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Nature protection funding in PolandCarpathian perspective

Marta Babicz, WWF Poland

EU funding 2007-2013 in Poland

• 86 billion EUR to spend from structural funds and Cohesion Fund alone

• Poland the biggest EU funds beneficiary in 2007-2013

• Poland striving for infrastructure projects vs. poor quality of environmental procedures

• 2007-2013 operational programmes at the final stage

of negotiations with European Commission

• to be approved – autumn 2007

Still waiting for detailed guidelines

ERDF & CF – Infrastructure and Environment OP

• the biggest OP - 1/3 of all SFs & CF available funding(21 bilion EUR)

• road infrastructure oriented

• nature protection possible funding:

e.g. habitats restoration,

endangered species protection,

management plans elaboration,

natural water retention increase projects etc.

Comment: big projects, requiring relatively high

own contribution

• national or regional scale projects

ERDF – 16 regional operational programmes

• one for each Polish voivodship

• nature protection possible funding:

e.g. local scale habitats restoration,

ecological education,

agro- and eco-tourism development,

tourism small infrastructure etc.

Comment: regional and local projects on the voivodship scale

• voivodship scale projects

(3 in the Carpathians region)

• covering 1/4 of all SF & CF available funding

(16 bilion EUR)

ERDF – Trans border Cooperation OPs

Comment: local cross-border scale projects, partners from both countries required

• 2 OPs in the Carpathian region: Czech and Slovak Republic

• 200 million EUR (less than 0,5% of all available SF &CF available funding)

• small cross-border projects including:

nature protection, ecological education etc.

• in 2004-2006 most popular: micro-projects

2 000 – 60 000 EUR (e.g. tourism infrastructure)

ESF – Human Capital OP

• nature protection possible funding:

e.g. public administration capacity increase,

NGO capacity increase and networking,

training/counseling for ‘shifting’ enterprises etc.

Comment: national and regional scale non-infrastructural

projects

• national and regional scale projects

• covering 14% of all SFs and CF available funding

2

EAFRD – Rural Areas Development Programme 2007-2013

• directed to individual farmers:

e.g. agri-environment plans payments

Comment: restricted to rural areas, LACs once established work

effectively in Poland

• and local action groups (LEADER):

implementing local development strategies and

‘small’ accompanying projects (max. app. 10 000 EUR)

e.g. nature protection or

eco-tourism development

• 26 billion EUR to be allocated

Other EU founding sources

EFF – Fisheries and Coastal Areas Sustainable Development OP (870 million EUR)

e.g. migratory fish restitution,

rivers passabilty restoration etc.

Comment: LIFE requirement for relatively high own contribution makes the funding

difficult to gain

LIFE + – managed directly by the European Commission

e.g. nature protection bound projects

• preferred projects: 1 – 5 million EUR (and only 50% of qualified cost to be funded if not within Natura 2000)

EEA – Norwegian and EEA Financial Mechanism 2004-2009

Comment: NGOs fund is a great opportunity but also a big

challenge

• funds for non-investment environment protection and sustainable development promotion still available

• 534 million EUR to be allocated in Poland

• ‘big’ projects over 250 000 EUR + ‘medium’ and ‘small’grants for NGOs 5 000 – 250 000 EUR

• strong interests among NGOs and strong competition,

especially within environmental topics

National and regional funds for environment protection

Comment: high subsidies granted to

non-innvestment projects,

however, ‘politically biased’

• types of supported projects decided every year

• charges for use of the environment based budget

• 2008: management plans elaboration and implementation, ecological education/training, ecological corridors passability increase etc.

• EEA Mechanism and EU funds projects support

e.g. necessary documentation, pre-financing

EcoFund – Debt for Nature Swap

Comment: funding often granted to infrastructure type/active nature protection projects

• types of supported projects decided every year

• part of the Polish international debt directed to the Fund

• app. 120 million USD to be allocated in the Fund until 2009

• 2007: management plans elaboration, active nature protection projects, preferably within Natura 2000 sites

Funding for Carpathians in Poland -in short

Most diversified sources of funding available for:

active nature protection, ecological education

and sustainable tourism development

The smaller NGO grants, the stronger competitionand the higher quality of projects ☺

‘Old’ national sources of funding – providing financial support when applying for EEA or EU funds.

Most promising sources of funding for Carpathians:

3 regional operational programmes,

trans border cooperation programmes and

EEA Mechanism (incl. NGO fund)