Workshops on legal tools, creating campaigns and assessing the condition of rivers for members of the Coalition for the Protection of Rivers of BiH were held last weekend in Glavatičevo, in the municipality of Konjic. The workshops, whose goal is to strengthen the fight for the protection of rivers in local communities, were led by representatives of the Center for Environment, NGO Arnike (Czech Republic), Aarhus Center in BiH, Center dr. Stjepan Bolkay and the Eco Gotuša Association.
The workshops were attended by members of the Coalition for the Protection of Rivers of BiH from Jablanica, Foča, Bugojno, Kruščica and Konjic.
Viktor Bjelic, from the Center for Environment and a representative of the Eco-BiH project funded by the European Union, through a workshop on legal tools presented to participants how they can evaluate environmental impact studies and react in time if they notice any shortcoming.
Nina Kreševljaković, a lawyer of the Aarhus Center in BiH, presented the forms of citizen participation in the decision-making process, and as part of her presentation, a short simulation of а public debate was held.
Through the campaign creation workshop, Vanja Lazić, representative of the Center dr. Stjepan Bolkay explained what steps activists can take to make their campaign successful and well-implemented, and Martin Skalsky, a representative of the Czech NGO Arnika, which supports local struggles for river freedom in BiH, presented practices from his country.
Through interactive participation, the participants gained knowledge through these workshops, which they will be able to use in creating campaigns in the future.
In order to best assess the condition of the rivers, the participants went to the Neretva River, where they could see on the spot which unique organisms live in the rivers.
Pavel Vrana, President of the Fishermen’s Association of the Czech Republic, introduced the participants to this topic from a scientific point of view, while Saudin Merdan, a representative of the Center Dr. Stjepan Bolkay, held a practical part through an exercise in the identifiction of river organisms.
As part of the river assessment, Robert Oroz, a representative of the Ecological-Humanitarian Association Gotuša, presented the rivers on which small hydro power plants have been built, and the rivers on which their construction is in progress or planned.
Workshops such as the above are needed to strengthen the capacity of members of the Coalition for the Protection of Rivers of BiH so that in the future this knowledge can be applied in practice through the fight for the protection of rivers by all legal means.