REPS. OF 19 COUNTRIES DISCUSS PROTECTION OF COASTAL ZONES

SPLIT, June 17 (Hina) - The destruction of biological varieties, industrial pollution and wrong physical planning are the biggest problems of the coastal areas of eastern Mediterranean, southeastern Baltic and the Black and Caspian Seas, and countries in the aforementioned regions should cooperate to protect their environment. This is one of the conclusions of a three-day conference, organised by the Split-based Mediterranean Action Plan and a Dutch non- governmental organisation in the European Union which deals with the coastlands protection (EUCC). The event, which took place in the biggest Croatian seaside city - Split - ended on Saturday. Participants in the conference agreed that they would cooperate and exchange information on the protection of coastal zones. There are four basic programme for their activities - the Mediterranean Action Plan, which is the oldest, HELCOM (the Baltic commission for the coastal areas protection), the Black Sea programme of regional seas and the latest Caspian programme. The implementation of these programmes will be co-ordinated by EUCC, and financial assistance will be provided by different sources. Present at the Split meeting were representatives of Albania, Azarbaijan, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Georgia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Montenegro, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Russia, Turkey, Turkestan and Ukraine and NGOs' representatives and officials of the UN and the World Bank. (hina) ms