| Sustainability on Local and Regional Levels |
The goal of the project is to foster implementation of the global initiative Local Agenda 21 by promoting improved practices and tools for sustainable development in local communities. The project assists municipalities to develop and implement local sustainable strategies and action plans. By this, it helps create success stories that influence other communities. The program focuses on
The project on Eco-Management and Audit Schemes for CEE Municipalities is an international project initiated by CES for Environmental Studies and supported by the Regional Environmental Center. It was launched to promote continuous progress towards sustainable development in CEE local communities dedicated to the Agenda 21 process. The project works with 7 CES cities and 7 partner organizations from Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia. The CES acts, on the one hand, as the regional coordinator of the project in CEE, and on the other hand works with a Hungarian pilot community, the city of Miskolc on adapting EMAS to local conditions.
The Effective Policies to Limit Urban Sprawl project was launched in February 1999 in order to help Hungary and other CEE countries find long-term solutions to the complexity of urban problems, in particular to urban sprawl. Urban sprawl is accused of degrading quality of life, creating enormous cost through boosting needs for road construction and infrastructure development, threatening farm-land and wildlife and increasing environmental pollution. Recent evidence shows that sprawl has appeared in CEE countries but the trend and the ensuing problem have not received much attention. Solutions need significant intellectual, financial and institutional resources, and the collaboration of national and local level authorities. These solutions will also affect different interest groups. The CES mission in this process is to act as a catalytic institution promoting the collaboration of the interested parties and the start-up of the process that will result in various strategies (local, national and institutional) addressing urban sprawl issues. Therefore, the CES wants to promote a better public understanding of the problem, to call it to the attention of stakeholders and to provide some policy recommendations as a first step. This project is supported by the German Marshall Fund of the United States.
Between February and April, four policy forums were organized that brought together decision makers and stakeholders, including members of the Hungarian Parliament, city council members, urban development experts, NGOs, journalists, among others. The goals of the meetings were: (1) to call the attention of the audience to the first signs of sprawl, (2) to evaluate the development of the Hungarian cities and (3) to identify potential policy options for curbing sprawl as well as tools to solve problems caused by urban development. Participants were be briefed on recent tendencies of urban development by US, Western European and Hungarian experts and they had opportunity to discuss problems and solutions. The forums dealt with:
The technical assistance service of CES targets local governments,
NGOs, and citizens. Services include: training; legal advice; assistance
to proposal writing; facilitating domestic and international contacts and
co-operation and assistance to developing local/regional environmental
policies. Our most recent technical assistance projects include: the preparation
of a strategic plan for the equestrian tourism of the Bakonyalja micro-region
(ongoing, in partnership with 2 local NGOs); the environmental assessment
of the same region as a part of the strategic plan for rural development;
and CES’s participation in the preparation of the national rural development
plan.
 Eco-Management
and Audit Schemes for CEE Municipalities |
| Effective Policies to Limit Urban Sprawl |
| Training
Experience of CES |
| CES Publication on Urban Sprawl |
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