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Month: April 2022

  • Local action group meeting from the Shara-Korab-Koritnik region

    Local action group meeting from the Shara-Korab-Koritnik region

    Representatives of the platform “Friends of Shara”, in which MES also is a part of, participated in a cross-border meeting with representatives from the other two local action groups (LAGS) from Kosovo (“Sharri”) and Albania (“Korabi”) on the 13th of April in Prizren, Kosovo.

            “ We are happy that the platform “Friend of Shara” has future collaborators from the region Shara/Korab-Koritnik from Kosovo and Albania and we hope that the two groups will begin with specific activities soon targeted at natural resource protection and improving the local livelihoods. We as a platform exist since 2015 and are prepared to share our experience with you,” says Metin Muaremi, the president of the platform “Friends of Shara”. “

    Representatives of both LAGS from Kosovo and Albania emphasized that there were different opportunities for cross-border collaboration but that first, these groups have to be formalized and choose a president, which then would be followed by their active participation in different projects.

    The LAGS from all three countries are an excellent platform for cross-border cooperation in the context of nature protection and act as a link between the protected areas in the region. Partaking in the LAGS from Kosovo and Albania are representatives of the nature protected areas, business owners, NGO workers and different key stakeholders

  • Informative event lindane held on the 15th of April in Skopje

    Informative event lindane held on the 15th of April in Skopje

    As a part of the component for raising public awareness within the project “Removal of Technical and Economic Barriers to Initiating the Clean-up Activities for Alpha-HCH,   Beta-HCH and Lindane Contaminated Sites at OHIS”, the Macedonian Ecological Society (MES), in coordination with the POPs office at the Ministry of Environment and Physical Planning, organized an informative event with journalists and stakeholders on April 15th. It was a hybrid event and took place at the MES office and on the platform zoom.

    At the event Suzana Andonova, the national coordinator of the project from the POPs office of MOEPP, presented the project goals, main activities, and results achieved thus far.

    George Tsaimos, technical manager of the company POLYECO which is in charge of the cleaning of the landfill, shared that one of the basins of the small landfill contains 650 tons of waste, of which 450 is lindane, while the rest is soil contaminated with lindane and other chemical substances. About 350 tons have been excavated and packed thus far.

    POLYECO and a representative of TAUW (a company in charge of the supervision of the whole process) shared that the personal protective equipment of the workers is according to the highest prescribed protection standards, and that the activities are carried out according to appropriate regulations and procedures. In parallel with these activities, the performance is being monitored both within the tent and in areas near the landfill within the factory OHIS, and there is also air-monitoring that tracks the presence of certain chemicals and substances.

    This event is part of the activities planned within the project that the Macedonian Ecological Society is obliged to realize and is part of the aim to raise public awareness regarding the whole process, until the end of the clearing of the first excavation of the small landfill, with which the financial support of the project by UNIDO will come to an end.

  • 1 Year After First In-person Meeting, the BalkanDetox LIFE Project Team Meet Again for 4th Partnership Meeting in Sremski Karlovci, Serbia

    1 Year After First In-person Meeting, the BalkanDetox LIFE Project Team Meet Again for 4th Partnership Meeting in Sremski Karlovci, Serbia

    Last week, the 4th partnership meeting of the BalkanDetox LIFE project was held in Sremski Karlovci, Serbia from the 4th -6th of April. The main aims of the meeting were to discuss the technical, financial, and communication management and reporting of the project as well as the necessary next actions that need to be taken. During the meeting, partners discussed and reflected on the overall project implementation since the last in-person partnership meeting that was held back in April, 2021.

    MES team members presented the achievements so far as well as the necessary next steps for the project in North Macedonia. All partner organizations exchanged similar obstacles and ongoing issues that they are facing with certain project activities in their respective countries. These discussions were especially helpful as they allowed space for brainstorming and problem-solving sessions to take place.

    An exciting point were the Wildlife Crime Academy courses that had taken place in the past year and will continue to be organized with a new cohort this upcoming summer in Spain. The new cohort from North Macedonia will be including representatives from the Veterinary Inspectorate, State Environmental Inspectorate, and the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine.

    An important note of discussion was the pressing need to officialize the National Working groups and adopt the National Anti-Poisoning Road Maps in each country. These activities would help in creating the national standard operational protocols in cases of wildlife poisoning. In North Macedonia this kind of protocol is urgently needed so as to ensure effective and efficient responses to such poisoning incidents.

