US-USSR Environmental Protection Institutions

Representatives of two of the world’s major industrial nations, and thus major polluters, the U.S. and the U.S.S.R., met in August 1991 at the Rockefeller Conference Center in Bellagio, Italy, to discuss ways to improve environmental protection practices in the two nations. Seminar participants discussed issues facing both nations, including whether regulation should be centralized or decentralized, and how to balance economic development and environmental safety.

This Academy-sponsored conference sparked particular interest because the two countries had different systems of land use and air and water rights, as well as different administrative and institutional economic arrangements and legal frameworks. The resulting Bellagio Declaration of environmental principles applicable to all industrial nations was read into the Congressional Record. The project publication - “The 1991 Bellagio Conference on U.S.-U.S.S.R. Environmental Protection Institutions” - was a special issue of the Boston College Environmental Affairs Law Review, vol. 19, no. 3, 1992.

The conference ended just days before the breakup of the Soviet Union. Participants from the former Soviet Union completed the work while representing multiple countries, showing that environmental concerns are regional concerns. Follow-up conferences in 1992 and 1994 focused on regional environmental protection and regional water resources, respectively.