BALKAN ASSOCIATION FOR HUMAN ENVIRONMENT – BENA

Cooperation on scientific and expert level

BENA is an abbreviation of the Balkan Association for Human Environment, which started as a Greek initiative and was established in 1998 in Thessalonica. Its members are scientists and experts that work on various fields connected to the human environment. Active members of BENA are also several scientists and experts from Macedonia, who are included in the Association’s regional projects. Coordinator of the Macedonian National Committee of BENA is Josif Tanevski, PhD, and members are Jordan Pop Jordanov and Gligor Kanevce, at the same time members of the Macedonian Academy of Science and Arts (MANU), and professors Sveto Hadji Jordanov and Petar Petrovski.

In organization of the Macedonian National Committee of BENA, the Chairman of this Association Fokion K. Vosniakos, PhD, visited Skopje in January, as a guest of MANU, where he had a lecture on the Balkan risks of radiation.
As Professor Vosniakos told us, until now this Association organized several conferences on the issues: "Ecological Education in Thessalonica", "Industrial Pollution in Sofia", and "The Over-Border Pollution in Bucharest". Soon they expect the approval by the European Union of the project concerning the pollution of the Black Sea, i.e. the impact of the countries of the Mediterranean region on this closed ecological marine system that will also include the problem of pollution of River Danube, which has a great impact on the Black sea.
- BENA also works on urban ecological management of the historical cities, as well as on a project on the regional aero pollution, during which it cooperates with the large power-supply companies from Macedonia, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, and Sweden. We plan to start a pilot-project in REK Bitola, which should implement several concrete activities for decreasing the aero pollution by this enterprise, as the ecological standards ISO 14,000 – says Professor Vosniakos.