This study was carried out over a period of ten months in 1999 by Katalin Török, Hungarian Institute of Botany; Ian Simpson, UK Institute of Terrestrial Ecology, and Alexandre Borde, GTOS Associate Professional Officer. The overall direction for the activity was provided by Jeff Tschirley, GTOS Programme Director.
The authors are grateful to Viera Straškrábová, Marek Baranowski and Pavol Bielek, the National Focal Points of the Czech Republic, Poland and the Slovak Republic, for providing useful insight into the priority environmental issues of these countries.
Valuable collaboration was provided by the EU NoLIMITS project, the International Long Term Ecological Research network (ILTER), UNEP Grid, and the FAO Sub-regional office for Central and Eastern Europe (SEUR).
Alexia Baldascini consolidated and edited the report for publication.
