This workshop and its proceedings are the outcome of collaboration between the FAO SEUR and the Humboldt University of Berlin (HU), which was formalized in the Memorandum of Understanding on Collaboration Regarding Activities of Establishing the Central and Eastern European Sustainable Agriculture Network (CEESA). Based on the project proposed by HU, the FAO SEUR and HU agreed to collaborate in the preparation and implementation of the first CEESA Workshop as the initial step in establishing the Network.
The purpose of the project and the Network is to provide a framework for discussion and exchanges of opinion between interested professionals from CEECs on issues concerning and specific approaches to, the transition of the agricultural sector, which are needed to develop environmentally sound and sustainable agricultural and farming systems in CEECs. The expected result of this collaboration is the collection of and use of, knowledge concerning the compatibility of transition strategies with the idea of sustainable agricultural development in the participating countries.
The lecturers and discussion leaders came from HU. At the Workshop, the FAO was represented by participants from the SEUM, SEUP and TCAS. Organization and the implementation of the Workshop was entrusted to the G�d�ll University of Agricultural Sciences, Institute of Environmental and Landscape Management, and was coordinated by the Local Organizing Committee. The Workshop took place at the G�d�ll University of Agricultural Sciences, G�d�ll, Hungary, from the second to the seventh of March 1999.
Participants for the Workshop were selected on the basis of their professional interest and their experience in agri-environmental and sustainability issues from the following countries: Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Ukraine1. These countries are expected to participate in future Network activities. Besides the selected participants, the Workshop was attended by several volunteering participants from CEECs and European countries.
From each of the selected countries, one person was the author of the country report prepared under the guidance of HU and the SEUR. All reports cover the following major topics:
1. The impact of transition and the structure of property rights (privatization and redefinition of property rights on natural resources, restructurization in rural areas and liberalization).
2. The development of the economic framework on the farm level (land market and development of input and output prices).
3. The impact of agriculture on the environment (environmental degradation caused by agriculture, agriculture and soil, water and air protection, agriculture and its impact on the protection of landscape, agriculture and biodiversity and effects of environmental degradation on agriculture).
4. The influence of society on the agricultural environment (institutional change within environmental policy, environmental policy related to agriculture, legislative and institutional framework for a national agri-environmental policy, national measures on the promotion of ecologically sound agricultural practices, the importance of national environmental associations and organizations for environmental policy).
5. Conclusions and proposals for future co-operation.
Country reports, as they were prepared by the authors, present not only a factual situation of these topics in individual countries, but can also serve as an indicator of the availability of relevant information and the state of conceptual knowledge about agri-environmental and sustainability issues.
1 Although selected and invited, the participant from Slovenia did not attend the Workshop and submit a paper. However, it is expected that Slovenia will take part in future Network activities.
