Part I
The Czech Republic
Mrs. Z. Stroufova - Country Consultant of Milieukontakt
Oost-Europa
Brno, 19 February 1996
Historical development
The environmental movement of the Czech Republic started with
the precursor of the Czech Union for Nature Conservation (CSOP),
around the sixties. The CSOP and its youth organization Brontosaurus
were both nature conservation groups which became more and more
political active by the end of the eighties. Both groups balanced
on the edge of legal and illegal when the changes in Czechoslovakia
started in 1989. A .lot of political engaged people of the environmental
movement left the movement after the changes to contribute to
the newly established government. The first governments, both
federal for Czechoslovakia and national for the Czech Republic,
had a big willingness to take environmental problems into account.
The recent government and with it the Ministry of the Environment
is not really interested and very weak in defending environmental
values.
The environmental movement in the Czech Republic established
in 1989 an environmental cooperative network of all existing groups
in that time. This 'Green Circle' still exists and is becoming
stronger and stronger. It has several lobby groups and is more
or less 'the voice' of the green movement. It was possible to
establish such an organization because everybody knows everybody
in the Czech environmental movement, for already a long time.
And knowing each other well is a good starting point for cooperation.
East-East cooperation in the Czech Republic
Due to the special historical situation between the Czech Republic
and Slovakia, the East-East cooperation among the Czech and Slovaks
is felt differently than the cooperation with other countries
in CEE. The environmental movement (and at least half of the population)
was not happy with the splitting up of the Czechoslovakian Federation
in 1993. The cooperation with Slovakia is hindered by the new
border, but still favorite and feeling 'normal' for a lot of NGOs.
The biggest environmental NGOs in the Czech Republic, CSOP, Deti
Zeme, Hnuti Duha and the Federation of Environmental Education
Centers (EVA) are all East-East cooperating in one or another
way. A possible explanation of this cooperative behavior of the
Czech NGOs is the fact that they are very well connected and cooperating
within the country.
Reasons for East-East cooperation
The main motivation for transboundary cooperation is of course
dealing with a transboundary problem, for example in the Rivers
and Wetlands Network. River problems have to be solved in the
whole basin of the river, if there are borders or not.
Advantages of all cooperation, but for sure also for East-East
cooperation are: the exchange of useful information and experience,
learning from each other and being able to do bigger projects
together. Because of this advantages environmental problems will
be solved easier and more effective. NGOs not always see these
advantages, but finally cooperation is the only way to develop
the organization, to grow stronger and to gain influence, so that
the organizations goals will be reached.
A more political colored advantage of East-East cooperation is
the example function of it. When NGOs are East-East cooperating
they show their governments that this is possible, reasonable
and useful. People in CEE should cooperate much more, so why not
to start with East-East cooperation on environmental issues? It
will help the democratization process in the CEE countries.
Finally it should be mentioned that a lot of funding organizations
are very much interested in East-East cooperative projects, so
more money is available for such projects. For NGOs who are developed
well enough to handle East-East cooperative project this is an
important pulling factor towards East-East cooperation.
Problems / Obstacles
A lot of obstacles for East-East cooperation can be mentioned.
The capacity of most environmental NGOs in CEE is too small. The
lack of resources, both human and financial, keeps groups from
trying to establish sustainable cooperation. Then the environmental
issues in the country itself need a lot of attention, so no energy
is left to focus more on East-East cooperation. A third point
is the history of forced cooperation in CEE; people are just not
interested in their east neighbors. The latter also because they
consider it more interesting and profitable to cooperate with
Western NGOs. Practical obstacles for East-East cooperation that
play a role are border formalities, problems with transferring
money (for example to Ukraine), language problems, bad connections
by phone and/or mail and the lack of potential partner groups
in some countries.
Finally the attitude of the people in CEE can play a role. Sometimes
NGO people are not self-confident enough to have the courage to
start cooperation, to contact other people or for example to write
an article for an international newsletter. Good personal contact,
even being friends, is very important for establishing and maintaining
cooperation. But the risk of this personal approach and knowing
each other close, which is obvious in the environmental movement
in CEE, is that the whole cooperation relies on one or two persons
in an organization. When such persons leave the whole cooperation
or eventually the whole NGO collapses.
Necessary features for East-East cooperation
The most important feature is knowing each other, meeting people
working on the same topics and having a common interest in and/or
goal to reach with the cooperation. Then the potential East-East
cooperative NGOs have to have the capacity to establish and maintain
regular contact. Finally a common topic, preferable transboundary,
and good experiences with cooperation in the own country will
facilitate East-East cooperation a lot.
Promotion and future of East-East cooperation
The expectations for East-East cooperation are positive. The
environmental movement in CEE will convergence towards a more
general movement for whole the area. They have to if they want
to survive in the future. Funding organizations from the West
will cut the budgets further and further and the environmental
NGOs need each other to be stronger in reaching goals, raising
funds from the own governments and get a louder 'voice' to be
heard in world politics.
The promotion of East-East cooperation is important. Some suggestions
are fellowship exchange programs among NGOs in CEE, workshops
on 'How to cooperate', supporting the existing and successful
networks in CEE and facilitate the personal meeting of NGO people.
The latter can be done by a 'cooperation coordinator' who will
travel around, give workshops, produce a newsletter, initiate
common projects and bring people together. Finally East-East cooperation
has to be sold in a way, it has to be made attractive. By showing
good examples and by financial support.
REC * PUBLICATIONS * BEYOND BORDERS - SIDE REPORT * THE CZECH REPUBLIC
