These priorities were developed, discussed and adopted at the International workshops ‘The Importance of the Black Sea Coastal Wetlands, Especially for Migratory Waterbirds’ and ‘Conservation, Restoration and Wise Use of Wetlands resources along the Black Sea Coast’, held in 2000 in Odessa Ukraine. The ‘Odessa 2000 Declaration on Black Sea Wetlands’ was adopted at the workshop and it concluded that activities for the Azov-Black Sea wetlands should be intensified in a co-ordinated approach and that international co-operation on wetland conservation should be enhanced in the Azov-Black Sea region. Participants supported the creation of the ‘Black and Asov Seas Wetlands Initiative’ comparable to the MedWed Initiative. This document identifies key activities that will be required both to develop and implement the BlackSeaWet Initiative.