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... vote for NATURE!
MACEDONIAN GREEN CENTER
www.zeleni.org.mk
PROFILE OF
MACEDONIAN GREEN CENTER
Contact Details:
MACEDONIAN GREEN CENTER
Add: Ognjan Prica 1-4/23, 1000 Skopje
Republic of Macedonia
Tel.fax: 02 6132-432
Tel: +389 78 205 217
e-mail: [email protected]
web: www.zeleni.org.mk
Responsible person:
Metodija Sazdov – President,
Contact: +389 78 431 183
e-mail: [email protected] or [email protected]
ABOUT US
Macedonian Green Center (MGC) is a non-governmental and non-partisan organization
for advocacy, lobbying and research for environmental issues.
MGC was established in May 2006 on initiative of several environmental organizations. It
is organization descendant of the Working Group for Greening of the Local Elections
(WGGLE) that was initiated and established by Milieukontakt International in December
2003.
The founders (WGGLE, Eko svest –Skopje, Biosfera –Bitola, Krste Jon – Struga,
Proaktiva – Skopje, Kocka - Skopje and Eko.Net – Skopje) are well known and active e-
NGOs in Macedonia and the region of Southwest Europe. All of them have taken part
within a Milieukontakt International programs in Macedonia, mainly in the areas of
organizational strengthening, campaigning and networking.
MISSION
MGC mission is to promote concrete democratic tools that will enable citizens to play
active role in the democratic and transparent decision making process, and to raise
understanding of the environment as truly important political issue in Macedonia.
STRATEGIC GOALS
Our long term goal is to promote concrete democratic tools will enable citizens to play
active role in the democratic and transparent decision making process and to raise
understanding of the environment as truly important political issue in Macedonia through:
• To raise importance of environmental topics on the higher level on politic
agendas through public hearings and debate concerning environmental issues;
• To establish clear connection between possibilities for local economic
development and environmental issues concerning healthy environment as one of
the key conditions for local economic development
FOUNDERS & MEMBERS
Macedonian Green Center has been established by representatives from 6 environmental
non governmental organizations
Eco-sense from Skopje, their primary interests are solving the
problems with waste management, promotion of environmentally-
friendly and sustainable transport in Macedonia and the promotion
of transparency in the work of International Financial Institutions
(IFIs) in Macedonia, protection of the environment and cultural
heritage, promotion and information dissemination about the new
and sustainable ways to use energy (biogas and bio-fuel, solar
energy, etc), and working on GMOs (genetically modified organisms).
Proaktiva from Skopje, their mission is to promote: energy
efficiency, renewable energy sources, public transport and
alternative ways of transport through implementing sustainable
principals.
Eko.Net from Skopje - Center for electronic communication
provides the environmental NGOs with a possibility to promote their
activities to the public. Also Eko.Net is giving them the possibility to
exchange information between each other, which will improve the
access of environmental information's to everybody that is concerned.
Krste Jon/Green Center from Struga, their activities are aiming
to protect Ohrid Lake as world and cultural monument from one
hand and important water recourse from other hand.
Biosfera from Bitola, their primary activities are integration of
environmental NGOs and environmental policy with EU standards and working principles.
KOCKA Network of Independent Consultants is not-for-profit and
non-governmental organization. The network provides trainings and
counseling for/to NGOs, private companies, local governments,
governmental and international institutions.
MAIN ACTIVITIES
Campaigns “…vote for NATURE!”
Local Election 2005
Everything starts with the Third Annual National
Strategic Meeting of Macedonian Environmental NGOs
in 2004. The Main topic of the Meeting was “The
environmental NGOs and the local elections”, were the
participants discus about the possible activities that
can be taken during the Local Election in Macedonia
2005. As a result was establishing Working Group for
Greening Local Elections (WGGLE) in which take
participation by 6 NGOs (the founders of MGC) from
Macedonia. They prepare project proposal and
received Grant Award by Milieukontakt International in
total amount of 45 000 EUR to organize National
Campaign “Greening the local elections … vote for
NATURE”. The main goal of this campaign was to put
the environmental issues in top priorities in political
agendas of the Candidates for Mayors. Our Green
Campaign was implementing parallel with the political
campaigns of the Mayor Candidates. The results were
more than expected, the Mayor candidates accept our
main campaign messages and some of them insert it
in their political agendas and give commitment that
will find solution about the existing local problems.
Parliamentarian Election 2006
Leaded by the successful experience from the
Campaign “… vote for NATURE” during the Local
Election 2005 the members of the WGGLE prepared a
second campaign “…vote for NATURE” but this time for
the Parliamentarian Election 2006 in Macedonia. Also
the members of the WGGLE found that is very
important to give legal status of the Greening Group,
so they established MACEDONIAN GREEN CENTER.
