Our region needs peace, democracy, stability and cooperation

Thessaloniki Declaration
Greens of Balkan
No to Conflict, yes to cooperation


Our region needs peace, democracy, stability and cooperation
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· The Balkan nature still has great wealth that should be preserved and used as a primary source for alternative green growth. We need to improve cross-border cooperation in protected areas, preserving natural and cultural monuments that are precious to Europe and worldwide. We call on Balkan governments to cooperate by following the example of environmental NGOs and local communities.
· In the Congress of the Biodiversity Convention, recently in Bonn, the governments of Albania, Bosnia, Croatia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia said they would create 13 new protected areas and will expand to nine other as an Arc, an area stretching from Trieste in Italy to Tirana in Albania. The area is home to healthy populations of large carnivores, bears, lynxes, wolves and jackals, and large areas of forests that have not been tampered. Environmentalists also say, that drinking water ecosystems of the region is the richest in the Mediterranean. This network will fill a crucial gap in a pan-European network that stretches from France to Greece, providing refuge and travel corridors for endangered species .
·  The Balkan Greens want the to express their support for this deal not only because of its importance for nature conservation but also because they believe that cooperation on environmental protection helps countries and communities to understand each other better and enables them to solve other problems. We would like to remind you that some of the six partner countries were former enemies who fought each other in the past 20 years. We strongly support the involvement of civil society in this cooperation.
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Thessaloniki, June 8, 2008
Accepted unanimously by the participants in the dialogue meeting East - West of Balkan Greens
1. The party members and observers of the European Green Party:
Partia e Gjelber (Green Party)-Albania
Zelena Partia (Green Party)-Bulgaria
Ecologists Greens-Greece
Zelena Lista (Green List)-Croatia
Green Party - Cyprus
Partidul Ecologist din Moldova "Alianţa Verde"
(Green Party Moldova "Green Alliance")-Moldova
Partidul Verde (Green Party)-Romania
Zeleni (Green)-Serbia
Yesiller (Green)-Turkey
2. Other parties involved:
Zelenite (Green)-Bulgaria
D.O.M. (Democratic Renewal Party)-FYROM


 translated by Google and me from http://ecology-salonika.org/2009/?p=2702