The cooperation for the protection and sustainable management of the Carpathians has been initiated by UNEP at the request of the Government of Ukraine. A first informal expert meeting has been hosted by the Ukrainian Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources, from 6 to 7 November 2001 in Kyiv, Ukraine. The results of the regional cooperation for the protection and sustainable management of the Carpathian mountains, achieved until then, will be presented to and considered by the Ministerial Conference "Environment for Europe", to be held in Kyiv in May 2003.
The cooperation in the Carpathians is a part of UNEP's contribution to the United Nations International Year of the Mountains IYM 2002. As such, the progress and experiences made in the Carpathian regional cooperation will be presented at the Bishkek Global Mountain Summit (Kyrgyzstan, 29 October - 1 November 2002).
The Carpathian cooperation is a follow-up to the Heads of States' Summit on Environment and Sustainable Development in the Danube-Carpathian Region, hosted on 29-30 April 2001 by the Romanian Government in co-operation with the WWF International Danube-Carpathian Programme, which encouraged and supported "the activities for developing new intergovernmental regional instruments for conservation and sustainable development in the Carpathian region, by paying special attention to the celebration of the UN International Year of the Mountains in 2002 as well as to the Ministerial Conference 'Environment for Europe' (Kyiv, 2003)".
The Alpine Convention is currently the most advanced example of a regional mountain sustainable development initiative. The Government of Italy, holding the Presidency of the Alpine Convention, is currently supporting the Carpathian cooperation in an unprecedented way, by sharing the experiences made in the Carpathians and in the Alps, in order to further enhance the discussions on the cooperation within the Carpathians, as well as between the various European mountain ranges.
