Seminar “Public Participation in the Management of Natura 2000 Areas under Sectoral Plans and Programs”

Seminar “Public Participation in the Management of Natura 2000 Areas under Sectoral Plans and Programs” was organized on 20th and 21st of November 2017 in Split as part of the project “Responsible for Nature” implemented by the Association for Nature, Environment and Sustainable Development Sunce in partnership with BIOM Association, Faculty of Economics Split and Marjan Society.

The focus of the seminar was on the Forestry, Fisheries and Water Resources Management within the Natura 2000 area, ie the way of developing and implementing sectoral management plans, integration of measures and goals of nature protection and participation of civil society organizations.

In addition to the lectures held by representatives of the Croatian Environment and Nature Agencies, the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Energy, Croatian Forests, WWF, Sunce also presented the results of the Assessment Study of the Ecosystem Service for the Marjan Forest Park, made by professor Tikvić from the Faculty of Forestry in Zagreb.

All participants agreed that managing Natura 2000 areas is a major challenge for all institutions in the future due to the extremely small capacity and will indeed need a cross-sectoral cooperation and communication of everybody involved.

The seminar also provided the opportunity for representatives of civil society organizations to discuss how they could influence the improvement of monitoring and implementation of nature protection measures within environmental procedures and public participation in sectoral plans.