"To learn fundraising is not so difficult, but to learn from others-to really listen and think about what others are saying-that's a real problem. This inability to exchange experience is the biggest limit to the development of Czech conservation NGOs."

Petr Dolejsk.y, _CSOP, Bílé Karpaty, Czech Republic

Organizing citizens to take responsibility for the environment is difficult even when there's adequate funding, trained leaders, clearly understood environmental problems, and a public experienced in working together and with the government to propose alternative policies. Central European communities lacked these basic necessities and more in 1989 when Communist rule came to an end. A half-century of centralized decision-making had eroded the notion that one should or even could care for the land. People were unaccustomed to weighing other perspectives, forging compromises, and resolving conflicts. They didn't trust organizations or government, and they lacked a sense of community empowerment and initiative.

Three American foundations, however, recognized that helping to curb environmental deterioration was not only important in its own right, but could become a potent tool to foster democracy and build civil society. In 1991, the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, the German Marshall Fund, and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund initiated the Environmental Partnership for Central Europe (EPCE)-a consortium of five national foundations operating in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, and, since 2000, Romania. Led and staffed locally, these independent foundations stimulate community-based environmental action and participation in the region (Tolles and Beckmann 2000:5).

Since its inception, EPCE has invested over $15.4 million to support more than 4,000 projects and to provide training, technical assistance, and study tours to 3,000 Central European organizations. Those organizations, in turn, have mobilized 30,000 volunteers, planted 175,000 trees, protected more than 150 endangered species of flora and fauna, and insulated approximately 1,000 homes, schools, and other buildings. The EPCE foundations are currently the most significant private source of funding for community-based environmental initiatives and advocacy projects in Central Europe (R_u_zi_cka 2002). The EPCE is also the most important source of money in Central and Eastern Europe for advocacy projects.

The partnership has not only helped protect the environment, but has nurtured grassroots action:

• In the 1980s, Kosenka, an NGO in an eastern Moravian town, tried to preserve rare species of orchids in the White Carpathians region by organizing volunteers to mow fields. Now, with support from EPCE, Kosenka takes a more holistic approach to biodiversity protection: the group partners with farmers to improve pasture health and helps communities and businesspeople develop and market traditional crafts and goods made from local produce, creating incentives to preserve the area's natural heritage (Tolles and Beckmann 2000:34).

• EPCE helped The Alliance of Greens in Hungary and MME (Birdlife Hungary) collaborate with other NGOs to establish a land trust-one of the first in Central and Eastern Europe-covering 500 ha of wooded steppe in the Bihar region. The first 28 nonprofit land trusts, totaling over 1,600 ha, have received official accreditation in the Czech Republic (Beckmann 2000:23).

• A group of environmental scientists from the Daphne Institute of Applied Ecology in Bratislava used EPCE support to engage local farmers and residents in restoring 130 ha of wetland habitats in the Morava-Danube floodplain in southwestern Slovakia (Tolles and Beckmann 2000:25).

• The Energy Conservation in Schools Program sponsored by EPCE involved over 9,700 schoolchildren and 1,800 teachers, parents, and other volunteers in local school energy conservation projects and educational activities. About 260 schools throughout Central Europe participated, with many receiving special grants to insulate windows, replace old lights and thermostats, and buy more efficient furnaces (R_u_zi_cka 2002).

• The EPCE-funded Central European Greenways (CEG) project has involved hundreds of local communities, state and local representatives, businesses, and national government offices in creating a network of largely automobile-free recreational routes and trails. The 11 CEG routes total 3,000 km, and attract tourism and promote the region's natural and cultural heritage (R_u_zi_cka 2002).

These and other initiatives supported by the partnership share a commitment to involve citizens in looking for and implementing sustainable land use practices and supporting public involvement in decision-making. In the context of post-Communist Central Europe, this is an approach that is nothing short of revolutionary.

The roots of success

Initially-and importantly-the Western foundations committed multi-year support to EPCE to give the partnership time to train local personnel, create a cadre of independent leaders, and broaden its funding. Staffing and start-up efforts consumed the consortium's first year as the founding leaders of the EPCE organizations struggled to find staff capable of managing local grant-making programs, and community members experienced enough to serve on the Boards of Directors of the new foundations. Beyond financial support, the three Western foundations cooperated closely with the EPCE groups to discuss strategy and create links between the EPCE consortium and established NGOs in Western Europe and North America.

In reviewing its progress over the last decade, the EPCE consortium stresses one lesson above all: let local communities themselves decide on their conservation priorities, rather than having them imposed from the outside. Finding effective local leaders to spearhead projects is also essential for successful action. The EPCE foundation staff see their task as facilitating discussion, advising on local decisions, and offering technical support to create projects that address these community-identified priorities.

As EPCE works through its second decade, it faces the challenge of a society still trying to develop a sense of civic engagement, initiative, and self-responsibility. Other challenges loom as well, including the need to increase its fundraising capacity. The coalition is now moving toward greater autonomy from its Western founders, whose financial support will phase out by 2005 (Scsaurszki 2002). Fortunately, the consortium has already secured funding from some European foundations such as the Dutch Foundation DOEN, and the Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt foundation in Germany. Businesses and governments have agreed to help, too, including a unique arrangement in the Czech Republic, where the government has set up a special endowment fund for Czech foundations (R_u_zi_cka 2002). Meanwhile, EPCE has become a model for the former Soviet Union and the Baltic states in how to engage civil society to meet local needs through care for the environment.