Macedonian Green Center received grant by
Milieukontakt international to implement the second
greening campaign but the target group were
candidates for Members of the Parliament. The project
team made separate meetings with the candidates to
present the goal and objectives of the Campaign and
to receive their support on environmental issues. This
was the first step in establishing Parliamentarian
Green Lobby Group.
Parliamentarian Election 2008
During March 2008 in Macedonia held Earlier
Parliamentarian Election 2008, in this period
Macedonian Green Center lauch the third National
Campaign “..vote for NATURE!” were the target group
were political parities with their candidates for
Members of the Parliament. Macedonian Green Center
sign Statement of cooperation with political parties
about Parliamentarian Environmental Group already established in Macedonian
Parliament.
PARLAMENTARIAN GREEN LOBBY GROUP
The idea for establishing Parliamentarian Green Lobby
Group (PGLG) became from the Fifth Annual National
Strategic Meeting of Environmental NGOs and by the
successful implementation of the Second National
Campaign “… vote for NATURE!” during the
Parliamentarian Election 2006. Macedonian Green
Center develop a project titled “Establishing Green
Lobby Group in Macedonian Parlament” with main
project goal to create a sustainable parliamentarian
green lobby group that will work closely with e-NGOs
in addressing environmental issues within the work of
the Parliament of the Republic of Macedonia and
governmental institutions responsible for environment,
thus securing wide support to the approximation of EU
required legislation related to environment. This
project was financially supported by British Embassy
in Skopje, with duration of 12 moths, started in April
2007 ended in March 2008.
Relevant target group in this project were the
Members of the Macedonian Parliament.. The long-
term beneficiary group of the project activities will
be the NGOs and citizens in building democratic tools
for solving their environmental problems.
In the first quartile period of project implementation,
the Project Team had series of meetings with
representatives from state and NGO institutions
relevant to the environmental issues covered within
the scope of this project also separated meetings with
Members of the Macedonian Parliament. The meetings
resulted with information about Macedonian
obligations within the process of approximation in EU
legislation related on environment. Details on the
meetings are in the report below.
On 26 of October 2007 First constitutional meeting of
the Parliamentarian green lobby-group was held in the
Parliament and 16 members of the parliament –
members took part, the ambassador of Great Britain,
Andrew Key, the Minister of environment and physical
planning, Mr. Dzelil Bajrami, representatives of the
media and the members of the project team of the
department ministry.
Since then the Members of the Parliamentarian Green
Lobby Group (PGLG) held 8 meetings to discus on
different environmental issues, to discus local and
national environmental problems, and implementation
of environmental legislation in Macedonia.
For the first time since Independency of Republic
Macedonia, Macedonian Green Center provide the
opportunity to meet NGOs and key decision-makers of
the National Policy in Macedonia, by organizing one-
day meeting of NGOs with Members of the
Parliamentarian Green Lobby Group and
Representatives form National Institutions to discus and to present environmental
problems in Macedonia. Members of established PGLG has opportunity to meet with one
of Great British Experst for Climate Changes Mr. Eliot Morley (one of the Writers of
STERN REPORT) and Mr. Tony Juniper – Executive Director of Friends of the Earth.
ANNUAL NATIONAL STRATEGIC MEETINGS
Starting from the 2006 until now Macedonian Green
Center is leader organization of three Annual National
Strategic Meetings of Environmental NGOs in
Macedonia, as Macedonian Green Center is product of
these meetings it self. The main initiator of these
meetings was Milieukontakt International starting in
2002 by organizing the First Annual National Strategic
Meeting of Environmental NGOs in Macedonia and the
Macedonian Green Center was main organizator of the
fifth, sixth and the last seventh Annual Meeting.
Overall goal of the annual meetings is strengthening
of the capacities of civil societies in Macedonia which
are work active in the field of environment and
sustainable development. This annual meeting
represents gathering and common acting of civil
sector, as well as contribution in creation on national
policies in the field of environment through active
participation in process of decision making on national
and local level.
The fifth annual meeting took place in “Klub na
Pratenici” (Club of Deputies) building in Skopje, 8-10
December 2006. There was organized by Macedonian
Green Center and financial support from
Milieukontakt and UNDP. The topic was
„Environmental protection in the European
integration process“ which was supposed to set the
basic directions for development of the environmental
movement in the Republic of Macedonia in
harmonization with the positive changes and
development of social processes towards the
European integration of the Republic of Macedonia.
Total of 57 participants were present on this meeting
– 27 NGOs, 3 international organizations with offices
in Macedonia, 3 mass-media, the State Secretary in
the Ministry of Environment and Physical Planning,
one representative from the KKJ and the head of the
Sector for European Integration in the frames of the
Ministry of Environment and Physical Planning. The
general conclusion is that following the
decentralization process the NGOs active in the area
of environmental protection are mainly focused on
local level and establishment of partnerships with the
local self-government units. However, it is necessary
to establish coordination on national level for
cooperation, lobbying, advocacy and communication
with EU and donor institutions.
