Mass Media Printed by Non-Governmental Ecological Organizations.
European Principles and Criteria for Environment Protection.
Ecology, Education and Information.
Tenth Anniversary of the Journal of Balkan Ecology
ladies and gentlemen,
Welcome to our Meeting dedicated to the printed ecological mass media
and the Tenth Anniversary of the Journal of Balkan Ecology.
1. the beginning
In 1997, on the initiative of Prof.
Ivan Garbouchev and Dipl. Eng. Yllina Dimitrova, a group of Bulgarian
scientists created the scientific and applied JOURNAL OF BALKAN ECOLOGY. The
past 10 year period justifies the hopes of this group of scientists and all
active and public-spirited people for progress in the printed ecological media
published by organizations of the civil society.
On behalf of the Editorial Board as
scientific Editor-in-Chief, I would like to thank cordially the founders of the
Journal of Balkan Ecology,
the President and the Board of the
Balkan Ecological Federation,
the Manager of the
PublishScieSet-Eco (PSSE), the President of Association of
Bulgarian Ecologists (ABECOL) for their work and efforts to overcome the
difficulties met in publishing this Journal.
Essential contribution in
determining the aims and tasks of the Journal was done by Prof. Simeon
Nedialkov, Doctor of Biological Sciences, who is one of the most well-known
Bulgarian ecologists around the world, having a great theoretical, pedagogical
and practical experience. He is founder and leader of the first Institute of
Ecology in Bulgaria.
We thank the Board of the European
Ecological Federation (EEF) for the meeting carried out with the Balkan
Ecological Federation (BEF) to exchange experience in Sofia. We thank the
European Environment Agency (EEA), which is an information body of the European
Union (EU), for the granted valuable ecological information in the
last years. We thank the Sofia Association for Nature Protection with President
Prof. G. Pouhalev and Vice-President Assoc. Prof. Yancho Naidenov for the help
in organizing this Meeting.
In Bulgaria, Non-Governmental
organizations (NGO) were founded at the beginning of the Bulgarian Renaissance
in the 19th century, when community cultural centers were created.
The first Civil Ecological organizations (CEO) were the Aleko Konstantinov
Association (1889); the Association for Hunting and Fishing
(1891); the Union for Nature Protection (1927) and many others. Some of them
continue their activity up to now.
The ecological organizations carry
out their activity independently or together with other national
and international organizations, state organs, scientific institutions and
business firms. We should mention their insufficient utilization of church and business possibilities. The ecological organizations should cooperate with the church, whose
rituals and symbolism, norms and traditions can contribute to
protecting the nature, the man and the human spirit for achieving a more sustainable world.
The business can become "more
and more green". It means that the business have to keep the regulations
for sustainable consumption of the natural resources in order to protect them,
and if possible, to reproduce them for the future generations.
Our meeting will focus on the
State, Successes and Problems of the Printed Mass Media of Non-Governmental
Ecological Organizations (NGEO).
We know that one of the indicators
for availability of democracy in a country is the recognition of the
non-Governmental organizations (NGO) and the civil society as equal in value
partners of the state media. This is necessary to prepare the citizens,
including the administrative personnel and politicians, for common activities
in solving regional and global ecological problems. It means to accomplish
common activities by the state and the civil society.
In Bulgaria, there are some
hundreds of non-Governmental ecological organizations with non-economic
purpose, which are legally registered. From them, about 150 organizations are
publishing bulletins, journals, educational programs for citizens
and agitation materials.
Ecological information publishing
meets financial difficulties and shortage of highly qualified specialists. The
insufficient co-ordination and collaboration among the non-Governmental
ecological organizations (NGEO), state and private mass media in Bulgaria and
around the world make difficult the active participation in the ecological
press.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I will focus your attention to the scientific and applied
JOURNAL OF BALKAN ECOLOGY, whose 10th Anniversary Jubilee is the reason for carrying out the present meeting about
experience exchange and discussion on the role of the ecological press
published by the non-Governmental ecological organizations (NGEO).
