In recent years, substantial efforts have been dedicated to creating new protected areas and formulating management plans in alignment with global and EU conservation strategies, especially through the Natura 2000 network establishment. Nevertheless, the forthcoming primary challenge lies in enhancing on-site management effectiveness, where surveillance and enforcement play pivotal roles in achieving this goal.
Because many different institutions have authority over the sea and coastal public maritime domain, coastal and marine protected zones are extremely difficult to manage. The EFFICIENTN2K project started on August 1, 2023, and will last a total of 18 months, will aim to improve coordination among competent authorities and their capacity for detecting and resolving obstacles to monitoring and enforcement (digitalization, use of new technologies, etc.).
The primary objective is to enhance surveillance and enforcement within protected coastal and marine Natura 2000 sites in Italy and Croatia, ensuring the preservation of biodiversity and the protection of these vital natural assets. The project will encompass a thorough analysis within a total of eight Natura 2000 sites, involving various authorities and stakeholders at multiple levels, and will produce recommendations for reaching efficiency in surveillance and enforcement as well as develop solutions with key stakeholders. To achieve this goal, training programs will be conducted to strengthen capabilities to address shared cross-border vulnerabilities and foster the development of solutions. Additionally, an administrative agreement will be signed by several institutions from Italy and Croatia to facilitate future institutional collaboration in the implementation of surveillance and enforcement solutions.
The project intends to improve collaboration between competent organisations in two countries in the field of environment conservation, as well as between individuals and civil society organisations. Because of the ability to share experiences, data, and information, as well as undertake joint measures, cross-border cooperation leads to more effective nature conservation.
The EFFICIENTN2K project is a small-scale project financed by the Interreg Italy-Croatia CBC Programme (Program Priority 5 – Integrated Governance for Stronger Cooperation). The project partners are Association for Nature, Environment and Sustainable Development Sunce (Sunce) as lead partner, and the Municipality of Ugento.
Lead Partner: Association for Nature, Environment and Sustainable Development Sunce (Sunce)
Project partner:Municipality of Ugento (RNP Ugento)
Project is co-financed by the Government Office for Cooperation with NGOs.
Total Project budget: 249.145,00 EUR
Programme funding from European Union: 199.315,60 EUR
Project is co-financed by the Government Office for Cooperation with NGOs.
Start date: August 1, 2023
End date: December 31, 2024
Project Manager:
mr. sc. Matea Špika, mag.biol. (Sunce)
E-mail: [email protected]
Communication manager:
Vida Zrnčić, mag.biol. (Sunce)
E-mail: [email protected]
Official project website: LINK.
