Programme 

WEDNESDAY 21 MAY
20.00  Informal get-together Hotel Konventa Seta

THURSDAY 22 MAY
09.00 - 10.30  Opening Session (Plenary)

Opening of the Conference
       -- Welcome address by Dr. Guntis Pukitis, State Secretary, Ministry of
	  Environment Protection and Regional Development
       -- Election of Chairman
The BALLERINA initiative: History, Present and Future (Sindre Langaas,
    UNEP/GRID-Arendal, BALLERINA Network Co-ordinator)
Presentation of the BALLERINA web site: http://www.baltic-region.net/ (Britt
    Hägerhäll Aniansson, Stockholm Marine Research Centre, BALLERINA Editor)

10.30 - 11.00 Coffee/Tea Break
11.00 - 12.30  BALLERINA relevant  web products  and initiatives
	       -  the regional dimension  (Plenary)

Virtual Meetings for Real Problems - the Baltic 21 Web site (Lars
Kristoferson, Ministry of Environment - Sweden)
BalticSeaWeb project  and BALTIC Bibliographic on-line Database (Anssi
Neuvonen, VTT, Finland)
BASICS, a statistical database over the Baltic Sea Region (Lars Rydén,
Baltic University Programme, Sweden)
RECNet - Regional Environmental Cooperative Network (Rossen Rossev, Regional
Environment Centre, Hungary)

12.30 - 14.00 Lunch
14.00 - 16.00 BALLERINA relevant  web products and initiatives
	      - the national, local & institutional dimension (Plenary)

GreenNet in Belarus (Gennadiy Karopa, Byelorussian National Association
Green Class)
Estonian Environmental Home Page (Andrus Meiner, Estonian Environment Information Centre)	     
State of the Environment in Finland (Raija Leppäjärvi, Finnish Environment
Institute)
Environmental Information on WWW site of Lithuania (Eugenija Lelyte & Zigmas
Bigelis, Joint	Research Centre, Lithuania)
The Emerging Network Infrastructure in NW Russia: Present Situation,
problems, and Solutions (Nathaniel S. Trumbull, Transboundary Environment
Information Agency)
Ecological Russian Net Magazine Econews (Vladimir F. Levchencko,  Ecological
Russian Net Magazine Econews)
Community Access to Environmental Data and Information (Stephen Goransson,
US EPA 5)
Public Awareness and Environmental Education Clearinghouse (Raimonds
Ernsteins & Valdis Bisters, CESAMS, Univ. of Latvia)

16.00 - 18.00 Parallel Working Group Sessions 

BALLERINA institutional issues
BALLERINA web site structure, content and design
BALLERINA capacity building and institutional strengthening targeting CEE
 and NIS countries in the Baltic Sea Region

19.00 Conference Dinner
FRIDAY 23 MAY  
09.00 - 10.00  Plenary session   

Presentation of results from Working Group sessions

10.00 - 10.30 Coffee/Tea Break
10.30 - 12.00  Plenary session   

Discussion of results
Conclusions on the Way Ahead


PAPER PRESENTATIONS

The oral presentations will be complemented with a number of paper presentations.
These will be available thrughout the Conference in the Coffee Break area.

Freshwater Fauna of NE Poland and Fauna and Flora of Polish Springs (Stanislaw Chacorowski,
    EcoBaltic Foundation)
Lithuanian Environmental Monitoring Systems (Iveta Leviskaitepa, Joint Research Centre,
    Lithuania
Sosnovy Bor: Environmental Information about Nuclear Safety, Energy Efficiency, and Renewable
    Energy (Evgeniia Makhonina, NGO Green World, St. Petersburg)
REFIAs Information Activities in the Field of Environmental Protection and Mass Dissemination
    of Environmental Inforamtion through Internet(Rimma Tuntsev, REFIA, Moscow)			     
ECAT-Lithuania: Web Concept (Violeta Kauniliene, ECAT-Lithuania)				 
Sosnovy Bor: Environmental Information about Nuclear Safety, Energy Efficiency, and Renewable
    Energy (Evgeniia Makhonina, NGO Green World, St. Petersburg)
Internet Project of the International Sakharov's Institute of Radioecology (Igor Gren, ISIR)
Russian Internet Projects of Baltic Fund for Nature (Sergey Anatsky, Baltic Fund for Nature of
    St. Petersburg)
Status of the Model: Great Lakes Information Network (Stephen Goranson, US EPA 5)