The sixth annual meeting took place in h. Makpetrol
in Struga, 22-24 November 2007. Topic of the meeting was “Lobbing and Advocacy in
field of environmet and sustainable development“. The aim of this meeting was to
set up and define acting of environmental movement in Republic of Macedonia during
the period 2008 to 2010 year. To combine energy and efforts on national level, in order
to increase visibility of environmental organizations in process of EU integration and
contribution in environmental protection and
sustainable development. At this meeting
took participation around 70 participants:
representatives of NGOs working in the field of
environment and sustainable development,
representatives of institutions which are support this
meeting from the start of realization of these meetings
(UNDP, GEF SGP, Milieukontakt International),
representatives of government institutions (MOEPP
and SEA) and representative of Delegation of
European Commission.
The seventh annual meeting held in Struga
h.Makpetrol during 12-14 December 2008. The main
topic of this meeting was “Improving the cooperation
between NGOs and National Institutions”. On this
meeting attend 50 participants as representatives of
30 civil society organizations from Macedonia. The
Sub-topics of this event were: “Local policy creation
using model of Green Agenda”, “Climate Changes and
Energy (un) efficiency”, “Nature and Biodiversity
protection”, “Integrate water management – model
Prespa Lake”, “Finance NGO’s activities in field of
environment”, “Procedures of EIA and SEA
implementation in Macedonia”.
As one of main conclusion was signed DECLARATION
of GREEN PARNERSHIP, were 30 NGOs put
signature for establishing long partnership for
cooperation and support in activities and projects on
issues of environment and sustainable development.
The project “Enforcement of EIA and SEA procedures in Macedonia”
The project “Enforcement of EIA and SEA procedures in Macedonia” was initiated by the
“Macedonian Green Centre” and financially supported by the European Fund for the
Balkans under the “Think and link” – Regional Policy Program for Think Tanks and Policy Institutes.
The main goal of the project activities is to support the improvement of the
Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA)
procedures in Macedonia through extend influence on decision policy making.
The main questions in front of the members of the Research Team working on the implementation of the project activities were:
1. How far is the practical implementation of the EIA & SEA procedures and what
are the main obstacles and challenges in front of all involved stakeholders?
2. What is the status of approximation legal drafting process refer to the horizontal
sector covering EIA and SEA issues in parallel, is there a legal base in force and
how the enforcement is practicing?
3. How much and how efficient is the public involvement into the decision-making
process within the EIA/SEA procedure?
The main project activities could be summarized in two phases:
a) Research work based on established methodology with main focus on the desk and
field research on the legal transposition of the EIA and SEA directives and related
multilateral conventions, research on the real practical implementation and enforcement
of the EIA/SEA procedures, effectiveness of the public involvement into the procedures
identifying the main gaps and recommendations for their overcoming. The main result of
the survey performed and analysis based on the research work is the prepared EIA /SEA Report titled “Effectiveness of the EIA/SEA procedures in Macedonia”
b) Dissemination of the main findings of the research work and EIA/SEA related issues
and documents using different tools and methods in order to spread the current status
with main findings of the implementation and
enforcement of EIA/SEA procedures in
Macedonia as well as to strengthen the capacities
of all stakeholders within the decision-making
process of impact assessment in order to make their involvement more active.
The Research Team believes that the research
findings will give appropriate baseline for
developing recommendations for improvement of
the procedures for better smoothly EIA/SEA
implementation and at the same time will
recommend some new trends, tools and methods
for improvement of the quality of EIA Reports.
The proposed dissemination activities will
provide the opportunity to encourage the
interested public to take more proactive
participation into the EIA/SEA development
procedures. On the other hand the findings will
support the policy makers to involve the public
opinion and arguments at very beginning of the
EIA/SEA procedures in order to consider all
environmental issues before issuing the
environmental consent.
PUBLICATIONS
Stern Report – Economy of Climate Changes.
It is a review of the Stern Report translated into
Macedonian langue.
Macedonia and Climate Changes
It is publication that describes the situation of the
climate change and the impact of the environment
and possible scenarios what will happen in Macedonia
if the effects of Climate Changes increase in future.
Sustainable Development and Environment
through the papers of United Nation.
It is a booklet with review of the most important
documents of UN concerning the issues of
Environment and Sustainable Development
Overview of the National Environmental
Legislation in Macedonia
This document gives a picture about the situation
with adoption and transposition of the EU
environmental legislation into Macedonian National
Legislation.
Analyze of the situation of the Bylaws in
Macedonian National Environmental Legislation.
In this document is made analyze about the prepared
and adopted bylaws concerning environmental
legislation in Macedonia.
Official web-site of Macedonian Green Center
www.zeleni.org.mk
On the official web-site of Macedonian Green Center
are information about the organization, activities,
projects, partners, campaigns etc. Also the visitors of
this web-site can find useful environmental
information also the environmental legal framework
and national strategic documents of Macedonia.
