If the voice of NGOs was
heard, biodiversity wouldn’t have to worry J! Joking aside, with the project “PartnershipActions for Biodiversity Protection in Western Balkans” we achieved a lot.
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| Participants of the final workshop in Belgrade, October 2011 (c) Petra Boic Petrac |
Organizations, already
part of a network before the project “Partnership Actions…”, agreed on further
steps regarding taking care of nature, especially when it comes to Natura 2000.
They achieved very good results through local actions which helped the broader public understand
what Natura 2000 is and why biodiversity is important to us. The result of
those actions was the exhibition “15 Ways How to Conserve Nature”. It was shown
at the end of October in Student Cultural Center in Belgrade. That was the last
time when all representatives that worked on local actions met: they presented
their projects and results, exchanged some ideas, agreed on further
cooperation; they praised each other and occasionally asked “Why didn’t I think
of that?!”
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| Workshop (c) Petra Boic Petrac |
Before the exhibition
there was a one-day workshop during which participants, representatives of
civil sector from Serbia and from Montenegro described and illustrated how they
saw their networks: “Natura 2000 Resource Center” of Serbia and Montenegrin
“Natura 2000 Info Center”. Upon hearing results of all 17 projects, participants
voted for their favourite project: the some number of votes got NGO Avalon
(organization of Natura Day), DMEN – Association of young ecologists from
Niksic (photo wallpaper on buses depicting natural values of the future Natura
2000 sites) and Breznica (initiative to declare forest Savina in Herceg Novi as
protected area). After that, NGO representatives were trained how to best present results of their project to the
public. That was just what they had a chance to the very next day on the
opening of the exhibition.
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| Exhibition "15 Ways How to Conserve Nature" (c) YRS |
Accompanied by the
project team (Young Researchers of Serbia, WWF and Green Home), representatives
of civil sector in Serbia (Avalon, Mladen Karaman, Akademsko društvo za proučavanje i zaštitu
prirode, Eko-centar, Stara planina, Protego, Prostor, UNEKOOP) and
Montenegro (Breznica, OZON, Centar za zaštitu i proučavanje
ptica Crne Gore, Green.me, Društvo mladih ekologa Nikšić), PhD Ivica
Radovic, State Secretary of Ministry of environment, Mining and Spatial
Planning in Serbia delivered a speech at the opening of the exhibition. He
promised good cooperation with NGOs and listening to their voice while creating
Natura 2000 proposal in Serbia. With inspirational speech, State Secretary pointed
out the importance of Natura 2000; he thanked the NGOs for everything they do
and promised to ensure the leaders of state institutions to watch the movie "Natura 2000 in Serbia",
result of local action given to NGO CINA. The documentary speaks about the
importance of Natura 2000.
If someone had said to
the project team of “Partnership Actions…” in January 2010, when the
implementation of the project started, that their last meeting with NGO
representatives would end with praise, smiles and common hope for a new
partnership, many would immediately sign the very idea of overtime, sometimes
even night work, stress and occasional disagreements. Indeed, the meeting in
Belgrade in late October was a helpful and nice gathering of people who did
something useful and good for nature conservation. Despite the project
completion, the guiding principle of biodiversity conservation in the Western
Balkans will undoubtedly continue. So let this blog, which was created as part
of the IPA project, continue despite the fact that the project is successfully
completed. Therefore we invite all who have anything to share on Natura 2000:
examples of good practice, lessons learned, some knowledge, governmental false
steps ... contact us, write a post. Together we are stronger! Isn’t that the
entire point of the partnership after all? Not to say that biodiversity will be
grateful to us.
Petra Boic Petrac, WWF
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