Since the guidelines permit the promotion of cross-bordering activities, projects in all regions of neighbouring European countries can receive financial backing. Also a common neighbouring position, e.g. at the Baltic Sea, opens promotion possibilities. Here the DBU promoted different projects in Poland, Czech Republic, the Kaliningrad area and the Baltic states. The projects are usually initiated with German project partners, e.g. in the German-Polish-Czech border area with the World Wildlife Fund for Nature WWF Germany. In a project with the German Marshall Fund of the United States about 180 model projects of sustainable agriculture, rural tourism and energy efficiency in the MOE states are in progress. The DBU further promoted training programmes for the classification, indication and packing of dangerous chemicals in the Baltic states with the Oekopol GmbH, Hamburg, the structure of the environmental education centre Swieradow Zdroj in Poland, the development of German-Czech environmental partnerships for eight to twelve-year-old children in favour of the cross-bordering conversion of the agenda 21 and the development and testing of a remote study concept for local environmental management and lasting regional development in Latvia with the University of Lüneburg.

Beyond the German scholarship programme the DBU initiated some years ago a joint German-Polish scholarship programme in close co-operation with the Warsaw Nowicki Foundation. The initiative of the winner of the Deutscher Umweltpreis, Professor Maciej Nowicki formed the background of this programme. With that prize money of 1996 a foundation was established, in order to enable high-talented new generation scientists from Poland a research stay in Germany. Due to the successful process of the German-Polish programme the DBU decided to expand this activities. Thus since 2001 a German-Baltic scholarship is in progress, granting scholarships inclusive research stays to young new generation scientists from Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and the region of Kaliningrad in Germany. In Latvia the good co-operation with the Latvian Environmental Foundation (LVAF) could be intensified by the common work on this programme.

On initiative of the Rockefeller Foundation and the Italian foundation San Paolo di Torino representatives of American and European foundations met in 1993 in Italy in Bellagio, a small city at Lake Como and founded the Bellagio Forum for Sustainable Development which is running since 1996 an office on the premises of the Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt. Targets of the joint initiative are to act as non-bureaucratic organisation on the exchange of experience between foundations and on the dissemination of environmental knowledge as well as on the co-ordination of environmental programmes and projects beyond national boundaries, accumulative rising of financial means for projects and implementing own sustainability projects as well as the scientific and organisational consultation with the aim of a close co-operation with media, authorities and industry. At present approx. 20 foundations from America, Japan and Europe are members of the Bellagio Forum which engage themselves in sustainable environmental protection. Since its establishment the Bellagio Forum supported important sustainability programmes and projects.

Particularly worth being mentioned is the project "Environment in the News". The project offers advanced training for journalist on the search of environmentally relevant data as well as for the implementation and creation of journalistic articles and comments together with the London Reuters Foundation, DBU, World Bank and Deutsche Bank. For the Bellagio Forum the topic environment and media will be of central importance in future and initiate appropriate meetings among other things in Johannesburg, London, Lyon, Prague and Singapore. Planned is also an international journalist training.