Environmental workshop for youth held in Tajikistan

DUSHANBE, 9 April 2002 - Tajikistan's best civic education students were gathered in Dushanbe by the OSCE Mission to Tajikistan for a five-day environmental training workshop, marking the beginning of a one-year OSCE project devoted to access to environmental information and network-building among young ecologists of the country.

The workshop, which started on 1 April, was a result of an ongoing co-operation between the OSCE Mission, the "Youth Eco Center", a non-governmental youth organization, and the Tajik Ministry of Nature Protection. This was also the first time that such an extensive training workshop on ecology for youth from remote areas took place in Tajikistan.

"It is of utmost importance to give our youth a better understanding of nature protection and stimulate the education of specialists in the field of ecology", the Deputy Minister of Nature Protecting, Ms. Tojinisso Nosirova stressed in her opening speech to the students.

The trainers included two professors from the Tajik Academy of Sciences as well as junior ecologists from national and international environmental NGOs. Apart from ecological and legal topics, the training also included an introduction to the role of NGOs in civil society building in the countryside, as well as a course in basic computer and Internet skills.