Capacity Building in Macedonia, Bosnia Erzegovina, Serbia

As part of the environmental cooperation towards the countries of the Western Balkans, in December 2016 the Italian Ministry of the Environment and the Protection of the Territory and the Sea (now Ministry of Ecological Transition) and UN Environment-UNEP signed an agreement to allow UN Environment to carry out the project “Supporting the Western Balkan Region in the Implementation of Multilateral Environmental Agreements through Strenghtening of Institutional Framework and Capacity Building”.

The Ministry of the Environment supported the initiative, which ended in October 2018, with a loan of 670,000 euros.

Throughout the Balkan area, the Italian strategy stood out for its support for the introduction of the environmental dimension in national policies and institutions. Particular attention is given to capacity building activities, in order to facilitate the compliance of local governments with international treaties and the process of alignment with EU environmental policies.

In the Balkan area, in addition to the above mentioned project, the Italian Ministry for Environment is present in Montenegro, with a bilateral agreement, and in the Western Balkans, together with the UNECE.

The “Supporting the Western Balkan Region in Implementation of Multilateral Environmental Agreements through Strenghtening of Institutional Framework and Capacity Building” (December 2016 - October 2018) project has set itself the objective of supporting the local and national authorities of Bosnia Herzegovina, Macedonia and Serbia in the implementation of multilateral environmental agreements signed by the related countries, through institutional strengthening activities, support for environmental planning, collection and dissemination of data and launch of pilot interventions. In order to optimize the effectiveness of the interventions, all activities have been designed as complementary to projects already funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and have expanded certain aspects.

The project was divided into 3 components.

? Component 1 - Conservation of biodiversity in Macedonia. This component, included in the UN Environment / GEF Achieving Biodiversity Conservation through Creation and Effective Management of Protected Areas and Mainstreaming Biodiversity into Land Use Planning project, was aimed at strengthening the competences of government institutions in field of biodiversity conservation. Three field visits and trainings lasting 3 days each were carried out involving more than 30 government officials: Eastern Alps, Paneveggio Pale di San Martino, Adamello Brenta - April 2017; Maiella National Park - September 2017 and Shara Planina – September. Exchanges of experiences were also promoted with Italian institutions in the field of nature protection and biodiversity conservation; finally, a study was carried out on the impact of pollution on Macedonian ecosystems and on strategies aimed at promoting sustainability of protected areas.

? Component 2 - Review of the State of Environment Report (SoER) in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Ministry of the Environment supported the review of some of the components of the SoER, the report on the state of the Environment of Bosnia and Herzegovina . Among the components analyzed are the quality of water, soil, air and waste.

? Component 3 - Preliminary plan for the remediation of the industrial sites of Loznica and Sabac in Serbia. Through this component - which contributes to the UN Environment / GEF Enhanced Cross-Sectorial Land Management through Land Use Pressure Reduction and Planning project - Italy has supported the Serbian Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) in the pollution monitoring activities at the industrial sites of Loznica and Sabac with the training of local technicians (between April and November 2016 courses were held, in Serbia and Italy, thanks to the participation of ISPRA, ENEA and INAIL). With the support of the Italian Ministry of Environment, and with the technical involvement of ISPRA, the characterization plans of the industrial sites of Loznica and Sabac were drawn up.