Norwegian-Croatian bilateral cooperation programme - closing workshop

Statens kartverk has since 2001 administered several Norwegian funded projects in Croatia, one of them with the Ministry of Culture on establishing an information system for protected areas in Croatia.

The workshop, held in Murter, Croatia, on 24 - 25 September, was a closing event of the project “Protected Area Management System” that was being implemented by the Directorate for Nature Protection of the Ministry of Culture since 2006, with a support from the Norwegian Government
and Statens kartverk.
In the framework of the project with the Ministry of Culture major works have been done to establish the Protected Areas Management System with data about national parks, nature
parks and other protected areas in Croatia. In addition the project has strengthened the National
Park Office in Murter responsible for the Kornati National Park, and a visitor’s and research
centre in Vrulje on the island of Kornat.

The event as well marks the successful completion of the “Nature Protection Partnership
Project” financed by the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Zagreb that supported a Croatian NGO -
Eco-Association “Argonauta” in 2009. Much in line what can be observed in Norway, the idea was
to develop a model for co-operation and partnership between civil sector and relevant
governmental institutions, especially on establishing mechanisms for sharing and exchange of
information between NGOs and the governmental institutions – to enhance public awareness and
to benefit from volunteer resources of NGOs in nature protection.

The workshop was aimed to look at the projects’ implementation, challenges, results, lessons learnt,
and future sustainability. The information system for protected areas will be made publicly
available when the web GIS portal “ZASTITA – PRIRODE.HR” is officially launched at the workshop.