THE PROJECT SPOKE AT AN EVENT DEDICATED TO COOPERATION BETWEEN THE MINREP AND THE BELARUSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH

Meeting of the Coordination Council for the development and implementation of joint programmes of cooperation between state administration bodies and the Belarusian Orthodox Church under the Commissioner for Religious and Ethnic Affairs was held on the territory of the State Nature Protection Institution ""National Park "Narochansky" on the topic "On the implementation of the Programme of Cooperation between the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection of the Republic of Belarus and the Belarusian Orthodox Church".

The meeting was attended by the Commissioner for Religious and Ethnic Affairs Alexander Rumak, Minister of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Andrei Khudyk, Metropolitan of Minsk and Zaslavl, Patriarchal Exarch of All Belarus Veniamin, representatives of a number of ministries and departments and subordinate organisations.

The head of the Ministry of Natural Resources Andrei Khudyk gave a number of examples of successful cooperation between the church and the state: landscaping and gardening of the territories of settlements, specially protected natural areas, springs, organisation of joint environmental excursions, opening of ecological trails at churches.

Yury Kulik, consultant of the International Technical Assistance Project "GEF-6 Belarus POPs Legacy and Sustainable Chemicals Management Project" made a presentation on "Cleaning of the warehouses of Minsk region from obsolete pesticides, including those containing POPs". The participants of the meeting were provided with information on the impact of POPs on human health and environment, on implemented project activities in Vitebsk and Grodno regions, on availability of obsolete pesticides in warehouses in Minsk region, including Myadel district, and on planned terms of environmentally safe disposal of obsolete pesticides from warehouses in Minsk region.