The UN Development Programme (UNDP) has launched a programme called PARCS, which seeks to conserve globally significant marine and terrestrial biological diversity in Croatia.
The programme will strengthen the management of the country's 19 most important parks by improving the model of protected areas management and boosting investment in infrastructure.
July 2014: The UN Development Programme (UNDP) has launched a programme called PARCS, which seeks to conserve globally significant marine and terrestrial biological diversity in Croatia. The programme will strengthen the management of the country’s 19 most important parks by improving the model of protected areas management and boosting investment in infrastructure.
The aim is to have one integrated management system for Croatia’s parks and protected areas, which cover 12% of its inland territory and 2% of its seacoast. Designed to help introduce self-financing mechanisms to Croatia’s entire park system, including redistribution to channel funds from richer to poorer parks, the PARCS project, which was launched in Zagreb, Croatia, is expected to introduce a uniform ticketing system, standardization of functions and a shared service center, with park staff receiving specialized financial training.
UNDP Project Manager Valentina Futac said the project will enable improvement in parks infrastructure and “make the whole system financially self-sufficient and sustainable, solving problems such as overstaffing.” The PARCS project, to run through May 2018, will further cut parks’ spending by: piloting energy-efficient technologies, including the introduction of electric boats and the replacement of oil and diesel fuel with energy from renewable sources; making buildings more energy efficient; and reducing high water and energy costs.
UNDP is implementing the PARCS project in partnership with Croatia’s Ministry of Environmental and Nature Protection, with a US$4.9 million contribution by the Global Environment Facility (GEF), which has catalyzed US$18 million in investment from local government sources. The project is programmed under the GEF’s Biodiversity Focal Area, Strategic Objective One: Improve Sustainability of Protected Areas, and aims to: reform the institutional framework to strengthen the management effectiveness of national protected areas; improve the financial sustainability of the network of national protected areas; and support the improvement of productive efficiencies in protected areas. [PARCS Project Website] [GEF News]