2. ecological subjects
Journal of Balkan Ecology is an international journal for scientific, educational and applied
information covering all aspects of the processes concerning the environmental
quality of our planet and particularly the Balkan countries. The Journal is
dedicated to the fundamental and technological research on main problems of the
natural and anthropogenetic ecosystems in all scientific areas. It is devoted
to the protection and improvement of environmental quality.
The Journal of Balkan Ecology comprises
the significant ecological achievements both in the Balkan countries and
around the world. It establishes communication with the
international ecological organizations to up-date their activity in these
countries. The Journal serves to interchange information concerning
ecologically grounded decisions and actions. It stresses on the contamination
sources; the monitoring of physical, chemical and biological pollutants; the
media subjected to different kinds of pollution; and the technologies for
improving the environment.
The Journal of Balkan Ecology keeps an
eye on the modern attainments in the following topics: (1) Food Safety; (2)
Soil Processes; (3) Pollutant Transport; (4) Land Use; (5) Water Quality; (6) Aquatic Processes; (7) Biodegradation
and Bioremediation; (8) Atmospheric Pollution;
(9) Living Creature and Environment Interactions in the
Ecosystems; (10) Heavy and Transition Metals in the Environment; (11) Organic Chemicals
in the Environment; (12) Waste Management; (13)
Ecological Education and Legislation; (14) Ecology and Economics; (15) Ecology
and Philosophy; (16) Ecology and Industry; (17) Ecology and Transport; (18)
Ecology and Energy Production; (19) Ecology, Medicine and Health; (20) Problems
of the Natural Cultural Heritage; (21) Ecology and Religion.
3. printed organ, Editorial
Board and periodicity
The Journal of Balkan Ecology is cooperatively published by the
non-Governmental organizations: Balkan
Ecological Federation (BEF) with President Academician A. Alexandrov; Association of Bulgarian Ecologists
(ABECOL) with President Prof. S. Nedialkov and private PublishScieSet-Eco (PSSE) with Manager Dipl. Eng. Y. Dimitrova.
The Journal of Balkan Ecology was founded by a group of Bulgarian scientists,
who were invited by Prof. Ivan Garbouchev in the Publishing House PublishScieSet-Agri (PSSA) located in the territory of the Poushkarov Institute
for Soil Science and Ecology in Sofia in 1997. At this meeting, Prof. Ilia
Christov (Doctor of Biological Sciences and Physicist) was selected to be the
Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Balkan Ecology.
Advisable for out Meeting is to
mention the names of the Founders of
the Journal of
Balkan Ecology: Prof. Ivan Garbouchev, Dipl. Eng. Yllina Dimitrova, Acad. Alexander
Alexandrov, Prof. Simeon Nedialkov, Prof. Georgi Tzankov, Prof. Alexander
Sadovski, Prof. Ilia Christov, Prof. Ibrahim Kassimiv, Prof. Stavri
Stoyanov, Prof. Detelin Dachev and Prof. Metodi Teoharov. Later, the Founders
invited other Bulgarian and foreign scientists, whose CVs and photographs are
published in the v. 1, Nos. 1 and 2 (1998) of the Journal. The foreign scientists were
officially invited to enter the Editorial Board of the Journal. They sent their
agreements and evaluations with written answers, which were published in the
first number of the Journal.
The First book was prepared by the
Editor-in-Chief under the leadership of Prof. I. Garbouchev, who did not see it
published, because of his untimely decease.
The international team of the
Editorial Board includes: Operational group, Members and Associated Members.
The operational group works directly with
the authors of paper contributions. It specifies the profile of each paper and
two Members of the Editorial Board, who give professional opinion about it.
Then, the Editor-in-Chief accomplishes detailed editing of each paper. He
contacts with the authors of paper and the Members directly by appointing place
and time of a meeting by phone and using E-mail messages depending on their
place of residence around the world.
