The Finnish youth environmental NGO Nature League organized a five day international youth camp on climate change on 14-18 August 2006.

The programme consisted of workshops and group works. The camp looked at creative methods of what young people can do themselves. In addition, the participants could enjoy Finnish sauna, camp fires, playing and singing in the evenings.

Summary and educational methods of the Climate Camp.

Pollution caused by transport and traffic is one of the urgent issues in the states around the Baltic Sea. Only in St. Petersburg 80 % of air pollution is caused by traffic in the city. 

The main purpose of the IMEC 2006 was to raise awareness in St. Petersburg, Pskov, Tartu and Tallinn about the transport-related environmental and health problems and to offer sustainable solutions for solving them. In Tartu and Pskov the discussion focused also on the potential to develop sustainable tourism in the region around Lake Peipus.

The partners of the project are Centre for Environmental Iniciatives, St. Petersburg; Dodo, Helsinki (www.dodo.org) and Peipsi CTC, Tartu (www.ctc.ee).
Further information: julia.lenkkeri/at/dodo.org 

Summary of the tour and seminar in Tartu

The forum concerning future cooperation of civil societies in European Union and Russia gathers civil society level Russia specialists and activists from the EU countries to discuss future forms of cooperation with their most important Russian partners. The forum offers an opportunity to discuss issues that NGOs want to put on the agenda of the future EU - Russia cooperation.

The European Union regards Russia as its strategic partner. True partnership requires well-functioning contacts also on the civil society level. This forum is the first event where experts and activists from all EU countries are invited to convene for discussion about cooperation with the NGOs operating in Northwest Russia and on the Russian Federation level.

More information (Finland-Russia Society)

Nordic Forum for Security Policy that is coordinated by STETE will organise its next discussion forum in Pskov on 19-20 May 2006 in cooperation with the local partners (NGO Chudskoye Project, Pskov and CIRP, St. Petersburg). The conference in pskov will continue the conference serial organized by the Nordic Forum around the Baltic Sea Rim. The latest previous events were organized in Gdansk (2004), Murmansk (2003) and Kaliningrad (2001). Now the focus is on the Pskov Region in Northwest Russia and on cross-order co-operation.

The conference aims at developing broad security, economic development and civil society collaboration. The border between the EU (Estonia and Latvia) and Russia is a challenging border where more closer international cooperation and dialogue is needed for the stability and security of the whole Baltic Sea region. The purpose is also to present on-going cross-border projects and to learn from their good practises.

More information on STETE web-site

Only 2 % of the forest in the Southern Finland and partly in Northern Finland are protected. In the south the number is even lower - only 1 % of the forest area. By ecological studies these numbers are too low to maintain the biodiversity in Finnish forests.

Six Finnish environmental organizations decided to make a campaign to increase the number of the conservation areas of the forests. Until the year 2010 the number of conserved forest areas in Southern Finland and parts of the forests in Northern Finland should be increased to 5 % and in longer run to 10 %.

Whole news

News from the Finnish Nature League:
The Finnish Nature has published educational material about the Baltic Sea for schools. Target group of the material includes the pupils of upper level of comprehensive schools and secondary schools. The main themes of the material are the unique features of the Baltic Sea nature and the most crucial environmental problems of the Sea.

The Baltic Sea material is one of the series for schools, published by the Nature League in 2006- The series consists of educational material about the conservation of the forests and wild life and information about the climate change. 

Whole news

The Baltic Institute of Finland and NGO "Chudskoye Project" (Pskov, Russia) organised a summer school for environmental NGOs: "Northern Dimension NGOs: Promoting Trans-boundary Cooperation between Russian, Estonian and Finnish Environmental NGOs". The summer school took place on 25-29 August 2005 at the lake Peipsi/Chudskoye, in Pskov region. Over 40 representative from Russian, Estonian and Finnish environmental NGOs participated in the event.

More information with photos and programme