Belarus to use European practices to create ecological information platform

Belarus plans to use the European Union project Flermoneka as a model for creating a single platform of ecological information, Natalya Zharkina, the head of the department for analytical work, state policy and regulation in environmental protection at the Belarusian Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection, said at the meeting with the representatives of environmental protection ministries, statistics committees and meteorological services of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan on 22 June, BelTA has learned.

“We are working on the single platform for the collection of ecological information and contouring. The project Flermoneka helps the countries create such resources. We want to use the best in this field,” Natalya Zharkina explained.

In her words, specialists of the project help get in contact with donors who can provide assistance in the development of the single information platform. “Our resources have not been harmonized yet. However, we can be proud of certain things. We have the national system of environmental monitoring, the register of protected territories. We are developing the second resource on protected territories which will be connected with the single geoportal. Users will be able to work with maps and coordinates, see the limits online, which is important for those who are planning to work in protected territories,” she said.

Manager of the environmental management program of the Regional Environmental Center for Central Asia Simon Charre explained that Belarus was chosen for the tour because the country demonstrates great achievements in the development of economical monitoring. “Our project aims to help Central Asian countries improve the system of ecological monitoring and environmental reports,” he stressed.

“The visit of our colleagues from Central Asia is a good opportunity to demonstrate our best practices in ecological monitoring and polish topical issues,” Natalya Zharkina said.

On 22-23 June Minsk welcomes representatives of environmental protection ministries, statistics committees and meteorological services of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan as part of the Moneca component of the EU project Flermoneka. The meeting aims to enhance the potential of partners from Central Asian countries in the development of the single ecological information platform in the Pan-European region. The program of the visit includes the visit to the National Statistics Committee of Belarus, the meteorological service of Belarus and air monitoring stations.