Now, the
Editorial Board includes 48 Members: of them 28 are Bulgarian and 20 – foreign,
all well-known scientists. The foreign scientists are 42 % of the total number
of Members. They work in different areas of ecology, and are 2 from Albania; 2
from Austria; 1 from Belgium; 1 from Bosnia and Herzegovina; 3 from Greece; 2
from Macedonia; 1 from Norway; 2 from Romania; 2 from Serbia; 1 from Turkey; 2
from USA; 1 from Sweden.
The periodicity of the Journal is
kept the same in all 10 years. It is 4 issues (books) per year with a volume of
7 printer's sheets.
4. Contribution of
papers and dissemination of the journal
We receive many papers for
considering and publishing in the Journal. They are sent by scientists,
working in different countries around the world. These countries are (alphabetically): Albania,
Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, China, Croatia, Cyprus,
Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, France, Germany, Greece, Holland, Hungary,
Iran, Italy, Kenya, Macedonia, Montenegro, Orthodox Patriarchate (Istanbul, Turkey), Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia,
Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Syria, Turkey, Ukraine, the United Kingdom,
the United States of America, and others.
The Journal of Balkan Ecology is reviewed and indexed by many great
information companies all over the world. One of them is the Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS), P. O. Box 3012, 2540 Olentangy
River Road, Columbus, Ohio, USA. It
is reviewed and indexed in Ankara, Athens, Belgrade, Boston, Brussels,
Bucharest, Columbus (Ohio),
Lisse, London, Moscow, Nanterre, New York, Paris, Sofia and Washington D. C.
The issues of the Journal are
available in: the Library of European Commission, Brussels, Belgium;
Bibliotheque de Documentation Internationale Contemporaine, Centre
Universitaire, Nanterre, France; the Library of Congress, Washington D. C.; the
American Chemical Society, Chemical Abstracts Service Co., Columbus, (USA); the St. Kiril and Metodiy National Library of
Bulgaria, Sofia, Bulgaria; the Library of Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow,
Russian Federation; the National Library of Romania, Bucharest, Romania;
National Library of Serbia, Belgrade, Serbia; AGRIS, and many other libraries
around the world.
We invite the scientists and
libraries all over the world to subscribe to the Journal of Balkan Ecology in
order to publish free of charge in the Journal. We invite all library officers to subscribe their departments,
faculties, institutes and universities.
We will invite scientists of newly
subscribed institutes and universities to enter the international team of the
Editorial Board.
5. Style, structure and
criteria for accepting paper
The style and structure of
the Journal of Balkan Ecology are
result from both the basic requirements towards all received papers
and the kinds of rubrics (headings), which include:
(a) papers presenting
scientific analyses, surveys, scientific formulations of important ecological
problems and results from implementation of ecological projects;
(b) papers presenting
scientific results from concrete investigations;
(c) papers, which are
short communications;
(d) announcements about scientific
meetings, conferences and symposia, which are planned in different countries
around the world in near future;
(e) abstracts about new
books and periodicals published in different countries;
(f) photographs in
colour of Balkan reserves with explanatory text;
(g) curriculum vitae (CV) with photo of the new
Members of Editorial Board;
(h)
ecoadvertisements and
letters to the Editor-in-Chief.
An element of the style of the
Journal is the availability of list of the titles of papers published in the
year and the authors index in the last issue of same year.
The basic criterion for accepting
and publishing a paper is the satisfaction of requirements concerning the
essence, contents and form of the paper. These requirements are precisely
presented in each book of the Journal. Moreover, detailed guidelines for
preparing the paper are exposed in the rubric short
communications of Journal.
Very important criterion for
accepting a paper is the clear formulation of each sentence of the manuscript
in English:
▲ clear formulation of the ecological problem solved in the paper;
▲ clear answer of the question how this problem
is solved through the study considered (approach, methods, treatments, etc.);
▲ clear formulation of the results obtained in
both detailed and short forms correspondingly presented in the rubrics: RESULTS
AND DISCUSSION and conclusion;
▲ logical explanation and interpretation of the data obtained,
non-admission of contradictory assertions;
▲ use of contemporary
and correct English language. The
Journal accepts the exact English interpretation of the essence and the meaning
of the original language sentences in the papers.
