The 4thmeeting of the Interstate Ecological Council of the CIS kicked off in Dushanbe today, chairing by Committee for Environmental Protection under the Government of the Republic of Tajikistan.

It is planned that members of the Interstate Council will discuss eight issues, reports the CIS Executive Committee.

In particular, the meeting will address problematic issues and promising directions relating to cooperation in the field of the environment in the CIS issues of interaction with other integration entities, summed up the implementation of the decisions of the previous meeting of the Council and its work plan this year.

There will also be an exchange of experience in the field of policies for the protection of biodiversity, the development of a methodology for compensation for damage caused to the environment etc.

Recall that in order to coordinate the interaction of states, addressing environmental safety issues, the governments of the Commonwealth countries decided to reform the Interstate Environmental Council which was established in 1992, thereby abolishing the Agreement on Cooperation in the Field of Ecology and Environmental Protection, and adopted on May 31, 2013 in Minsk a new Agreement on Cooperation in the field of Environmental Protection, which was signed by Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan and Ukraine, which consists of heads of environmental authorities of the countries that signed the Agreement, or their authorized representatives.

The main tasks and functions of the Council are to assist in the implementation of decisions in the field of environmental protection, coordination of environmental policy, preparation of recommendations on the harmonization of regulatory legal acts in this field, assistance in developing general methodological approaches in the field of environmental economics and environmental protection.