Parks Dinarides network has celebrated its five year anniversary

Small anniversary, five years from founding the Parks Dinarides, was marked on 5 and 6 December 2019 at the II Special General Assembly of the Parks Dinarides held in Bihać, National Park Una.

On that occasion, members of the network were reminded of the activities and events initiated,in 2012, which ultimately resulted in the formal establishment of the organization Parks Dinarides– a network of Dinaric protected areas, on 5 December 2014 in Podgorica.

The event highlighted the importance this network has for advancing nature conservation in the Dinaric region. It was pointed out that since its founding in 2014, the Parks Dinarides have grown into a strong non-governmental organization, which today, in its work and acting, is largely independent of the organizations and institutions of the countries from which the initiative for its establishment originated. Today, the organization is recognized in all countries of the Dinaric Arc, which created the preconditions for a new step that will ensure even greater development of the organization, as well as the preconditions for what is even more important, namely the achievement of the set goals of the organization, jointly defined by its founders and successful implementation of all declared priority activities in the entire area of activity, i.e. countries of the Dinaric Arc.

As part of the Parks Dinarides anniversary program, members were presented with membership certificates and friends of the organization who have helped the Parks Dinarides working and developing over the past five years with acknowledgment certificates.

As part of the event, the II Special General Assembly of Parks Dinarides was held, during which was adopted a new Statute of the organization, which will allow to formally confirm the actual state of the organization today, five years from its establishment.

The biggest novelty in the Statute is the establishment of a new body called the Expert Council as an advisory body for professional issues related to the promotion, protection, development and management of protected natural resources in the Dinaric Arc countries. The new Statute prescribes its composition, election and term of office as well as the manner of operation of that new body. In view of the defined goals and adopted priority activities of the Parks Dinarides, the establishment of this body was imposed as a necessity.

Furthermore, the new Statute defines membership of the Organization more precisely by dividing it into regular and honorary members. The new Statute deleted the so-called “Founding members”, i.e. natural persons who were entered in the register of non-governmental organizations at the time of the founding of the Organization, because the current Statute did not define their powers in respect of voting, membership dues, etc., and thus this could create some legal uncertainty as to the validity of the procedure when making certain decisions of the Organization. Under the new Statute, natural persons cannot be regular members, but only honorary members without voting rights.

In addition, the new Statute prescribes in more detail the manner of election of all organs of the Organization so that no ambiguities and irregularities arise in the election process and clearly delimits the powers of certain organs of the Organization for the better and simpler functioning and efficient decision-making.