Saving the Black Sea Issue 8, June 2005 Credits && Acknowledgements Select your language: EN BG GE RO RU TR UA Official Publication of the Commission on the Protection of the Black Sea Against Pollution and the GEF Ecosystems Recovery Project

Protection and Rehabilitation of the Black and Azov Seas in Ukraine

Когда наскучат ей лукавые новеллы,
И надоест лежать в плетеных гамаках,
Она уходит в порт смотреть как каравеллы
из дальних стран плывут на темных парусах
Э.Багрицкий

We are lucky, because we have Black Sea! But, lucky people sometime not know about their luck. So, the real story about reestimation of our seas and real regained value of seas – this is our story on rehabilitation of Azov and Black seas as part of regional endeavour.

In 2001, the Parliament of Ukraine has approved by law The State Program of the Protection and Rehabilitation of the Black and Azov Seas (the Program). This comprehensive document includes description of the goal, objectives, priorities, plan of actions and timeline, responsible governmental authorities and stakeholders, budget estimation and financial sources.

Development of this Program was inspired by the Black Sea Environmental Program in general and the Black Sea Strategic Action Plan in particular. In spite of the Program was developed according to the national regulation and standards, use to be it is considered as the BS National Action Plan.

According to the Law, the Ministry for Environmental Protection of Ukraine is responsible for supervision and coordination of the activities aimed to achieve Programs goal. The Program has intersectoral nature and includes issues related to pollution reduction and control, integrated coastal zone management, human health, biodiversity and landscape protection, sustainable use of marine resources, environmental monitoring and emergency response, and others.

National scale of the Programs requires relevant institutional support. For these reasons, in February 2004 the Interministerial Advisory Commission on Environmental Issues of the Black Sea Region (the Commission) has been reestablished to coordinate related activities, implementing by different governmental bodies. Taking into account the importance of the ecological safety in marine region and implementing the provisions of the Program, the special Intersectoral Task Force for Technogenic and Ecological Safety of Internal Waters, territorial waters and exclusive marine area in the Black and Azov Sea was established at the Cabinet of Ministers. .

Finally, the special unit – Division of the Black and Azov Seas – was created in the Ministry for Environmental Protection within its Directorate of Biotic, Water, Land Resources and EcoNet. The purpose of these establishments is to promote and streamline the implementation of national policy as well as the coordination of national and international program in the field of environmental protection, sustainable use of natural resources and ensuring the ecological safety in the Black Sea region. All these institutional arrangements should be considered as evidences of serious governmental attitude to the marine environmental issues.

On December 7, 2004, the Meeting of the Commission has considered the implementation of the Program in 2004 and discussed the achievements, and difficulties and barriers.

The Program defines several key objectives.

Reduction of pollution load and anthropogenic pressure to the marine environment.

To achieve this objective main effort in 2004 were focused on:

• pollution control of rivers’ input (introduction of the elements of basin management, regulation of agrogemicals usage in the water drainage area, construction and reconstruction of sewage networks and waste water treatment facilities to protect discharge into rivers, monitoring and control of water quality of rivers running to the seas)
• reduction of pollution from point sources (reconstruction of wastewater treatment facilities in urban settlements, e.g., Illichivsk, Odesa, Genichesk, Scadovsk; inventory of land users and implementation of water protection measures)
• reduction of atmosphere pollution (inventory of pollution sources, introduction of technological solutions, control of industrial facilities in recreational zones, etc.)
• strengthening the system of control for the movement of hazardous substances and materials and prevention of marine pollution by vessels
• improvement of the solid waste management in the coastal zone (construction of new modern landfields in AR Crimea, Donetsk region; inventory and liquidation of illegal landfields; stimulation of waste treatment enterprises, etc.)
• prevention of emergency situation in the region (inspection of the industrial enterprises and object of higher risk, preparatory activities for the implementation of the Black Sea Contingency Action Plan, development of National Program for emergency response, etc.)

Protection and sustainable use of biological and landscape diversity.

Measures in this area were focused on the prevention of the losses of biodiversity, promotion of the research of processes and phenomena in marine and coastal ecosystem and impact of anthropogenic factors, enforcement of environmental control and legislation, protection of natural habitats by means of increasing of protected areas (it is expected that new protected areas in low Dnister area, Odesa and Azov region will be established soon) and environmental monitoring. It is important to mention that, according to the monitoring and scientific research, diversity of marine species increased substantially as compared to 90th.

At the same time some areas of natural reserves in Crimea were lost due to mismanagement and illegal alienation.

Land protection in coastal zone and establishment of the integrated coastal zone management system.

Along with number of concrete measures implemented to prevent land erosion in coastal area, substantial efforts were undertaken in further development of national policy. The National Black and Azov Seas Commission on its Meeting in December, 2004 discussed and supported the Draft Law on Integrated Coastal Zone Management, which was developed under coordination of the Ministry for Environmental Protection of Ukraine during 2004.

The main issue of this new legislative document is clarification of the role, competencies and responsibilities of multiple land users of the coastal area including local and central governmental bodies. In fact, this is a key problem hindering approval of the legislative act regulating the relationships in the coastal area since early 1990th. It is expected that consideration of the draft law by central executive governmental bodies will be completed in 2005 and as a result final draft ICZM Law will be submitted to the Parliament of Ukraine for approval.

Further development of the international cooperation aimed at the environmental rehabilitation of the Black and Azov Seas.

Ukraine is active participant of international environmental cooperation and use the opportunity of international technical assistance. As a Party to the number of environmental Convention and Agreements, important for the Black and Azov Sea region, Ukraine has established procedures and institutional framework for the implementation of the provisions of international legislative acts. Another way of strengthening international cooperation is participation in joint program of projects. In 2004, the GEF-UNDP Dnipro Basin Environmental Programme has been completed, GEF-UNDP Danube Regional Project was continuing, second phase of the Black Sea Ecosystem Recovery Project was approved and its implementation started at the end of 2004. Black Sea Investment Facility Project supported by TACIS started as well in 2004. Number of tasks was achieved in the framework of the GEF Project “Biodiversity conservation in the Black-Azov Seas corridor”. In spite of many difficulties, it is expected that some important for the rehabilitation of marine ecosystem results will be achieved in 2005.

The issue of financial support of the planned activities and measures in the framework of the National Program is key obstacle of successful achievement of determined objectives. Therefore some important components of the Program need to be strengthened. This relates to development of effective investment policy and program for waste water treatment measures in municipal, industrial, agricultural sectors but any other sector can not be considered as satisfactory functioning. These issues will be on the agenda of the Program in 2005 further period.

Шторм утих. Молите бога, чтоб был обилен ваш улов:
Трудна и пениста дорога по мутной зелени валов.
Все холодней, все позже зори…
Но знает кормчий ваш седой, что ходят по морю святые
И носят звезды над водой.
Э.Багрицкий

Yaroslav Movchan,

Member of the Commission on the Protection of the Black Sea Against Pollution, Ukraine

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