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DE RUEHIT #0854/01 2631448
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 201448Z SEP 07
FM AMCONSUL ISTANBUL
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 7512
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
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RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC PRIORITY

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 ISTANBUL 000854 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ECIN SENV PREL TU
SUBJECT: SUCCESSFUL JOINT US - BSEC ENVIRONMENTAL SYMPOSIUM 
 
¶1. (U) Summary:  On September 12-13 BSEC and the United 
States government jointly held a symposium bringing together 
government officials as well as representatives from the 
private and non-governmental sectors of the BSEC member 
states.  The symposium was designed to explore the nexus 
between environmental protection and economic growth and 
development in the greater Black Sea region.  U.S. officials 
from the Department of State and USAID as well as officials 
from UNDP, the European Commission and the Black Sea 
Commission also participated in the exchange of best 
practices.  In her opening remarks, US delegation head EUR 
DAS Colleen Graffy stressed the need for governments, 
businesses and communities to come together to resolve 
environmental problems.  In his concluding remarks BSEC 
Secretary General Amb. Leonidas Chrysanthopoulos explained 
 
SIPDIS 
that BSEC hoped to hold future symposia on environmental 
protection topics to complement international, regional 
national and local efforts and facilitate regional 
cooperation.  End summary. 
 
Background 
---------- 
 
¶2. (U) On September 12-13, the Organization for Black Sea 
Economic Cooperation (BSEC) and the Department hosted an 
environmental symposium entitled "Environmental Protection 
for Economic Growth: A Best Practices Exchange."  Eleven of 
the twelve BSEC member states were represented at the 
conference; Azerbaijan due to a lack of travel funds 
(government representative) and expired travel documents (NGO 
participant) was not represented.  All other BSEC member 
states (Albania, Armenia, Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece, Moldova, 
Romania, Russia, Serbia, Turkey and Ukraine) were represented 
at the symposium and post-conference feedback from 
participants has been very positive.  More details on the 
conference can be found at 
www.aircistanbul.org/eproducts/bsec/bsec.html .  BSEC and the 
Consulate General Istanbul public affairs section are 
preparing a bi-lingual (Russian-English) brochure and DVD 
that will contain video of the conference proceedings and 
copies of presentations as well as additional background 
material provided by th 
e speakers and can be distributed by Embassy public affairs 
and ES&T sections.  Queries regarding the brochure/DVD should 
be directed to Christina Tomlinson at Consulate General 
Istanbul. 
 
Conference 
---------- 
 
¶3. (U) The conference opened with remarks by BSEC Secretary 
General Leonidas Chrysanthopoulos, EUR DAS Colleen Graffy and 
Deputy Undersecretary for the Turkish Ministry of Environment 
and Forestry Sedat Kadioglu.  Turkey is the current 
chairman-in-office of BSEC and also chairs the BSEC Working 
Group on Environmental Protection and was represented by a 
large delegation from the Ministry of Environment as well as 
an NGO and a private sector participant.  All three speakers 
highlighted the need to work together on environmental issues 
despite political differences.  Graffy noted that working 
together is extremely important because environmental 
problems "know no borders."  Chrysanthopoulos and Kadioglu 
thanked the USG for the financial support required to hold 
this conference while Graffy noted her hope that this would 
be the first of many opportunities for the USG to work with 
BSEC on issues of mutual interest. 
 
¶4. (U) The second session of the conference consisted of an 
overview of multilateral environmental efforts in the greater 
Black Sea region.  Dr. Ahmet Kideys, Director of the Black 
Sea Commission, described the status of the Bucharest 
Convention on the Protection of the Black Sea with a 
particular focus on convention implementation.  Andrew Murphy 
of the European Commission Directorate General on Environment 
explained the evolving Danube and Black Sea (DABLAS) 
Secretariat focus now that Romanian and Bulgarian accession 
 
SIPDIS 
to the EU has made the Black Sea an EU coastal area.  Cagatay 
Dikmen, the Turkish national focal point for the European 
Environment Agency (EEA), described how EEA coordinates with 
the Turkish Ministry of Environment and other national 
environment ministries.  Yegor Volovik outlined progress 
during the 2000 - 2008 UNDP-GEF Black Sea Ecosystem Recovery 
Project.  The final speaker in this session was Anar Rahimov 
of the BSEC Parliamentary Assembly (PABSEC) who related 
PABSEC activities in the field of e 
nvironmental protection. 
 
¶5. (U) The third conference session dealt with present and 
future ecological challenges and economic opportunities from 
the private sector, government and NGO perspective.  Costas 
Masmanidis, Secretary General of the BSEC Business Council 
 
ISTANBUL 00000854  002 OF 003 
 
 
described an environmental management system developed and 
implemented by the chemical industry.  Giorgi Tskhakaia, Head 
of the Department of Licensing and Permission of the Georgian 
Ministry of Environmental Protection, explained recent 
reforms in the Georgian licensing and permitting regime as 
applied to forestry, fishing and mining.  Evangelos Mylonas, 
Daedalus Informatics/Greece, focused on the need to increase 
the usage or renewable sources of energy and to change the 
"business as usual" paradigm.  Semih Yuzen, Petfor/Turkey, 
described his company's experience with for-profit solid 
waste management and plastic bottle recycling.  Gergana 
Stoeva and Hanifi Avci described Bulgarian and Turkish 
government efforts to protect the environment through urban 
wastewater systems in Bulga 
ria and Anatolian watershed rehabilitation projects 
respectively.  Richard Johnson, a former USGS official 
described methods of conserving biological and cultural 
diversity through economic development.  This Q&A session 
following this panel was particularly lively and focused. 
 
