On 30 October 2019, the Moldovan National Implementation Team met at the Ministry of Agriculture, Regional Development and Environment and discussed the way forward for evaluating environmental indicators based on the UNECE set of regional indicators and using available tools and methodology (indicator specification and evaluation templates) adapted to the national context, taking the Slovak Environment Agency as a model.

Since then, the Environmental Agency, in close cooperation with the key stakeholders, has developed and published on its website 36 environmental indicators organised accordingly to cover the following themes:

A. Air pollution and ozone layer depletion 

B. Climate change 

C. Water resources

D. Biodiversity 

E. Land resources

F. Agriculture

G. Energy

H. Transport

I. Waste

J. Environmental financing.

This activity is the result of several workshops on environmental assessment for the national experts within ENI SEIS II East project, delivered by the EEA in partnership with the Slovak Environment Agency. Specifically, Moldovan experts at the environmental state institution received hands-on training, resulting in four water indicators and one biodiversity indicator on protected areas being developed.

Based on this practical experience, country-level activities coordinated by the appointed NFPs from the Environmental Agency, representing the Ministry of Agriculture, Regional Development and Environment of Moldova and the National Bureau of Statistics, led to extending the environmental indicators catalogue to 36, the majority covering the period from 1990 until 2018 and being updated annually. 

The assessment of each indicator follows an indicator specification including key questions and messages, visual representation of data through graphs, tables or maps, detailed assessment, policy context and specific national objectives that the indicator is responding to and the data time series table, which is available in Excel format.

It is worth mentioning that Moldova has published these indicators following an internationally agreed methodology and format for the first time, and this represents an important step in ensuring a regular environmental assessment process based on SEIS principles and practices, thus contributing to the Aarhus Convention pillar on access to information.

Currently, the Environmental Agency is drafting the national report on the state of the environment 2015-2018 (SoER), based on the above-mentioned indicators and using the methodology developed by the Slovak Environment Agency. In addition, by the end of the project, Moldova should have a short version of the SoER available in English in the form of a country brief covering the main themes and sectors addressed in the report, key findings and messages on the state of the environment, and the main policy responses to key environmental challenges and concerns.