The aim of the CBEES State of the Region Report 2022/23 is to present an insight to the diferent environmental challenges facing the region due to the legacy of communist modernity, the breakdown of communism and the transition period, aswell as the ongoing war. It also sheds light on how political and economical concerns shape the approach to the environment and maps contemporary awareness and responses, forms of resistance and engagements with these issues in the region. The report gathers in-depth analyses of environmental concerns intransition in the region with particular focus on destruction and waste. It draws out common features, but also highlights local and cultural diversity in the region when it comes to waste, nature and activism.

The report consists of essays dealing with overall themes and 15 country reports. Together the individual contributions givea nuanced picture of the environmental threats in the region, the complexity linked to ideas of modernity and political and economic decision-making as well as values and rights claimedby Indigenous people and even nature itself. The current war in Ukraine adds another dimension to ecological concerns and bring new levels of destruction to the region.

The report is the third in a series of annual reports from CBEES (Centre for Baltic and East European Studies), reporting and refecting on the social and political developmentsin the Baltic Sea Region and Central and Eastern Europe, each year from a new and topical perspective. The overall purpose with this initiative is to offer a publication that will be of great interest to fellow researchers, policy makers, stakeholders, and the general public.