On 28-29 June 2007, the Wetlands International Black Sea Programme with the support of the Chernihiv Centre for the Development of Green Village Tourism conducted a training for NGO representatives ‘Biodiversity Conservation, Ecological Network Development and Integrated River Basin Management’ in Chernihiv. The meeting was held in the Educational Center of the Federation of Trade Union Organization of Chernihiv oblast. 

Participants included 40 NGOs representatives from 17 oblasts of Ukraine, Kyiv and Sevastopol cities as well as 7 lectors-trainers from Kyiv and Minsk. 

The training included the presentations of the BBI MATRA project ‘Dnipro River Corridor in Ukraine: Raising Public Awareness and Promoting Participatory Approach to Biodiversity Conservation and Ecological Network Development’, information pack ‘Biodiversity Conservation and Econet Development’, and educational toolkit ‘Biodiversity Conservation, Econet Development and Integrated River Basin Management’.

Lectors–trainers from Kyiv and Minsk conducted lectures on the following topics:

• Biodiversity in Ukraine: significance, state, problems of conservation;

• Legal and methodological grounds for establishing of National Ecological Network of Ukraine;

• Ecological monitoring of small rivers;

• Integrated river basin management plans;

• Basin principle of econet establishment.

Participants of training commented and made their proposals to the information pack and educational toolkit and expressed their wish to add their own developments on environmental education to the educational toolkit. 

The Chernihiv Centre for the Development of Green Village Tourism and the Brusyliv Village School organized an excursion by the ecological trail ‘Where the Snov River flows into the Desna River’. Mrs. Lidiya Kyrylenko, Director of the Brusyliv School, introduced cultural and natural peculiarities of Brusyliv rayon, explained environmental problems of native land and what is done by teachers and pupils to improve the state of the environment. Participants of training got unforgettable memories about the presentation of environmental agitation brigade.