After reviewing and editing the
paper, we show the main corrections, which must be taken into account by the
author(s). After the actual improvement of the notes made by the two Members
and the Editor-in-Chief, the paper is accepted for publishing. If the notes are
rejected by the author(s), the paper remains set aside.
Each published paper is a result
from the mutual efforts of author(s), editor and two professional members of
the Board, who are introduced in the paper.
6. english language
The Journal of Balkan Ecology is published in English. The reasons are as follows. Almost all international forums (symposia,
conferences and congresses), which are carried out in the countries of the
European union (EU) and around the world, use the English language.
One language is needed for
scientists to actively communicate on the global ecological topics, for
exchanging scientific and applied results, for estimating achievements obtained
around the world.
To take a serious view of vitally
important ecological problems, the mankind needs a natural and right overcoming
of the national zeal and political differences concerning the language for
world communication, which is already used and it practically serves as
international mean for scientific, commercial and other association among
different nations and countries.
The most widespread and
used by the scientists in Europe, America, Australia, Asia and Africa is the
English language. Moreover, a lot of great and small of territory states
officially or unofficially accepted this language. In China, this language is
introduced as the second: all official inscriptions and announcements in the
cities are Chinese and English. India officially speaks and writes in English.
In Belgium, together with the official languages, the foreigner can realize
good communication using English. The Russian scientific and cultural society,
and businessmen actively apply this language. Very important fact for our
country is that Bulgaria entered the European union (EU), where one of the
basic official languages is English.
7. balkan reserves
The Journal of Balkan Ecology presented many biosphere reserves,
publishing photographs in colour with explaining text, which are included in
the List of UNESCO and are located in the Balkan peninsula. These are:
Parangalitza (Rila mountain); Srebarna (near Silistra city); Kamchia; Bayovi Dupki (Pirin mountain); Slavianka; Steneto (near the town of
Troyan); Bistrishko Branishte (Vitosha mountain); Boatin (in the central Balkan
mountain); Dupkata (Rhodopes mountain); Lopoushna (near to the border between
Bulgaria and Turkey); Tzarichina (Balkan mountain); Byala River (Balkan
mountain); Koupena (near the town of Peshtera); Mantaritza (Rhodopes mountain);
Marichini Lakes (Rila mountain); and others. We published
photographs of biologically recovered lands in the region of Maritza East.
8. finances and
estimation
The Journal of Balkan Ecology is not and never was subsidized. The subscription and authors fees are the
financial base of its existence.
The
researchers working at institutions and organizations, which are subscribed to
the Journal during the current year, can publish papers free of charge,
independently where they live and work around the world. Many libraries and
individual scientists were and are subscribed to the Journal for different
years.
Great
information companies, universities and institutes from many countries are
interested in and read the Journal. This special estimate of the Journal was
gained thanks to the hundreds invitation letters sent by the Editor-in-Chief to
many Governmental institution and non-Governmental organizations around the world.
Very high
evaluation and admiration were expressed by Dr. Engin Ural, General Secretary
of the Turkish Environment Foundation (TEF), and his personnel reviewing the
Journal during the International Conference on Ecological Problems in the
Countries of Black Sea Region, which took place in Istanbul in 2001. I would
like to thank Dr. Ural and the Foundation for the one-time financial aid to the
Journal of Balkan Ecology through the Association of the Bulgarian Ecologists
(ABECOL).
Scientists around the world
appreciated the initiative about the appearance of Journal of Balkan Ecology. We published these evaluations in the
first book of the Journal (volume 1, No. 1, 1998, page 123).
