Conference Management 

Struan Simpson - author, editor, technical advisor, project manager and consultant on environment , development; community relations, conflict management

Since LIRE’s founding in 1993, St James’s Research has been creatively involved with LIRE in numerous conferences, workshops and seminars in Russia & the  EECCA region. Two conferences in 1994 set the scene for these activities, leading inter alia to the four-year Environmental Law & Policy Programme. These were:

  • Funded by Tacis, with Kathryn Coombes and Duncan Fisher of Ecotourism Ltd., St James’s Research co-managed the first Black Sea Environmental Ministers Conference in Tbilisi, Georgia, September 1994, producing state-of-the-environment reports for eleven countries and drafting a convention (extant) between Georgia and Turkey on trans-boundary issues, principally water sharing. 


  • With Kathryn Coombes, LIRE directed the first conference between European and Russian environmental NGOs (Suzdal, June 1994), again funded by Tacis, leading to the Georgia conference.