented and discussed, 37 persons participated in the discussion. According
to the results of conference work, there were published two volumes of the
Conference Proceedings, including 280 papers of 430 authors from 12 countries of
Europe and Asia.
On the basis of discussion the most urgent problems of mountainous
regions of Europe and Asia, the Conference certifies,
that:
·
Mountainous regions are distinguished by the
unique natural resources, cultural and social-economic values and essentially
influence on vital functions of the considerable part of population of the
Earth.
·
Possessing considerable supplies of water,
minerals, forestry and agricultural raw materials, great biodiversity, the
mountainous regions are very ecologically vulnerable. Typical for them are
floods, mud flows and landslides, which hinder to use effectively their natural
resources, and cause considerable social-economic losses.
·
The prevailing part of presentations was focused
on the concrete definition of program statements of the “Agenda XXI ” and
“Declaration of the Millennium of the UNO”.
·
The themes of presentations were also agreed
with the new international program document “Plan of decisions introduction of
the World Summit on sustainable development” (Johannesburg, 2002).
·
The items, discussed at the conference, favour
integration of three components of sustainable development – economic growth,
social development, conservation and renovation of the environment, as well as
are the basis for the introduction of sustainable development strategy of the
Carpathian region.
In the result of active
discussions, participants of the conference came to a conclusion, that within a
long period in many countries the great ecological and social-economic role of
mountainous regions was not recognised or has been diminished. Therefore, today,
very acute questions of the agenda are the items of decreasing the anthropogenic
pressure on mountainous ecosystems, increase of the living standard of local
population, conservation of great natural resource potential and cultural
heritage of mountain-dwellers. In connection with this, participants of the
international conference recommend:
I.
By governments of mountainous countries (countries with mountainous
regions in their territories):
1.
To work out and adopt a Program of sustainable development of mountainous
territories. Taking into account the specificity of each mountain region, to
work out normative-legal acts, directed on the state regulation of natural
resources use, favourable crediting, making favourable financial-economic
conditions (taxation and customs privileges) to the management individuals,
which conduct nature conservation and anti-flood measures in mountains, create
infrastructure for the development of tourism and recreation, construct
mountainous roads, provide deep processing of timber and other bioresources,
produce ecologically clean food-stuffs, develop folk crafts.
2.
To favour transboundary co-operation in the Carpathian region,
specifically to co-ordinate mechanisms of the transboundary co-operation,
including the item of a simplified passport regime, where it will be recognised
reasonable.
II. By the Supreme Council of Ukraine:
1.
In order to perfect the model of sustainable development in mountainous
regions of Ukraine, decrease and prevention of damage from floods and inundation
in the basins of mountainous rivers to adopt the Laws: “On the experimental
ecological-economic zone “Rakhiv” and “On the insertion of changes and
complements to the Law of Ukraine “On the status of mountainous settlements in
Ukraine”, “On rural ecotourism”, “On lands protection” and “On
ecological audit”.
III. By the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine:
1. With the aim to prevent and decrease loses from hazards in the territory of the Carpathian region to take measures on the raise of effective activity level of the state hydrometeorological service. While forming the annual budgets (both state and local) from the sum of dues for the special use of lands in mountainous areas to allocate 10% annually for the financing of conduction a special water-protection management (monitoring of the slopes and rivers water regime, monitoring of exogenous processes and prediction of their development, hydrotechnical facilities; forestry management).
2.
Taking into account a great recreational potential of the Carpathians and
resolution of the Parliament Assembly of the Council of Europe, adopted in
January 1998, to consider development of tourism and recreation as an important
component of sustainable development of the Carpathian region.
IV. By the Ministry of ecology and natural resources of
Ukraine:
1.
To envisage in the draft of the Carpathian convention the co-ordination
of the world community efforts on the renovation of disturbed ecological balance
in mountainous ecosystems, specifically because of the decrease of forest
cuttings scales, preventive measures of erosion processes and decrease of soils
degradation rates, overcoming of unemployment and poverty, raising the
well-being of residents of the Carpathian mountains.
2.
To involve more widely the publicity to the preparation of the Fifth
Pan-European conference on the ministerial level within the process
“Environment for Europe”, which will be held in Kyiv in May 2003 and to the
development of the Carpathian convention, which is planned to sign at this
conference.
3.
To hasten the formation of the Carpathian regional econetwork by means of the
network expansion of territories and objects of nature conservation fund of the
region, including international and intergovernmental nature conservation
territories.
