The National workshop, entitled Capacity-Building of National and Local Authorities Responsible for the Implementation of the LBSA Protocol to the Bucharest Convention took place on the 22nd and the 23th of March in hotel Admiral – Golden Sands.

The meeting was organized by the United Nations Environment Programme - GPA Coordination Office, in cooperation with the Black Sea River Basin Directorate and the Institute for Ecological Modernisation.

The Convention on the Protection of the Black Sea Against Pollution (known also as The Bucharest Convention) is signed by Bulgaria, Georgia, Romania, Russia, Turkey and Ukraine on the 21th of April 1992. In Bulgaria the Convention enters into force on 15.01.1994. There are four protocols under the Convention one of which is the Protocol for the Protection of the Black Sea Against Pollution from Land-Based Sources and Activities (the LBSA Protocol).

The Euro integration and the process of implementing the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) made the basin river management principles obligatory for at least three of the six Black Sea countries – Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey (as a pre-accession country). At the same time it turns out that the LBSA Protocol has very limited range compared to the WFD and is already outdated as a concept.

In response to this problem the Global Programme of Action at the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) started developing a new revised version of the Protocol, which will answer the need of enhanced cooperation among the Black Sea countries in the process of protecting the marine and the coastal environment.

The discussion topics during the workshop involved specific problems of the Black Sea, related to the negative impact of the land-based human activities. About 80 % of the pollution of the World Ocean is originating in the shipbuilding and harbour activities, chemical industries, agriculture, tourism and urban household activities. One of the main tasks of the Black Sea basin countries is to undertake practical actions to reduce the pollution of the marine waters with nutrient substances, which lead to severe impacts on the ecosystems.

The purpose of the workshop was the revision of the existing Protocol for the Protection of the Black Sea Against Pollution from Land-Based Sources and Activities, in terms of laying down new and more effective international regulation for limitation, restriction and control over the specific pollution, influencing directly or indirectly the marine environment.

The workshop was attended by about 40 participants, among which representatives of the Ministry of Environment and Waters, the Ministry of Forestry and Agriculture, the Executive environmental Agency, Local Authorities, National consultants on marine water pollution, representatives of the academic and research sector, industrial companies etc.