On October 6-7, 2005 over 120 renowned scientists, governmental officials and practitioners discussed the vital issues of sustainable development during the Conference being organised by the Ministry of Environmental Protection of Ukraine with support from UNDP/MSDP, British Council, and European Centre for Technogenic Safety and held in Odesa.
The goal of the Conference was to develop recommendations on policies in the area of environmental protection, rational usage of the natural resources, and implementation of the fundamentals of sustainable development in Ukraine.
The Conference discussed the following thematic areas:
1. Environmental Safety (wastes and harmful substances management, implementation of balanced production and consumption models, prevention of technogenic emergency situations, monitoring of environment, environmental pollution and people’s health)
2. Natural resources management, biotic and landscape biodiversity (effective and non-exhaustive natural resources management, biotic and landscape biodiversity, reproduction of environment, regional programmes of sustainable (balanced) development)
3. Economic provision for the ecological problems’ solution for sustainable development (optimization of resource base of economic and social development, implementation of modern mechanisms of economic provision for the solution of environmental problems).
4. Environmental education and social aspects of sustainable development (environmental education for sustainable development, poverty eradication, demographic problems, science for sustainable development, community access to environmental information, participation in decision-making process and access to legislation on the issues related with environment)
5. Global and transboundary problems of impact on the environment (global and regional climate changes, impact on environment, transboundary transportation of toxic wastes and their disposal, the protection and use of transboundary waterways and international lakes)
As the result, the Conference defined the most effective directions of the scientific, methodological and legislative provisions for solving the ecological problems of sustainable development of Ukraine. The concept paper and the strategy of implementing sustainable development principles in Ukraine was discussed, and policy recommendations on sustainable development derived from the Conference are in process of submission for adoption by governmental and parliamentary stakeholders