Prof. K. Chartzoulakis from the
Institute of Subtropical Plants and Olive Trees of Chania, National
Agricultural Research Foundation, Hellenic Republic sent the following letter
to the Editor-in-Chief: "Thank you
very much for your kind invitation to participate in the international team of
the Editorial Board of the Journal of Balkan Ecology, which I accept with
pleasure. I guess that it is a new journal, covering the gap existing in
environmental quality and ecology research publications in our region Balkan
Peninsula. From this point of view, I congratulate you and the Bulgarian
Editorial Board for taking this initiative. From my part, I will distribute the
prospectus of the journal to scientists working in related subjects and
encourage them to submit scientific papers for publication in the journal.
We received positive evaluations
from Prof. T. Kupusovic (Bosnia and Herzegovina); Assoc. Prof. K. Cara and
Assoc. Prof. V. Kovaci (Albania); Prof. D. Velemis and Prof. D. Tsadilas
(Greece); Prof. S. Anac (Turkey) and others.
9. Eco-advertisements
The ecological advertisements in
the printed organs are popular and useful for the society. They practically
help people to solve local and regional ecological problems.
In the Journal of Balkan Ecology, we published advertisements in colour
for ● the AQUACHIM firm, which is official partner of
the German firms MERCK and GRAF-FORTUNA, and the Austrian SEIBOLD; ● POVVIK-EP Ltd., which offers estimates of pollutant impact on the
environment and waste management; ● AIR CONCORDE AVIATION
Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria, which makes services for agriculture with airplanes; ● FEDERATION OF SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL UNIONS, Sofia; ● BULGARIAN TOURISM, which is member of the World Tourism Organization
(WTO) and the European Travel Commission.
10. Ecology reatures
Through a lot of papers, the Journal of Balkan Ecology helps to
explain and clarify the features of ecology as science and practice. The
interaction of ecology with the other sciences and with the human activity is
complicated and of many aspects.
Some authors do not accept ecology
as science with specific subject and methodology. Others consider that it is a
part of biology and develops in the frames of it. There are many problems to be
discussed.
It is necessary to make popular the
essence and the features of ecology and its place among the classical, medical,
agrarian and forest sciences, and its interaction with them, not only for the
scientists, but also for the whole society. The Journal contributes to the
right formulation of ecological problems, reflects the discussions, makes popular
the contemporary scientific visions, achievements and terminology around the
world.
Essence information on fundamental
terms, concepts and ideas is offered in the ENVIRONMENT ENCYCLOPEDIA AND
DIRECTORY Second Edition in 1998, PUBLISHED BY THE EUROPA PUBLICATIONS Ltd., in the United Kingdom. It gives good profound answers of many
questions and helps the right understanding of the special place and role of
ecology as science about our home in individual, regional and global sense.
In the mentioned encyclopedia, we
can read that Ecology has come to be more broadly defined as science on the
interrelationship between all living things and their environments. The
ecologist needs to have a command of physics, chemistry
and statistics, as well as biology. Hence, the environmental sciences, which
depend on ecological research, were the first interdisciplinary sciences.
Solving many global problems of our
planet is in the area and the possibilities of the modern ecology, which is
equipped with the necessary achievements made by the classic sciences as
physics, chemistry, biology and applied mathematics, and those made by the
medical, agrarian, forest and other sciences. The global themes, on which
applied biophysics and biochemistry are working, are of great importance to
ecology. Here are some of them:
● creating methods and technologies for control,
protection and recovering of the human environment, which is necessary for man
life;
● further developing of the prophylactics,
diagnostics, maintenance and recovery of human health;
● searching for optimal variants to ensure the
mankind with ecologically pure plant and animal products;
● discovering and using new biological sources to
obtain energy avoiding the pollution of environment.
11. european
principles and criteria for protecting
human environment
We take into consideration and
practically apply in our activity the European policy for protecting the
environment, which development is based on the following principles.
● The Principle of Sustainability is defined as economic and social development
of the mankind under created conditions of avoiding or minimizing the
environment pollution and reasonable using the natural resources. This
principle requires a legislative control and limitation of the environment
deterioration. It is well-known that the human activity in the spheres of
industry, energy producing, transport, agriculture and others inserts negative
influence on the environment.
