The European Union in Montenegro has launched a campaign on protected plant and animal species, to help us all get to know them better and understand why biodiversity is important to all of us. This is an educational campaign entitled “I am also with you”, within which protected species are presented in a graphic and interactive way on the website www.biodiverzitet.me .
On the site, you can get acquainted with plants, mammals, birds, amphibians and reptiles, insects and marine species, protected under Natura 2000, an environmental network of protected areas established by the European Union. Montenegro will become part of that network once it joins the EU, which is why it is already preparing proposals for areas, plants and animals to be included.
At this stage, we have chosen to present 54 protected species. We have prepared interesting illustrations, photographs and texts about brown bear and chamois, flamingos and grouse, good dolphin and golden coral, bitterwort and creeping bellflower, dragonfly, river turtle and Aesculapian snake and many other important but endangered species that we ought to preserve.
We collected the information on protected species in cooperation with the following partners: the Environmental Protection Agency, the Institute of Marine Biology in Kotor and non-governmental organizations Centre for Protection and Research of Birds and the Montenegrin Ecologists Society. We have also published stories about the work of researchers in the field, so you can find out how a face-to-face encounter with a bear looks like or how is data being recorded at the bottom of the sea.
Game show – win a package of eco products inspired by nature
You can also check your knowledge of protected species by competing in a game show, which can be found on our new website. The three best competitors, which we will announce in the first week of January, will win valuable prizes in the form of a package of eco-products made of wood and inspired by nature. Similar prizes can be won in December on our Facebook and Instagram pages, over the next four weeks, which is how long the campaign lasts.
Green deal as the occasion
The reason for organizing this campaign is the European Green Deal, which represents a strategy of sustainable development of the EU for the 21st century and sets the goal of making Europe the first climate-neutral continent. The European Union has also prepared the Green Agenda for the Western Balkans, which commits Montenegro and the countries of the region to measures in the field of climate change and pollution prevention, energy and biodiversity development, mobility and circular economy, sustainable agriculture and food production. These two strategic documents of the European Union were presented at online lectures, which we organized in early December for the expert community and decision makers.
