The project will generate new scientific knowledge through enhanced transborder scientific cooperation and will contribute to the conservation of water resources and biological diversity in the Polesie region and ultimately to sustainable development. The project uses two international tools: transboundary biosphere reserves (TBRs) of UNESCO's MAB Programme and the ecological networks advocated by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and especially of its European component, the Pan-European Ecological Network (PEEN), elaborated by the Council of Europe.

The Polesie region, shared by Belarus, Poland and Ukraine, encompasses water and peat swamp ecosystems that heavily influence climate and water relations in central and western Europe. Recent degradation of the region's environment is seriously threatening such unique ecosystems that have shaped the Polesie's biological and landscape diversity. This project consists of three parts:

(1) gathering basic scientific information for the establishment and functioning of the West Polesie Transboundary Biosphere Reserve (WP-TBR), encompassing three separate biosphere reserves: Pribuzhskoye-Polesie Biosphere Reserve (Belarus), West Polesie Biosphere Reserve (Poland) and Shatskiy Biosphere Reserve (Ukraine);
(2) applying the methodologies and approaches of (1) to set up the scientific background for a Polesie regional ecological network focussing on the Valleys of the Bug and Pripyat Rivers; and
(3) building on the results of the (1) and (2) to design a future potential TBR in the Ancient Pripyat Valley.

Scientific cooperation will be heightened and capacities of scientific institutions and specialists to work on transborder cooperative projects will be enhanced through all the above (1) - (3) components. This project assists the beneficiary countries to achieve goal 7 of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG), namely ensuring environmental sustainability.