Beginning the public campaign to declare Shara Mountain as a national park

The Center for Education and Development (CED) in cooperation with the Ministry of Environment and Physical Planning (MoEPP) and the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) are launching a public campaign to declare Shara Mountain a national park.

The field campaign will be conducted with direct involvement, informing and consulting the local population, private businesses and all stakeholders gravitating to the area of ​​the future Shara Mountain National Park, in order to be well informed and familiar with what a national park is, what are the benefits , including the socio-economic aspects and why Sharr Mountain should be protected by law as soon as possible. The organizations from the platform “Friends of Shara” are joining  the campaign through specific activities in the field of media promotion, and all other organizations that have expressed their desire to help the process by signing the memorandum of cooperation are welcome to join .

For detailed information of the population within the project, in accordance with the Communication Plan, a series of activities are provided and various promotional materials are prepared.

The campaign will start with “Traveling Cinema” in the rural areas of the future national park with a screening of a promotional video and discussion with the local population, and will continue with organizing thematic forums with stakeholders on various topics such as hunting, tourism, rural activities and dr.

For a better understanding of the process, a public presentation of the Study for Valorization of Shar Mountain will be conducted, and will provide greater representation of the topic in the media through guest appearances and interviews with experts from various fields, regular press briefings on the process, and publishing columns of experts and supporters.

For a better presentation of Shar Planina and its beauties that are heard far and wide, walks through the natural beauties of Shar Planina will be organized, photo stories by successful local entrepreneurs will be made and they will be shared through social media.

In order to ensure a high degree of transparency of the process, special sub-pages are opened on the websites of the MoEPP where the documents related to the process are published.

A detailed communication plan for the campaign and other relevant process documents are available at the following links:

MoEPP: More >>>

The public campaign for the designation of Sharr Mountain as a national park is implemented within the project: “Achieving biodiversity protection through the creation and efficient management of protected areas and the integration of biodiversity in land use planning”, funded by the Global Fund for (GEF), and implemented through the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), the Vienna Regional Office and the Ministry of Environment and Physical Planning of Northern Macedonia as the main partner and beneficiary. The Center for Education and Development (CED) is a local partner responsible for conducting the Public Campaign. Some of the activities are supported by the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ), and the Macedonian Ecological Society (MES) and the platform “Friends of Shara” are involved in the implementation.