AIM AND TOPICS
The aim of the meeting is to discuss and provide guidance for the further
development of BALLERINA, the main gateway on Internet to information about
environment, natural resources and sustainable development in the Baltic Sea
region, and its associated personal and institutional network. Topics on the
agenda are:

Review of the development of BALLERINA since the workshop in Stockholm in
    June 1996;
Presentation and discussion of the BALLERINA web site  version 1.0;
Presentation of other on-going or planned Internet initiatives and
    'products' of relevance to the Baltic Sea Region, inter alia,  the Baltic
    Agenda 21 process;.
Development	 of a draft programme for capacity building and institutional
    strengthening in the CEE and NIS countries of the region; and
Institutional issues.

The meeting aims to be a real (not 'virtual') meeting place for all those
involved or interested in the use of Internet for dissemination and
communication of information of relevance for the Baltic Sea Region in terms
of environment, natural resources and sustainable development.
Due to limited time in the agenda for oral presentations we encourage
participants to bring poster presentations.


VENUE AND TIME
The Conference will be held at the Hotel Konventa Seta situated in the very
heart of the Old Town of Riga, Latvia, Thursday 22 May 9 am - Friday 23 May
12 am.

HOTEL RESERVATIONS
The organisers have made block reservations of single and double rooms at
Hotel Konventa Seta and some hotels in the vicinity of Konventa Seta. Single
rooms are in the price range LVL 14 - 40, while double rooms are in the
range LVL 19 - 50 (1LVL = approx. 1.9US$).

Those who would like to make room reservations through the Conference
organisers, should as soon as possible, and at	the latest by May 7, 1997,
contact: Ms. Inga Poznaka, Latvian Fund for Nature, Phone: +371-7322852,
Fax: 371-7830291, E-mail: inga@lanet.lv

Be aware that many hotels in Riga are fully booked at the time of the
Conference. We therefore strongly recommend you to make hotel reservations
through the Conference organisers.

VISA REQUIREMENTS
Latvian visa requirements vary between countries. Check with the nearest
Latvian representation. In particular, the application procedures for
participants with Belarussian, Russian, and Ukrainian citizenship are
complex and time-demanding and require substantial bureaucratic work by the
organisers in Riga. Participants from these three countries are thus
encouraged to register as soon as possible.
Participants from all countries for which visas are required, need travel
insurance covering possible medical expenses while in Latvia.

CONFERENCE FORMAT
The Conference will include plenary sessions with presentations by keynote
speakers, poster presentations, as well as working group discussions. There
will also be possibilities to explore the BALLERINA web site on-line.

REGISTRATION/CONFERENCE FEE/FINANCIAL SUPPORT
Registration to the Conference: Should be done on the attached  Registration
form, also found on the Conference website at
http://www.baltic-region.net/about/ The form should preferably be faxed,
alternatively e-mailed, to the fax number (or e-mail address) found on the
Registration form.
Conference fee:
 For participants from CEE and NIS states: Free
 For participants from all other countries: NOK 400 ( US$ 60).
Please pay the fee to:
GRID-Arendal,
Account no. 2800.05.19350.
Sparebanken Sør, Postboks 310, N-4801 Arendal, Norway
Deadline for registration and payment: May 2, 1997.

The fee covers all conference materials, and the get-together
on the 21. May, coffe breaks, lunch and Conference dinner on the 22. May.

Registration is not valid until the Conference fee has been paid.
Thanks to financial support from the Swedish EPA travel, board and lodging
grants are available for a limited number of participants from Russia,
Belarus, Estonia, Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine.

CONFERENCE INFORMATION / BACKGROUND DOCUMENTS
Further information, including brief background documents for the working
group discussions, will be added to the First Annual BALLERINA Conference
web pages. These can be found at:
		     http://www.baltic-region.net/about/

Additional information about logistics (transport and hotel) in Riga:
 Ms. Inga Poznaka, Latvian Fund for Nature,
 Phone: +371-7322852, Fax: 371-7830291, E-mail: inga@lanet.lv

Additional information about the BALLERINA Conference Programme and overall
BALLERINA Initiative:
 Dr. Sindre Langaas, UNEP/GRID-Arendal,
 phone: +46-8-161737, fax: +46-8-158417, e-mail: langaas@grida.no

It is expected that all participants at the First Annual BALLERINA
Conference has visited the BALLERINA web site prior to the Conference:
   
http://www.baltic-region.net/