The strain placed on the environment by the tourism industry has grown drastically from year to year. At the same time, however, efforts have also been increasing at national and international levels to reduce this negative impact. In view of the significance of cross-border tourism, such efforts can only be successful within the framework of international co-operation.

"Trade and Environmental Protection" represents a cross-cutting issue area that must be simultaneously handled at different political levels. This book describes and analyses the institutional structures that are necessary for addressing trade and environment issues and indentifies integration strategies. In addition to being relevant to international policy-making, the topic covered in this book also reflects an area of special interest and activity at Ecologic.

The forthcoming enlargement of the European Union poses a major political, economic and ecological challenge for the EU, the Member States and the Candidate Countries. One of the last and most difficult chapters to be discussed in the accession negotiations is the agricultural chapter of the aquis communautaire. The presentations and additional background information of the international workshop entitled "EU Enlargement: Impact of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) on Environment and Nature" that took place on 4-5 September 2001 in Bonn have been published in the BfN-Skripten

Ecologic experts completed a study on the state of environmental policy and the environmental law in Middle and East Europe on behalf of the Federal Ministry of the Environment. This revised version of the study outlines the status of European environmental laws from the summer of 2000 which have not yet been implemented.

The privatisation of water supply and distribution in Germany, in the context of the general discussion concerning the enhancement of competition and efficiency with regard to the liberalisation of public services, is increasingly finding a place on the agenda of policy-makers and interest groups. This report of the conference proceedings summarises the presentations given as well as the most important outcomes of the discussion at the International Symposium held on 20-21 November 2000 in Berlin.

The looming perspective of growing mountains of packaging waste in Europe led several Member States to implement packaging and packaging waste policies and induced the EU to formulate the Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive. The Directive, established in 1994, has contributed to the reduction of environmental problems resulting from that waste. But has it been really successful? Has it achieved its goals? What are the reasons for the mixed results?

The objective of this Handbook on the Water Framework Directive is to explain the directive's main contents and innovations. The book was published in 2002 with a contribution from Ecologic's Eduard Interwies and R. Andreas Kraemer. It is mainly directed at administrative bodies that implement the Water Framework Directive in Germany.

This report is a compilation of data on the global production and consumption of Ozone Depleting Substances (ODS) and a detailed explanation for the trends. The report updates and builds upon similar analyses published in the previous four years.

This Handbook assists developing and developed countries with providing accurate, comprehensive and timely data as per their specific reporting obligations under the Montreal Protocol to protect the stratospheric ozone layer from the effects of ozone depleting substances (ODS). It helps ozone officers understand and follow the correct data reporting procedures, including those related to Article 7 and Multilateral Fund requirements. The Handbook has been developed by Ecologic.

Transatlantic co-operation between the US and EU Member States has an important role to play in the system of international environmental policymaking. Greater transatlantic leadership coupled with extensive consultation of developing countries would greatly enhance policymaking capacities in the system of international environmental governance.

This book with contributions from Ecologic analyses the implementation of the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive in several EU Member States. The compliance of the Directive, its technological impacts and national policies are crucial to the comparative study.

"Trade, Environment and Development: The North-South Dimensions" was the topic of the second international conference of the Concerted Action on Trade and Environment (CAT&E). The event was held at the Trippenhuis of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) in Amsterdam on 1-2 November 2004. The conference report, including the programme, summaries of the sessions and a list of participants, is now available for download.

The future of the water sector in Europe has been increasingly at the heart of political debates. Potential evolution of the water supply and sanitation (WSS) sector had not, however, been the subject of in-depth studies. The EUROMARKET project filled this gap by analysing a selection of scenarios for the evolution of the European WSS sector, ranging from delegation contracts to community management, and investigating their social, economic, environmental and institutional implications.

Following the conclusion of the Uruguay Round, the agenda of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) expanded to incorporate a number of environment related issues, such as services, intellectual property rights, and investment related measures. The EU-funded CAT+E project (Concerted Action on Trade and Environment) aims to ensure dialogue and debate between European Research Institutes on these issues. Through a series of international conferences and publications, the CAT+E network analyses the current trade and environment agenda, strengthens co-operation among European Research institutes and identifies needs for further research. Ecologic's CAT+E reports are available for download. The trade and environment policy and research agendas have expanded rapidly in recent years. Following conclusion of the Uruguay Round, the agenda of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) expanded to incorporate a number of environment related issues, such as services, intellectual property rights, or investment related measures. This rapid expansion of the trade and environment agenda has created a major area of research that is attracting researchers in virtually all member states.

This research project is carried out on behalf of the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN) and analyzes aspects relating to the conversion of timber procurement on the federal level in Germany to Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification. Such a conversion is foreseen by the 2002 coalition agreement of the federal government. Tropical timber shall, as a first step, only be procured from FSC certified sources; and the entire timber procurement shall be converted to this standard until the end of the legislative period, accordingly.