The inter-governmental treaty between the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine “On Cooperation on Conservation and Sustainable Development of the Dniester River Basin” is a result of long-time lobbying of NGO community of two countries and of the international organizations efforts supported by the Helsinki Water Convention. More then 20 years was necessary that it will enter to force. The Eco-TIRAS as the registered river basin non-governmental association of more then 50 NGOs from Moldova and Ukraine initiated the Dniester River basin treaty and were fully involved in drafting and promotion of this bilateral agreement signed in Rome in 2012 and entered into the force in 2017. Due to large involvement of stakeholders the treaty creates unprecedented options for involvement of them to its implementation both using the River Commission and from outside as observers etc. In contrary with many similar inter-state documents the Treaty covers all main spheres of the activities and priorities like joint transboundary monitoring of the river, conservation of biodiversity, fish and other biologic resources, impact evaluation, etc. It has the following tasks: development of sustainable water use based on the principles of reasonable use and protection of water and other natural resources and ecosystems of the Dniester River basin; considerable decrease in the pollution levels of the Dniester River basin and the Black Sea, accordingly;prevention of deterioration and rehabilitation of ecosystems, and also conservation of the biodiversity in the Dniester River basin;prevention and mitigation of adverse water impacts, generated by natural and anthropogenic factors. Prevention of floods and scarcity is another target of the Treaty. The Art. 26 of the Treaty permits direct possibility to be involved as a Commission members for NGOs, academic community and the regions. Because of hydropower overdevelopment in the plain part of the Dniester River basin, the interests of two riparian states seriously differs: when official Ukraine prefers to further develop its HPPs and construct new ones, Moldova is interesting to preserve and improve the current river environmental status, clearly understanding its role in provision of ecosystem services (water self-purification, recreation, tourism, fish resources, irrigation and potable water supply). The created in frames of the Commission working groups realize its mission in different areas, like day-to-day monitoring, elaboration of river basin management plan, establishing of spring ecological flow releases for needs of ecosystems, prevention of floods etc. The hydropower currently represents the main challenge for the Dniester River, producing disputes and protests on civic and academic levels. In this respect the establishing of jointly agreed indicators of hydropower impact on river ecosystems (the target of the BSB-165 “HydroEcoNex” project) represents a way to get more balanced evaluation of HPP impact. Until present the Commission activities have been supported by the Dniester GEF Middle Size project, managing by OSCE, but its further sustainability is under the question, taking into consideration both the financial situation of two states and the weak priority of environmental issues for them. The Commission needs the secreatiat at least from two persons, which have no other tasks to be fully involved in this main activity. Acknowledgement: Current work was realized in the frame of the Joint Operational Black Sea Programme 2014-2020, Project BSB165 „HydroEcoNex”, with the financial assistance of the European Union.