International Black Sea Action Day

At the end of October 1996, Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey, Georgia, Ukraine and Russia, after assessing the state of marine ecology in the Black Sea area, signed a Strategic Action Plan for rehabilitating and protecting the Black Sea. Since that time, International Black Sea Day has been celebrated every year on October 31.

In 2011, Sochi marked Black Sea Day by hosting the annual urban environment project, "A clean sea for a clean city". The event's organizers - the company Coca-Cola, the Sochi 2014 Organizing Committee and Sochi City Administration - pooled their efforts, in order to draw society's attention to the environmental situation in the area where the Games are being staged. Schoolchildren, students and Sochi 2014 volunteers set about cleaning the beach in the village of Plastunk, on the bank of the River Sochi.

After doing so, the activists relocated to the city's main square, where an educational eco-village had been set up, which played host to a round-table discussion entitled "Forming an environmental culture: problems and prospects". Among those present were representatives of the Sochi 2014 Organizing Committee, Sochi Administration, environmental charities and business communities, and also a very well-known nature conservationist: Moscow State University professor and TV presenter Nikolai Drozdov. In the course of the round-table discussion, Coca-Cola, in conjunction with the UN Development Program, presented its unique educational product - "The Black Sea Tool Box". The "tool box" consists of a range of educational materials, developed with help from international experts and intended for use in lessons on various subjects, in junior and middle schools. The project makes it possible to raise awareness among the region's younger residents about the problems of pollution in the Black Sea, and foster a responsible attitude towards the environment.