¶6. (U) The fourth conference session was chaired by the 
Russian BSEC Senior Official, Serghei Goncharenko, MFA Deputy 
Director for Economic Cooperation.  Central government 
officials from Bulgaria, Greece, Moldova, Romania, Russia, 
Serbia and Turkey described the status of laws and 
regulations in their countries as well as on-going challenges 
and best practices.  Topics covered included the challenges 
of implementing EU criteria (Bulgaria); land-based and marine 
sources of pollution (Greece); Danube river basin management 
(Moldova); coastal zone integrated management (Romania); 
territorial planning and risk prediction (Russia); economic 
instruments for environmental protection (Serbia); and 
special area protection (Turkey). 
 
¶7. (U) The fifth conference session focused on NGO activities 
in the energy and ecotourism sectors as well as municipal 
wastewater management.  Nikoloz Kobakhidze, head of the 
Caucuses Regional Environment Center, gave a good 
presentation on the role of the NGO sector in environmental 
protection.  Konalski Gkjoka, Institute for Habitat 
Development/Albania described efforts in increase the use of 
renewable sources of energy in Albania.  Zhanna Galyan, 
President of the Armenian Ecotourism Associate, explained how 
environmental protection can lead to development of a 
sustainable tourism industry.  Traian Croitoru, Water 
Management Company of Constanta County, Romania described how 
local government officials in Constanta County were working 
with the EU to improve waste water treatment.  These 
presentations underscored the need to bring energy and 
tourism experts as well as municipal and local authorities 
into environmental protection discussions at an early stage. 
 
¶8. (U) The sixth session was a pair of expert-led discussions 
on building public-private partnerships and on the 
enforcement of rules.  Roberta Hilbruner, USAID office for 
development coordination and sustainable tourism, described 
successful efforts to foster rural development through 
sustainable tourism.  Sureyya Isfendiyaroglu from the Turkish 
environmental NGO TEMA, described his organization's efforts 
to increase public awareness of the need for conservation as 
well as efforts to support sustainable agricultural 
practices.  Dr. Nilufer Oral, professor of law at Istanbul 
Bilge University, explained the current status of 
internationally binding agreements concerning environmental 
protection in the Black Sea and called on participating 
governments to strengthen enforcement of existing agreements. 
 
¶9. (U) In the closing session BSEC Secretary General 
Chrysanthopoulos reiterated his thanks to the USG for 
providing the funding necessary to host the symposium, called 
on BSEC member states to approach environmental protection in 
a sustainable and comprehensive matter, urged BSEC working 
groups on environment, energy and tourism to work together to 
link economic development and environmental protection and 
agreed that BSEC should hold similar symposia on a regular 
basis to facilitate regional cooperation and the sharing of 
ideas on environmental protection. 
 
Graffy - Chrysanthopoulos Meeting 
--------------------------------- 
 
¶10. (U) Immediately following the opening session at which 
both EUR DAS Colleen Graffy and BSEC Secretary-General 
Leonidas Chrysanthopoulos made opening remarks, the two met 
briefly to discuss opportunities for future cooperation 
between BSEC and the United States.  Graffy expressed her 
condolences for the recent fires in Greece.  Chrysanthopoulos 
noted that the fires might have been caused by arsonists, but 
the problem was created by a lack of forest management 
exacerbated by five months without rain. Graffy agreed, 
noting that forest fires were also a serious problem in the 
 
ISTANBUL 00000854  003.2 OF 003 
 
 
United States.  Graffy asked what sort of tangible result 
Chrysanthopoulos expected from the symposium.  He admitted 
that the results of the September 10-11 Working Group on 
Environmental Protection were disappointing and "not up to my 
standards."  A lack of financing combined with limited 
institutional capacity on the part of many BSEC members meant 
that the working group was long on process and short on 
substance.  He expressed his hope that the symposium would 
focus attention on the need to think seriously on 
environmental issues and bring more practical issues to the 
table at future working groups.   He thanked Graffy for the 
USG financial and technical support, which demonstrated the 
active interest of the USG in BSEC, noting that of the 
observers only Israel and Germany had had similar involvement. 
 
Media Coverage 
-------------- 
 
¶11. (U) The symposium received good coverage in the Turkish 
press.  MSNBC affiliate NTV repeatedly broadcast a 90-second 
spot including excerpts from an interview with DAS Graffy as 
well as coverage of the opening session of the conference. 
The Anadolu Ajans wire service also covered the opening 
session.  All three English-language newspapers covered the 
event.  Turkish Daily News ran stories with photos both 
before and after the conference, while English language 
Today's Zaman published DAS Graffy's op-ed piece. There was 
no Turkish-language print coverage. 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
¶12. (U) Everyone we worked with at BSEC from Secretary 
General Chrysanthopoulos on down was very positive about USG 
involvement in BSEC in general and this conference in 
particular.  The fact that the Russian representative to BSEC 
made a special trip to Istanbul and participated actively in 
the conference, chairing session four, was also a very 
positive sign.  The Secretary General clearly stated his 
desire to work together with the USG on more such symposia 
both privately to DAS Graffy and publicly in the closing 
session.  The BSEC Permanent International Secretariat 
(PERMIS) has the administrative capacity needed to co-host a 
symposium of this size (approx 50 attendees) with the USG, 
what it lacks are funds.  This two-day conference cost 
approximately $30,000 in SEED funds and $10,000 in Mission 
Turkey public diplomacy funds.  Mission Turkey stands ready 
to work with Washington agencies and BSEC on future 
conferences; however any future conferences should be fully 
funded by Washington.  End Comment. 
 
 
WIENER