Event: “Protected Areas and Local Communities: Challenges and Opportunities for Cooperation”

Parks Dinarides – Network of Protected Areas of the Dinarides is organizing the event “Protected Areas and Local Communities: Challenges and Opportunities for Cooperation”, which will be held in Podgorica, on June 26, 2025, at the Red Cross Hall (Bulevar Jovana Tomaševića 6), starting at 10:00 AM.

This event will bring together key stakeholders in the field of nature protection — representatives of state institutions, managers of protected areas, representatives of local governments, and members of local communities living in or near planned or existing protected areas.

The aim of the event is to open a space, through two panel discussions, for the exchange of views on current processes related to the designation of protected areas, communication challenges between institutions and communities, and opportunities for improving cooperation.

Given the increasingly visible decline in local community support for nature protection processes, we want to use this event to encourage dialogue, share experiences, and initiate proposals to strengthen trust and partnership relations in the future.

A draft agenda is attached.

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The event is organized within the project “Empowering Local Communities for Sustainable Management of Protected Areas in Montenegro,” supported under the Supported=Empowered program, implemented by the Fund for Active Citizenship (fAKT) in partnership with the Slagalica Foundation for the Development of Local Communities from Croatia. The program is funded by the European Union and co-financed by the Ministry of Public Administration.