● The Principle of Market Mechanism reads as follows: the owner of source of
pollutants emitted in the environment (atmosphere, water basins and soil) pays
additional taxes. This principle changes the behaviour of owners and managers
of the enterprises and agricultural farms.
● The Principle of Integrating the care for the mankind environment in a
mutual policy and responsibility among the Government, the business and the
civil society, using economic tools.
● The Principle of Purposeful Subsidy in the Frame
of the European Union (EU)
is applied to concentrate financial funds and activities for solving ecological
problems on the EU level related to inner market, border interstate relations,
sharing common natural resources, and rapprochement between countries in the
Union.
● The Principle of World Collaboration is
based on both the acceptance
of global ecological problems and
the encouragement of measures for solving them. Some of these problems are
related to: (a) climatic change; (b) ozone layer destroying; (c) biodiversity reducing; (d) deforestation of our planet; and (e) atmosphere, water and soil
pollution. The collaboration is many-sided. It is taking place in the frames of
the international institutions and as a help to the developing countries.
● The Principle of Treaties for the European Community regularizes
not only the mutual rights and duties of the
states-members, but also those of the their citizens and legal entities.
12. perspectives of
development
The perspectives of developing both
the Journal of Balkan Ecology and
the rest ecological press of the non-Governmental organizations, we should try
to find in the following aspects.
● In the first rubric Scientific Surveys, Projects, Ecological Problems of the Journal,
together with the valuable scientific analyses and facts, with priority, we
should publish papers related to the topics and purposes of the European
network NATURE 2000 aimed at protecting the environment, such as:
(a) managing the
objects included in NATURE 2000;
(b) accomplishing
agricultural activity in areas included in NATURE 2000;
(c) controlling the
forests included in NATURE 2000;
(d) implementing
activities related to recreation in objects included in NATURE 2000;
(e) developing and
estimating new projects for public utilities in these objects;
(f) removing the myths
and apprehension related to NATURE 2000.
● In the same rubric, we should publish with
priority papers considering topics on the National Strategies Concerning the
Environment in the Countries of the European Union for 2005 – 2014,
such as :
(1) ensuring good
quality and enough amount of water for different purposes;
(2) reaching and
keeping a high quality of the human environment in the settlements;
(3) protecting the
natural heritage and keeping rich biological diversity;
(4) integrating the
ecological, economic and social policies on regional and state levels for
sustainable development;
(5) ensuring and
effectively managing the human environment;
(6) accomplishing the
engagements of each country for solving global ecological problems.
● The Journal of Balkan Ecology will be obliged
to:
• realize further thematic, personnel and
financial strengthening;
• expand the informational links with the
national and international ecological organizations, exchange experience with
printed ecological media and ensure papers reflecting the innovations around
the world for all rubrics;
• up-date the List of Members of the Editorial
Board helping the Journal both thematically and financially through new
subscribers of institutions and organizations; We have to mention that, despite the dozens of written invitations to
non-Governmental organizations around the world for subscription to the
Journal, now we have no subscribers of such organizations;
• up-date the links of the Journal with
non-Governmental organizations located not only in the Balkan peninsula, but
also in the European Union and the rest parts of the world. We need
collaboration and well-meaning competition;
• widen the subscriber list with names of state
organs, academies of sciences, institutes, universities, business firms, and
non-Governmental organizations for offering necessary ecological information
and creating correct ecological policy and practice;
• search for new forms and tools for stimulating
the authors through rewarding the most topical and the best written paper
published in the Journal;
• look for the possibilities of creating an
International Foundation with activity subject the development of ecological
mass media, lending a helping hand to the Journal and awarding and stimulating
the young authors.
We cordially congratulate you and all readers, authors and Members of
the Editorial Board of the Journal of Balkan Ecology on its 10th
Anniversary Jubilee.
Sofia,
25-26 October 2007
Signature:
Prof. Ilia Christov, D. Sc.
Editor-in-Chief
JOURNAL OF BALKAN ECOLOGY