Center for Civil Society International ([email protected])
Fri, 21 Jun 1996 12:07:44 -0700 (PDT)
x-posted from ENVCEE-L
>From: "Transboundary and Environmental News" <[email protected]>
BALLERINA WORKSHOP ESTABLISHES WIDE SUPPORT FOR BALTIC SEA REGION
ENVIRONMENTAL COOPERATION AND NETWORK
STOCKHOLM -- The first BALLERINA (BALtic Sea Region On-line
Environmental Information Resources for INternet Access) workshop
brought together about 65 representatives of a wide variety of
government, academic, and non-government organizations from the
Baltic Sea region to Swedish Environmental Protection Agency
headquarters on June 13-14 to discuss the development of an
Internet-based environmental network in the region. Participants
at the workshop expressed unanimous support for the BALLERINA
initiative.
BALLERINA is being developed as a cooperative effort among
agencies and organizations which produce and disseminate
environmental information about the Baltic Sea and its drainage
area. To an increasing extent, much information about the
environmental state of the region is already available by
Internet. Yet that same information is not easily visible
or searchable from a single World Wide Web homepage location.
Representatives from Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Latvia,
Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Russia, and Sweden participated in the working
groups of the workshop.
Several workshop participants presented existing examples of
environmental work of their organizations on the Internet. Those
organizations included the CIESIN Estonian Center,
UNEP/GRID-Arendal, TallinNet, the Finnish Environment Institute,
and the Regional Environmental Center (Budapest).
A representative from the Great Lakes Commission, Carol
Cratza, presented the experience of the Great Lakes Information
Network (GLIN). The BALLERINA initiative will be able to draw on
the example of GLIN as a successful electronic network concerning
the environmental issues of international waterbodies.
An ad hoc committee was designated and approved by the
workshop for further organization and realization of the
BALLERINA initiative. A first general assembly of BALLERINA
participants is now planned for early 1997. The BALLERINA
workshop was sponsored by the Swedish Environmental Protection
Agency and UNEP/GRID.
For more information about the BALLERINA initiative, please
contact Dr. Sindre Langaas, UNEP/GRI-Arendal, phone +46-8-161737,
e-mail <[email protected]>.
Internet: http://www.grida.no/ballerina/
(Transboundary Environmental Information Agency)
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