One of the predicted results of the project “Nature of Dalmatia” is the Public Institution Management Plan for the Management of Protected Areas of the Split-Dalmatia County.
The Sunce Association is conducting the process of drafting this strategic document defining the vision, goals and activities to be carried out over the next ten years in protected areas. Based on the current experience, the Sunce seeks to ensure that relevant stakeholders and everyone interested are involved in the process of drafting the Plan, which is one of the fundamental principles of sustainable management of protected natural values.
For this purpose, during December 2014 and January 2015, the first workshops were held with stakeholders at a total of five locations in Imotski, Omiš, Sinj, Nerežišće and Hvar, where the interested stakeholders were presented to the project, the work of the Public Institutions and the protected Natura 2000 areas that are located near some of the mentioned locations.
At all workshops, stakeholders actively participated in identifying the main values of protected areas as well as threats to their conservation. A total of 57 people from various institutions, associations and interested citizens participated in the five organized workshops, with the largest number of respondents being recorded in the city of Sinj. All stakeholders recognize that the richness of biodiversity, landscape beauty and cultural and historical heritage are worth to be protected. On the other hand, it is evident that there are numerous threats on all sites, among which the most important are the wild waste landfills, low levels of awareness of people about the needs of environment and nature protection, insufficiently developed cooperation between competent institutions, associations and local communities, and non-harmonized laws and their non-implementation.
The next cycle of workshops at the same five locations will be organized in March and April 2015, so that stakeholders will be involved in the design of action proposals that need to be implemented to ensure more effective management of the protected areas of the Split-Dalmatia County. Meanwhile, employees of the Sunce Association and Public Institutions will conduct semi-structured questionnaires with those stakeholders who are important to draft a management plan but did not participate in organized workshops.