Sisak, Croatia_Application_form2010

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E-mail: secretariat@a-e-r.org - Website: www.a-e-r.org
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4th AER Award Communicating Europe
Application form
Please complete the following application form in English and try to be as brief and concise as
possible when describing your project. Regions can submit two pieces of supporting material
with their application (please do not send more). Only one application per region will be
accepted.
Please note that the Jury’s decision is final.
General Data
Category
(Please choose only one category)
Project name
Name of the Region
2) Communicating received European funding
«Assess and protect Una river – unique networking
argument»
Acronym: U.N.A.
Sisak-Moslavina County
(Republic of Croatia)
Type of institution
Regional self-government authority
Number of employees in 2010
Regional Population
84
185,387
Person in charge of project
Tatjana Puškarić,
Head of the Administrative Department for
Management for Accession and Incentive funds
Address
S. I A. Radića 36, 44 000 Sisak
Republic of Croatia
Telephone (including country code)
+385 (0)44 742-615
Fax
+385 (0)44 544-601
Email
pristupni-fondovi@smz.hr
Website of project
http://www.smz.hr
http://www.smz.hr/site/index.php?option=com_c
ontent&view=article&id=116&Itemid=113
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Questionnaire
1. Summary of the Project
a) If you were to tell a journalist about your project, what would you tell her/him? How
would you summarize the project for her/him?
Project UNA approached for the first time in a systematic manner the question of sustainable
development in bordering area of Sisak-Moslavina County.
The overall objective of the Project was to contribute to sustainable development of Una microregion (Pounje area), based on the partnership between all relevant stakeholders from bordering
regions of Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, using the experience and know-how of Italian
partner. Pounje area is part of the Sisak-Moslavina County (SMC).
Pounje area suffered major devastation during the Homeland War in period 1991-1995, with
very negative social and economic consequences, but it is also the area with exceptional natural
resources that have been preserved and with the valuable architectural heritage that should be
protected. These are resources that SMC plan to use as the basis for the development of ecoagriculture and tourism. Protection of natural environment and improvement of the quality of life
of the population are important backbones of the development of that area.
Through implementation of the project, Partners' Forum has been established and consisted of
representatives from regional, local governments and NGOs in Una micro region, from both
sides; Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Partners' Forum represents the first body
established after the war that has gathered representatives from both sides. An efficient
cooperation between them has been established regarding environment protection, which is very
important due the fact that it is bordering area and war affected area. That way, good base for all
further cooperation in that area has been made. As a product of that cooperation and joint work
on common issues, we produced Cross-border Management Programme.
Efficient monitoring network and a joint monitoring system for water-quality of River Una has
been established also. The Institute for Public Health of Sisak-Moslavina County performed tests
of the River Una water quality in the part of the watercourse which encompasses the territory of
the Sisak-Moslavina County at a total of three important locations of the Una’s watercourse.
Tests has shown that the water of the River Una characterize purity, clarity and transparency
and has layers of blue-green colour due to the presence of an abundance of algae.
Una River eco-system status has been officially assessed and The River Una Flora and Fauna
Inventory Study has been produced along with Action Plan on Bio-diversity Protection of the Una
River. We also produced promotion Map of Pounje Region in which information from Inventory
Study were included (Map was printed in Croatian and in English language and distributed).
Action Plan on Bio-diversity Protection which has been produced, now is the base for protection
of Una River and is being implemented by Sisak-Moslavina County and other stakeholders.
For the first time ever, it has been conducted and developed The Una River Flora and Fauna
Inventory Study that provides actual situation of the flora and fauna of the River Una and its
coastal area. Out of the species which occasionally (e.g. migratory birds) or constantly inhabit
the area of the River Una and its coast, 173 taxa are protected and out of these, almost 50% are
endangered based on the categorization of the International Union for Conservation of Nature
(IUCN), that is, these are stated on the Red Lists and/or the books on the Croatian fauna. There
are 92 species on the lists from the Annex to the Convention on the Conservation of European
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Wildlife and Natural Habitats (Bern, 1979) and the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory
Species of Wild Animals (Bonn, 1979).
