Parks Dinarides organised the thematic event in the European Parlament on the subject of Dinarides nature protection
The Parks Dinarides – Network of Protected Areas of Dinaride Arch organised a thematic event “Nature Protection in Context of Green Agenda” in the European Parliament.
The goal of the event was to present the work of the Parks Dinarides, situation in protected areas of Dinarides and also the key results achieved by the Project “For Nature and People II”. In addition, the Call for Action was presented to the public in the context of nature protection in the countries of Dinaric Arch.
The host of the event was Mr. Matjaz Nemec from Slovenia, member of European Parliament, together with Mr. Tonino Picula from Croatia, the member of European Parliament and the envoy for Montenengro, who opened the Event.
In his interim speech, Mr. Nemec outlined that the Parks Dinarides are the example of active regional platform whose primary goal is nature protection. “The idea of Parks Dinarides has arisen in wider European Area as example of extraordinary organisation, which fulfils the requirements and specific goals of nature protection and valuable knowledge on these areas transfers to the younger generations. As the member of European Parliament, I actively participate in development of Western Balkan and therefore today’s event is particularly affectionate, because it represents good practice of regional cooperation and mechanism for implementation of the Green Agreement, which I deem as one of the most important obligations of the EU”,
Mr. Tonino Picula emphasized that climate changes are, in the long term, the biggest threat to the region of Dinarides and that it is necessary to use all mechanisms for the mitigation of their negative impact. In that sense, the Green Agenda for Western Balkan represents a strong tool for the improvement of the environment. Mr. Picula outlined the need for strengthening mutual cooperation of the Dinarides region for the purpose of improvement of protected areas.
President of Expert Councile of Parks Dinarides, Mr. Martin Šolar emphasized importance of cooperation and networking of managers of protected areas and presented other similar networks in Europe.
The President of the Parks Dinarides, Mr. Zoran Mrdak, presented the Network of the Parks Dinarides, the process of founding the Parks, organisation’s activities, and the management structure. He also outlined the importance of Green Agenda implementation in the countries of the Dinarides, but also the need for adopting the Dinaric Convention, which would provide legal framework for protection and improvement of Dinarides natural values.
The Event attended representatives of the European Commission, Europark Federation, the Nature Conservancy, as well as protected areas and members of the Parks Dinarides in the same time: NP Una – Bosnia and Herzegovina, Public Institution Green Ring / Zeleni prsten – Croatia, NP Galicica – North Macedonia, NP Djerdap – Serbia, Nature Park Skocjanske jame / Skocjan Caves – Slovenia who presented status in their protected areas in their countries.
In that context, the Parks Dinarides presented the Call for Action which comprises the set of recommendations of the methods how the institutions of the European Union can help Western Balkan protected areas. The recommendations refer to financial and technical support.
Financial support, first of all, refers to establishment of various financial mechanisms which will be available to protected areas, while technical recommendations refer to establishment of joint political framework for nature protection in the region of Western Balkans, such as making Dinaric Convention and more detailed involvement of protected areas in so called the Country Report.