    The organizations had the opportunity to work on the financial issues and ask the financial team of the Coordinating beneficiary questions. Concerning the communication session, a general overview of the projects online presence was presented as well as the new website. During the next month, the general public can expect the website to have translations in all the participating Balkan organization languages, including Macedonian! Exciting key deliverables are planned for the upcoming period which include project materials that can be handed out to the general public and key stakeholders, as well as educational videos concerning the detrimental affects of wildlife poisoning.

    Overall, participants of the meeting left in high spirits and motivation for the important work that still lays ahead!

    The BalkanDetox LIFE project has received funding from the LIFE Programme of the European Union.

  • A meeting of 13 project leaders from the Shara-Korab-Koritnik region was held in Prizren

    A meeting of 13 project leaders from the Shara-Korab-Koritnik region was held in Prizren

    In the national Park Sharri in Kosovo during the dates 12-14 April, after a long break and online meetings, the representatives of the project “Sustainable Future for the Shara/Korab-Koritnik Region” met in Prizren to exchange their experiences within the project.

    Aside from this meeting, within the scope of the project different meetings between model projects within their respective countries had been organized (North Macedonia, Kosovo, Albania and Germany).

     

    During the meeting, the model projects from all three countries exchanged their experiences on topics of tourism, cultivation, sustainable livestock and bee keeping as well as contacts for further

    cooperation on a cross-border level. Although the project leaders work on the same mountain massif, their problems can be very different when it comes to the work of the bee and livestock keepers.

    A similar meeting is being planned for September 2022 in the national park “Shar Mountain”, in North Macedonia.

    The project is financed by the The German Federal Environmental Foundation DBU and the humanitarian foundation Aage V. Jensen.

    MES is implemented the project in cooperation with EuroNatur from Germany, and its regional partners PPNEA from Albania and CNVP from Kosovo.

  • Young People Deserve Good Environmental Education – Educational Resources for Future Environmental Leaders

    Young People Deserve Good Environmental Education – Educational Resources for Future Environmental Leaders

    The SHAPE project “Local Action for Better Environmental Policies” enabled us to reach out to young people and help them become future leaders in environmental protection.

    The educational and promotional materials we made in cooperation with the Institute for Communication Studies, with the financial support of the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR), serve to raise public awareness of the need for environmental activism, with a special focus on youth.

    As part of the project, we supported non-governmental organizations from six regions in Macedonia that in cooperation with high schools conducted their own projects to solve certain local environmental problems. The documentary “Youth for Nature” follows this process and shows how young people are activated, organized and find creative ways to approach environmental problems that affect us all.

    We also created short animations that are educational and cover topics of environmental protection. These topics are current in our country and are broadly related to the topics of grantee projects and have proven to be important to young people. The first video shows how agricultural practices affect the entire ecosystem and how many benefits we can have when working with nature. The second video highlights the problem we still have with waste management. The third video shows the biodiversity of Prespa and the need to protect the entire ecosystem.

    The Eco-cards contain messages about the environment. In them we cover basic topics related to the environment such as ecology and global warming, but there is also data on Macedonia, as facts about the biodiversity in Macedonia or the state of waste management. We hope that these educational materials will serve as a resource in further education of young people. You can download them with this link.

  • Enhancing connectivity at the Balkan Green Belt

    Enhancing connectivity at the Balkan Green Belt

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    Duration: 2021–2023

    Financed by: EuroNatur (Germany)

    Partners: Protection and Preservation of Natural Environment in Albania (PPNEA)

    Goal of the project: Improving the spatial planning procedures and the harmonisation with EU legislation as well as the incorporation of Green Infrastructure into spatial planning legislation

    Contact: Aleksandar Stojanov, stojanov@mes.org.mk; Rebeka Veljanovska, veljanovska@mes.org.mk

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  • Open Call for Spatial Planning Expert

    Open Call for Spatial Planning Expert

    Photo: Sillerkiil

    The Macedonian Ecological Society, as a part of the project “Enhancing the Connectivity of the Balkan Green Belt” is launching a Call for engagement of a Spatial Planning expert to be involved in the process of development of a new Law on Spatial Planning of the Republic of North Macedonia. The main objective of this engagement is to provide expert support during the process of development of a new Law, in particular, the requirements for incorporating the green infrastructure. The Spatial Planning expert shall work in close cooperation with the Department of Spatial Planning within the Ministry of Environment and Physical Planning and the project team. More details about the call, the conditions and the criteria cab be found here.

    All interested experts should send their offers latest until 10th April 2022 to the following e-mail address: stojanov@mes.org.mk