The participants of the project “Education for Sustainable Development: Transferring the Experience of the Visegrad Countries for the Recovery of Ukraine” met online on March 14, 2024, to discuss the topic “Overcoming the Consequences of Fires for the Recovery of Post-War Ukraine”. A total of 27 participants were registered for the online seminar. At the seminar, the organizers presented the results of the international educational project “Cooperation on Landfill Fire Prevention and Mitigation in the Baltic Sea Region” (acronym PreMiWaFi), which explored the problems associated with fires at solid waste landfills in Sweden, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Georgia. The second part of the seminar introduced the participants to the Visegrad Project, which lays the foundation for long-term cooperation in overcoming the consequences of military operations, including open fires in the Carpathian region. The event shared the best practices of the Carpathian and Baltic countries in restoring the war-affected territories of Ukraine among local authorities, educational institutions, and NGOs, with a focus on overcoming the consequences of open grassroots fires. The discussion was attended by representatives of local governments, experts from the State Emergency Service and educational institutions, as well as members of NGOs.
The seminar is a networking event of the International Carpathian School 2024, which aims to promote non-formal education in the Ukrainian part of the Carpathian region. Open fires are one of the largest factors in the spread of pollutants during the war. The speakers highlighted the results of these international projects and the practical experience of the Ukrainian side in preserving and restoring environmental quality.
The invited participants discussed post-war reconstruction measures with an emphasis on strengthening Ukraine’s capacity to promote biodiversity protection and combat climate change. As a result of the discussion, the organizers received professional recommendations on the strategy for choosing land restoration technologies and disseminating information about the environmental and public health hazards associated with fires.
Link to the folder with presentations from this seminar:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1ZA3nZnnY90B8dkyz2Uf-xjBmHcveJksL?usp=sharing
The project is co-financed by the governments of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia through Visegrad Grants of the International Visegrad Fund. The mission of the fund is to promote the ideas of sustainable regional cooperation in Central Europe sustainable regional cooperation in Central Europe.