OSCE chairs ENVSEC Management Board Meeting

High-level representatives of the Environment and Security (ENVSEC) Initiative Partners met in Vienna on 18 May 2011 for the first Management Board meeting since the OSCE assumed its 2011 chairmanship in the six-agency partnership.

The six ENVSEC partner agencies are United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), United Nations Development Programme, United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, the Regional Environmental Centre for Central and Eastern Europe, and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) as an associate partner.

The Board assessed progress and set priorities for future activities, vowing to reinforce the security aspects of the ENVSEC work in the OSCE region and to raise public awareness about its activities.  

“The spectrum of our activities is wide and diverse, but they all serve one objective, which is to transform risks into co-operation,” said the OSCE Co-ordinator for Economic and Environmental Activities, Goran Svilanović, who chaired the meeting.

In an adjoining event, Christophe Bouvier, the Director of the UNEP Regional Office for Europe, presented findings from the recently completed ENVSEC Report on Environment and Security in the Amu Darya River Basin in Central Asia. The Report is due to be launched later this year.

Svilanović provided OSCE delegations with an update on the status of the ENVSEC Initiative and its work programmes in Central Asia, South Caucasus, Eastern Europe and South Eastern Europe, with a special focus on the OSCE activities in these regions.

With an annual budget of USD 42.2 million, ENVSEC implements more than 50 projects that promote management of trans-boundary natural resources, reduce the risks posed by hazardous substances, address the effects of population pressure and climate change on environmental security, and strengthen civil society as essential partners for  environment and security.