4.
To create a co-ordination-information centre on the items of hazards in
mountains and conduction of a specialised agriculture and forestry.
V. By the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine:
1.
To involve scientific potential of the region to the development of
innovative measures on the ensuring of rise the productivity of forest and
agrarian ecosystems, working out of ecologically and economically efficient
systems of the balanced management and achievement on this basis the ecological,
economic and social balance in the Carpathian region.
2.
To consider reasonable the
conduction of overall landscape-ecological map-making of the Ukrainian
Carpathians in scale of 1:200 000 (1: 100 000) on the basis of GIS technologies,
which would include the creation of series of maps: landscape, recent vegetation
cover, forests, dangerous natural processes and hazards, etc.
3.
In the Carpathians
biodiversity conservation to consider such directions of investigation as
priority ones:
-
inventory and monitoring of the floristic and
faunistic diversity;
-
inventory and monitoring of hunting species of
animals and their habitats;
-
study of structural-functional organisation and
dynamics of the living organisms communities of the primary ecosystems of the
Carpathian region as standards for ecosystems modelling and processes management
in ecosystems;
-
study of the influence of populations and
communities fragmentation of plant and animal species of mountainous areas and
changes of their spatial-temporal structure on the survival;
-
working out of national programs aimed on the
conservation and regeneration of biodiversity, in particular program of
conservation and management of
large carnivores populations state;
-
working out of scientific grounds of the
formation the Carpathian regional econetwork and broadening the network of
territories and objects of nature conservation fund of the region;
-
protection of vanishing species of flora and
fauna.
4.
On the basis of the Institute
of ecology of the Carpathians of the NASU or the State natural museum of the NAS
of Ukraine (Lviv) to form a working group for the co-ordination of scientific
investigations in the region of the Ukrainian Carpathians.
VI. By other state institutions:
1.
To work out and introduce by the Ministry
of education and science of Ukraine
in collaboration with the Ministry of ecology and natural resources of Ukraine a
system of ecological-educational and academic-training measures, aimed to form
in the consciousness of the population, especially children and the youth, an
ecological mentality, a thrift attitude to the mountainous ecosystems, necessity
of introduction of the ecological systems and technologies in the mountains and
conservation of the unique natural and cultural heritage of mountain-dwellers.
2.
By the State tourist administration of Ukraine:
-
to work out
and submit for the approval of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine a
national program of the recreational potential development of the Ukrainian
Carpathians.
-
to
favour institutionally to the development of ecological and green (rural)
tourism in the region.
3
By the State committee of forestry of
Ukraine to concentrate attention on:
-
a broader introduction of technologies of
sustainable forestry; including nature conservation technologies of timber
logging;
-
intensification of measures, aimed to conserve
and regenerate forests, in particular native stands, raising the woodland
territory of the Carpathian region to the optimal;
-
conduction of the reconstruction of biologically
unstable spruce and pine monocultures outside their natural growth;
-
construction
and improvement of the existing forest roads;
-
wider use of biological methods of forest
protection, which envisage renewal of the activity of regional laboratories of
forest protection;
-
working out of organising-management mechanism
of rational use of timber forest resources;
-
preparation of young stuff for the forestry
management; for this, to conduct in 2004 in the Ukrainian
Carpathians an international school of young scientists-foresters.
4.
By the regional state administrations of
Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Chernivtsi and Transcarpathia:
-
to work out and introduce
programs of the renewal of traditional methods of farming in the
mountains, to favour development and introduction of strategies of sustainable
development of communities and local action plans of environmental protection,
development of small business, training and retraining of staff;
-
to favour conservation and regeneration of
biological and landscape diversity of the region;
-
to favour development of local ecologically
balanced private business;
-
to work out and introduce programs of improving
the hydrological regime of mountain rivers in the Carpathians, to favour
introduction of ecologically substantiated, nature conservation anti-flood
measures;
-
to favour change of method of the forest fund
use, taking into account the priority of ecological and social functions of
forest ecosystems.
VII. Preparation and
conduction of the conference were done in the high scientific and organising
level. The Carpathian biosphere reserve provided all conditions for the
successful work of the conference. The participants of the Conference express
thanks to the administration of the Carpathian biosphere reserve for the
excellent organisation of the international conference and wish its stuff a
fruitful work in the introduction of the sustainable development idea in the
Carpathian region.