Very important segment of this Project was that we involved public, increased level of
awareness, information and knowledge on natural heritage protection as an active factor in
regional development. We have established Educational and Information Centre “SEDRA” in
Municipality Dvor. We had a strong public campaign on protection and preservation of River Una
bio-diversity through the: project web-page, short promotional DVD on Pounje region (“Una – the
One and Only”), an informational poster and a Project folder, a few radio programmes and a
number of promotional articles published in media. At the end of the Project, we prepared and
printed Brochure on Project Implementation.
During the Project implementation we organized counseling and demonstration actions on
improved ecologically based agricultural management and production for local farmers. We also
organized workshops on implementation of bio-diversity protection.
And all that in only 12 months of project duration!
b) Why should the journalist write about your project? Is it original? Is it innovative?
(please state three points)
The most important is fact that Project managed to gather all relevant stakeholders from the
bordering area around the same issue – protection of bordering river – Una and its coastal area.
It is necessary to mention that not very lately it was war-area, so we think that it is big step
forward and precondition for all future cross-border projects.
The Project is original in our County, because we emphasized how important is River Una for
the County, for the Pounje region and for Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina as well. This
Project was very successful because it is, in a way, continuation on some other previous
projects on preservation of River Una and its coastal area. Project contributed in increasing the
level of awareness, information and knowledge on natural heritage protection, like no any
Project before, thanks to the very strong public and media campaigns.
Establishment of Educational and Information Centre “SEDRA” in Municipality Dvor was very
innovative, since no river in our County has such centre. The purpose of the Centre is to educate
and inform on sustainable development and thus increase the awareness on nature protection
importance.
Very innovative was the fact that we produced The Una River Flora and Fauna Inventory Study,
and made it available to the wide number of readers for free. We distributed it to project
partners, schools, libraries, bordering local and regional self-government authorities and it’s
available in Centre “SEDRA”. That way we increase the awareness of how valuable is River Una
and its coastal area and how many protected and endangered species inhabit that are.
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Please give details:
c) When was the project launched and what were the most important steps?
Project was launched at September 2008 and lasted until September 2009.
Most important steps were:
1.) Una River is bordering river between The Republic of Croatia and The Republic of Bosnia
and Herzegovina. Therefore, establishment of Partners' Forum, the cooperation between all
stakeholders in bordering area regarding common issue of preservation of Una River ecosystem and natural heritage of that area was very important step.
2.) Production of three new and innovative documents: Cross-border Management Programme,
Inventory Study, Action Plan on Bio-diversity Protection of the Una River, along with Map of
Punje Region and promotional DVD “Una – the One and Only”.
3.) River quality assessment and inventory of the Una River flora and fauna and its coastal area.
4.) Establishment of Educational and Information Centre “SEDRA” in Municipality Dvor
5.) Involvement of public, increased level of awareness, information and knowledge on natural
heritage protection as an active factor in development of that area.
d) How is the project managed and who is involved in the project?
Project was managed by Sisak-Moslavina County and its Administrative Department for
Management of the Accession and Incentive Funds.
On this Project, Sisak-Moslavina County had 5 local and 1 international partner: Town of
Hrvatska Kostajnica, municipalities of Dvor, Hrvatska Dubica, Jasenovac, Majur and Italian
partner CIRF - Centro Italiano per la Riqualificazione Fluviale (Italian centre for river restoration).
Associate on the Project was Public Institution for Management of Protected Natural Resources
of Sisak-Moslavina County.
During the Project implementation were involved many stakeholders (local and regional selfgovernment units, NGOs, local food producers, local population, tourism operators, school
children) from the Una River bordering area from the Republic of Croatia and from bordering
country Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
e) How large is the budget of your project and how is the project funded (EU, regional
budget, private institutions or other)? Please give concrete numbers.
Project was funded through Adriatic New Neighbourhood Programme INTERREG/CARDSPHARE. The Budget line: Croatia 2006 Phare Adriatic Cross-border Programme.
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Total eligible cost of the Project was 158,000.00 €. Amount given by the Contracting authority
was 118,500.00 € which was 75% of the estimate total eligible cost. The rest of the cost was
financed through Sisak-Moslavina County Budget.
f)
How effective is your project? (Budget relative to the number of people reached)
The Project was very effective, because it has reached the large number of public in both
manners, direct – through meetings, workshops, counselling, Info centre and indirect – through
publications, web site, DVD, map, brochure etc.
