Association Sunce coordinates the elaboration of a National Capacity Building Plan for Protected Area Staff in Croatia within the project ‘Capacity Building Plans for Efficient Protected Area Management in Eastern Europe’ (ProPARK/BfN). Relevant and active actors in the field of PA management, with special interest in the topic of Capacity Building are gathered in the Working group (Ministry of Environmental and Nature Protection, State institute for Nature Protection, representatives of Public institutions for management of national parks, nature parks and protected areas on county level). The overall role of the WG is to provide expert input to the process and to support the elaboration, recognition and adoption of the CB Plan into practice, by the relevant institutions.

The first working group meeting was held in Zagreb from 11. – 12. September 2014 with the participation of 13 members of Working group, members of project team and Association Sunce. The main objectives of this meeting were:

• analysis of the current situation concerning the training of protected area staff;

• formulating the main directions and objectives for capacity building for protected area management in Croatia.

At the end of the meeting group an agreement was made on the further steps in developing the Plan and scenarios for its adoption into practice. The next working group meeting will be held in March 2015.