Black Sea:
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Our beautiful and productive sea is confronted with many environmental problems. The most significant of these is massive over-fertilization – largely from agricultural, domestic and industrial pollution – leading to excessive growth of algae and oxygen depletion (eutrophication). Other problems include pollution by oil spills, overfishing, and the introduction of exotic species. Among those to suffer have been our famous sturgeon, our greatly appreciated dolphins, and of course our people whenever they fish, swim or simply comb our beaches. Determined to confront these problems and inspired by the early Regional Seas Conventions, in April 1992 the six Black Sea countries signed the Convention for the Protection of the Black Sea against Pollution. The Bucharest Convention includes Protocols on land-based sources of pollution, dumping of waste, and emergency response in the case of accidents. The most recent addition is the Biodiversity and Landscape Conservation Protocol, signed in June 2002. The countries immediately set up a Commission to implement the Convention, and then in 1993 founded the Black Sea Environmental Programme (BSEP) to provide a catalogue of practical actions, and in 1996 adopted a Strategic Action Plan for the Protection and Rehabilitation of the Black Sea. During this early period (1993-1998), as part of two projects funded by the international community through the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the Black Sea countries worked to identify their environmental problems, draft National Action Plans, set up a network of institutions to implement the regional plan; build capacity in environmental management, and define projects to identify all major sources of waste water and toxic materials in coastal countries (‘hot spot’ analysis). From this work emerged a portfolio of 49 investment projects. Meanwhile, as the BSEP attracted further support from the European Union and several bilateral donors, its early achievements became the building blocks for an expanded regional endeavour. The central and immediate aim of the BSEP is to reduce the discharge of nutrients and other toxic substances into the Sea to such levels as to permit ecosystems to recover to their 1960s state. The GEF has now provided support for a project in 2002-2006 to develop the legal, policy and technical measures needed to do this. By that time the early projects had confirmed that the most severe problem of the Black Sea is eutrophication caused by nutrients. But it revealed something else: about 30% of these nutrients are transported to the Sea through transboundary watercourses draining its wide water catchment basin. Restoring water quality of the sea would require more than cleaning up pollution sources along its coasts. Then something amazing happened. The Danube riparian countries signed onto the cleanup effort as well, launching a similar project for the Danube basin and joining with the Black Sea countries to create the new Black Sea Danube River Basin Task Force. Operating under the leadership of the European Commission, the task force will produce a short list of environmental rehabilitation projects and approaches to financing them. Those involved in this remarkable endeavour agree that a key to its success is broad stakeholder participation. The Programme plans to bring this about by facilitating collaboration between the industrial, agricultural and urban sectors; restoring critical habitats and wetlands; setting up small-scale demonstration projects, providing small grants to local initiatives and supporting public information and environmental education efforts. The day is in sight when the people of the Black Sea and Danube River Basin will find themselves sharing and enjoying clean and fully restored river, sea and wetland environments. Sema ACAR is Project Coordinator, Commission on the Protection of the Black Sea Against Pollution
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