SMC has records of the activities' direct participants, but through distribution of produced
documents (especially through distribution of the brochure of the Project implementation,
posters, Project folders and Maps of Pounje Region), Project reached even more people than
expected. Mentioned material has been disseminated to other counties and during the most
visited touristic manifestations in Sisak-Moslavina county. For instance, Map of Pounje region
has been published in 10.000 copies, DVD in 1800 copies, poster in 500 copies...
We have realized all amount planed by the budget of the Project for that purpose.
g) Do you have means to measure the impact of the project? If yes, please state how.
The impact of the project has been measured during and especially after the implementation.
The impact on the situation of target groups (local authorities, NGOs, local producers) has been
improved since they have benefit through gained knowledge, experience and information on
conditions and opportunities for development and future projects. The concrete impact is the
continuation of the project through 10 new projects that have been planned and developed
during the Project UNA implementation.
The impact of the Project is also significant for Sisak-Moslavina county that has strengthen its
own technical and management capactities, as well as political relations with cities and
municipalities in bordering area. Currently, Sisak-Moslavina county works on the establishment
of UNA Local Action Group (LAG) and continues the networking and further area development.
h) Is the communication interactive? If yes, please state how.
Communication was very interactive through all possible and available means. For instance,
during the preparation of Cross-border management plan and Action plan for bio-diversity
protection, wide public has been involved through the possibility to give comments and revise
the content published on Sisak-Moslavina county web page.
Information centre SEDRA is opened three times per week for visitors who regulary come and
inform about the activities, participate in workshops etc.
Implemented activities such as Partners' Forum meetings, counselling, workshops, researches,
regional meeting had enough time and space for discussions that were very important and
valuable for the successful implementation and further planning.
Also, two press conferences were organised where presented all partners and project activities.
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Through dissemination of DVD, maps, brochures and other publications it has been put strong
emphasis on the interactivity in order to inform and raise awareness of wider public.
Finally, all activities were announced to public and media through press releases or through
published conclusions and further steps.
i)
Will the project be repeated either in your region or in others?
Through produced Cross-border Management Programme , it has been planned the
implementation of following projects:
- Defining of complete system of wastewater drainage and purification, and production of all
necessary documentation, for the lower stream of Una River.
- Production of Management Plan for Una River basin.
- Preservation and rehabilitation of landscapes
- Ecological cattle breeding for milk and meat production on wider Pounje region
- Ecological farming of fruits and grape vine with accent on preservation of autochthonous
cultivar on wider Pounje region
- Intensive ecological breeding of autochthonous breeds of cattle and horses for meet production
on special pastures along Una and Sava River
- Establishment of partnership for the initiation of rural tourism development cycle of bordering
area of Pounje region
- Production of Feasibility study for biomass utilization for the production of electrical and thermal
energy
- Rising of forestry sector competitiveness throughout product finalization (production of
traditional wooden houses, production of wooden products)
- Production of business and action planes for the using of forest fruits
SMC continues activities started with the Project UNA. As already mentioned, currently prepares
the establishment of UNA Local Action Group, while few partners developed own cross-border
projects that aim to protect nature, but also to contribute to economic development.
SMC puts many efforts to contribute to the economic development of that area, based on the
preservation of natural resources and architectural heritage and by development of ecoagriculture and tourism.
The exactly the same Project won’t be repeated in our County, but many similar and supporting
projects will be implemented.
Project UNA has been published on the Croatian Central Finance and Contracting Agency web
page (CFCA) under the section Examples of the most successful EU projects in Croatia that
have contributed to Croatian accession in the EU (http://www.safu.hr/hr/primjeri-uspjesnih-
eu-projekata-u-rh/tablica-prekogranicna-suradnja-hrvatska-italija-eng-cross-bordercooperation-adriatic-phare-2006), and thus has become model for any future project in any
other region.
j)
What efforts did you make to attract the media? Has the media been actively involved
in your project? Please state how (Regular briefings, press releases, media
partnerships or other)
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Journalists were very actively involved in our Project, SMC was inviting representatives of the
media on every activity of the Project, send them press releases and informed them about every
stage of the project implementation. They regularly attended the project activities and informed
public through their media (national newspapers, local newspapers, local radio-stations, local tvstation, national tv-stations and web-sites). Two press conferences were organised at the very
beginning and at the end of project where presented partners, outputs, results, impact etc.
All events were announced in advance and reported on after.
