Environmental Security and Public Safety - Problems and Needs in Conversion Policy and Research after 15 Years of Convesion
in Central and Eastern Europe

Advanced Research Workshop - Cottbus (Germany) the 8th until the 12th of October 2005

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The detailed Programme is now online, See Schedule

The end of the Cold War and the peaceful revolution in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe in the late 1980ies and early 1990ies paved the way to substantial demilitarization and conversion. While most disarmament requirements in both Warsaw Convention Members and NATO Member Countries where fulfilled on time according to international agreements, the remains of disarmament – former military installations, military training areas as well as huge quantities of unserviceable ammunition and equipment remain. These leftovers pose severe problems that are often ignored by responsible authorities – in most cases due to the lack of financial resources. In many cases, conversion with respect to a transition from military to civilian use has not yet begun. For example, almost 1,500 square kilometers of conversion sites in the Federal State of Brandenburg in former Eastern Germany remain unchanged and unused after 10 to 15 years of efforts in conversion and almost 500 million Euros spent. Therefore it has to be stated that conversion still remains a key problem after 15 years in almost all NATO countries, NATO partner countries and also former non-aligned countries and thus poses severe threats to environmental security. However, conversion does not only extend to the leftovers of the Cold War but also to the leftovers of earlier military conflicts, in particular World War I and World War II. Typical conversion problems include:

• Former military training areas

• Former military installations, barracks, airfields, harbour facilities, depots

• Former battlefields stockpiles of demilitarised explosives and ammunition

• Stockpiles of demilitarised equipment (e.g., vehicles, aircraft, vessels, personal equipment, etc.)

These sites are all subject to different development demands and strategies. Every single site or stockpile of ammunition or equipment poses individual problems to environmental security and public safety, among others

• Economic development in affected areas where the civilian economy has been sustained by garrisons over a long period.

• Infrastructure redevelopment where earlier connections have been interrupted due to military use or infrastructure reduction to a degree that is necessary for the “normal” civilian population. During military use, installations for thousands of military personnel were set up mostly in remote areas that are sparsely populated by civilians.

• Public safety issues where ammunition, unexploded ordnances, and explosives are unguarded and can easily be acquired by unauthorised persons which should also be regarded as a threat with respect to terrorism. In some cases this problem might also extend to chemical warfare agents.

• Development of re-use options of sites, buildings, and structures or demolition of structures that will not be used in future.

• Development of treatment or re-use options and technologies for excess ammunition, explosives and equipment that meets both security and environmental standards.

• Development of investigation strategies for former military sites and installations with respect to priorities, safety and security threats, and contaminations.

• Groundwater and soil contaminations on conversion sites that have to become subject to investigation and remediation.

• Natural protection on former military training areas as remaining open landscapes and biotopes for many endangered species.

With the expansion of NATO to new members in Central and Eastern Europe, a new dimension of conversion problems becomes part of NATO. Due to the higher economic capability and stricter environmental, safety and security regulations with respect to the use and disposal of chemicals, ammunition and explosives in former (western) NATO countries, known conversion problems are incomparable to those in the new NATO member countries. Nevertheless, conversion is a severe problem in all countries – NATO members as well as NATO partners.

Objective of the proposed NATO forum is to review environmental security issues related to conversion, conversion policy and conversion research in the participating countries, to exchange experiences and visions, to identify recent problems and render an account of the state of conversion in the participating countries and, finally, to define fiscal and legal needs, policy goals, research objectives and targets for conversion over the next decade until 2015. The common experiences and differences from all participating countries and groups (site-owners, public authorities, local population, economic interest groups, environmental activists, etc.) will be taken into account, thus helping to provide a well-founded basis for the discussion of specific conversion problems. Conversion, which is at present only discussed on regional or state level will – with the help of the forum proposed herein – become a topic of international discussion and cooperation. Almost 10 years ago, conversion – in the sense of demilitarisation - was a topic of international conferences and workshops (e.g. United Nations International Conference on Military Conversion and Science in Italy in 1996, BICC Conference “Conversion – A Challenge for Science and Research” in 1995). Another indication of the decreased international attention to the problem of conversion that persists unchanged is the termination of the “KONVER” programme of the European Union that was set up to fund conversion projects after 3 years (1994-1997) without any follow-up programme. Since then, conversion is only being discussed on regional or national conferences or workshops, e.g. the yearly “Brandenburg Summer of Conversion” or the “Crimean Spring of Conversion”. Funding by national or international organizations or governments for conversion projects also declined dramatically. A NATO forum on conversion would help to re-establish international communication and cooperation in the field of conversion policy and research in Central and Eastern Europe and NATO.

A greenbook that will be prepared by the key-speakers and the organization committee from the results of the NATO forum will raise the public awareness of the problems of conversion on a national and international scale and help to establish a new international discussion and help to make conversion a topic of international funding organisations, in particular the European Community and the United Nations again. As a development perspective, a later conference could also focus on demilitarisation and conversion in post-war areas around the world, thus helping to stabilize fragile post-war societies.

The Chair of Chemical Engineering and Hazardous Wastes is the only Chair within an university in Europe and maybe worldwide that focuses intensively on all areas of military hazardous wastes, contaminations and conversion in research. Site investigation strategies and technologies for former military sites (including historical investigation, remote sensing and geophysics as well as sampling investigations), re-use concepts, UXO and landmine clearance, public safety and security, the destruction of ammunition, the treatment of waters and soils contaminated with substances of military origin, site and conversion management system using GIS are all part of recent or published research project of the Chair of Chemical Engineering and Hazardous Wastes of the Brandenburg University of Technology. Cooperation with international partners in universities and other institutions in Great Britain, Poland, the USA, France, Ukraine, Hungary are part of these efforts. Because of huge conversion sites (up to 2,000 km²), experiences in experiences over more than 10 years and conversion objects of any type, Cottbus in the Federal State of Brandenburg is the ideal location for a NATO Forum on conversion. Both co-director have a long experience the political and practical implementation of conversion and research on conversion issues.