Black Sea Commission

The Commission on the Protection of the Black Sea Against Pollution (the Black Sea Commission or BSC), via its Permanent Secretariat, is the intergovernmental body established in implementation of the Convention on the Protection of the Black Sea Against Pollution (Bucharest Convention), its Protocols and the Strategic Action Plan for the Environmental Protection and Rehabilitation of the Black Sea. BSC Advisory Groups provide their expertise and information to the Commission and Secretariat on seven key sectors. Furthermore, within the institutional framework coordinated by BSC, a Black Sea Regional Activity Centre (RAC) has been established for each of the key sector, in particular:

• Environmental and Safety Aspects of Shipping, Varna (Bulgaria);
• Pollution Monitoring and Assessment, Odessa (Ukraine);
• Control of Pollution from Land Based Sources, Istanbul (Turkey);
• Development of Common Methodologies for Integrated Coastal Zone Management, Krassnodar (Russian Federation);
• Conservation of Biological Diversity, Batumi (Georgia);
• Environmental Aspects of Fisheries and Other Marine Living Resources, Constanta (Romania);
• Information and Data Management, Istanbul (Turkey).

Climate change is a cross-cutting issue to the above strategies; assessment of climate change implication on Black Sea biodiversity appears to be particularly relevant in the BSC Work Programmes. Actually, the Black Sea Commission is involved in various projects dealing with integrated coastal zone management and/or climate change, including: Pegaso, Sesame, Coconet, Perseus, KnowSeas.