Sisak-Moslavina County established link to the Project from the official web-site of the SMC
(www.smz.hr).
Also, through official web-site, on the section News, SMC regularly informed public on every
stage of the project implementation.
On the section Multimedia/Photo on the official web-site of the SMC there is gallery of the
photos of Project implementation.
k) Which target group does your project address? How are stakeholders involved
(citizens, youth, young, old, academics, media)?
Target groups were local and regional self-government authorities, NGOs, local food producers,
school children and teachers, representatives of tourism associations and local population from
the Una River bordering area from the Republic of Croatia and from bordering country Republic
of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
They were mostly citizens of the Republic of Croatia and of Republic of Bosnia and
Herzegovina, young and old people of all educational levels, politicians and representatives of
NGOs and media.
Partners' Forum has been established in order to provide support for key stakeholders for their
current and future development activities, as well as to inform them and build capacity.
Participants and wider public have been actively involved during the preparation and execution
of different activities, mainly creating their final content and giving them “inputs from life”. We
didn't want the project to be implemented in offices through many official papers, but to make it
alive with real actors.
l)
What kind of media response have you had to the project? Please state concrete
figures, e.g. number of articles, TV, Radio.
We have records on published newspaper articles, information on SMC web-site, news on
radio stations, internet portals, 2 radio broadcasts and news of local TV-station NET.
All press releases have been sent to the following redactions: Večernji list, Jutarnji list, HRT,
HINA, Vjesnik, Županijski list, Novi sisački tjednik, Petrinjski list, Moslavački list, NeT, Radio
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Quirinus, Radio Banovina, Radio Sisak, Radio Moslavina, Radio Novska and RTL Radio
Lekenik.
Information regarding project activities implementation was published in:
NET TV – 2 news reports,
HRT2 TV – 1 news report,
Newspapers “Večernji list” – 8 articles,
“Večernji list” web-portal – 1 article,
Newspapers “Vjesnik” – 1 article,
“Vjesnik” web portal – 1 article
Petrinjski radio web portal www.petrinjskiradio.hr – 6 articles,
RTL Radio web page www.rtl-radio.hr – 1 article,
Sisak info web portal www.sisak.info – 6 articles,
Hrvatska Kostajnica web page www.hrvatska-kostajnica.hr – 2 releases,
SMC home page, www.smz.hr – 17 releases,
www.cro-rss.com. 1 article
CFCA, www.safu.hr – 1 article
SMC was inviting representatives of the media on every activity of the Project and informed
them about every stage of the project implementation. They regularly attended and informed
public through their media.
Representatives of the media were invited on next activities of the Project: 3 Supervisory
Board meetings, 4 Partner’s Forum meetings, 1 regional meeting, 3 workshops on
implementation of bio-diversity protection, 1 counseling and demonstration actions on
improved ecologically based agricultural management and production, opening of the
Educational and Information Centre “SEDRA” , premiere of the DVD “Una the one and only”,
which was during the one of Partner’s Forum meetings.
Information posters and folders with project information were distributed all over the Pounje
region and wider, and among all stakeholders and more.
We had 2 official press-conferences.
We also had 2 radio broadcasts:
The first was broadcasted on Radio Quirinus on the 23rd of June 2009 (at 10;20 a.m.),
promoted projects' activities and announced Counseling on improved ecologically based
agricultural management and production in Hrvatska Dubica. Guests of the broadcast were
Mr. Andrija Rudić Vice-President of Sisak-Moslavina County and Mrs. Tatjana Puškarić,
Head of Administrative Department for Accession and Incentive Funds.
Second radio spot was broadcasted on the 14th of September 2009 (at 11;20 a.m.) and
promoted results of the project. Guest was Mrs. Tatjana Puškarić.
Both spots lasted 60 minutes, 30 minutes each. After broadcasting of radio spots radio
station submitted the recorded copies. According to hearing rates of radio stations survey
for October 2009 conducted by the company “Media Metar”, Radio Quirinus had 18,74 % of
all listeners of radio stations in Sisak-Moslavina County and that means 30234 of listeners
(average numbers of listeners during the month).
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Through official SMC web-site, on the section News, SMC regularly informed public on
every stage of the project implementation and on every implemented activity.
GOOD LUCK!
Assembly of European Regions
6, rue Oberlin
F-67000 Strasbourg
www.aer.eu
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