Project 0379 Reclaim our Civil Space!

“Reclaim Our Civil Space!” aims at addressing the trends of democratic backsliding and shrinking civil space observed for the past years particularly in Central and Southeastern Europe. We came together because we believe in our work and in the power of civil society to build healthier societies from the bottom up. Our organizations are from different countries with different backgrounds, but the challenges we face and the changes we strive for in this region bind us together. This project is our common effort to improve the quality of our democracies through strengthening civil society actors in Central and Southeastern Europe. The project is implemented by 10 organizations from 8 countries: Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and Norway as expert partner.

Our main objectives are

• broadening the grassroots basis and constituency of civil society,

• mapping, training and mobilizing activist groups and movements,

• linking this local level to the regional and the European,

• developing together the outlines of a comprehensive European civil society policy.

Activities will be carried out along 3 levels:

1. National: organizing trainings and workshops, mentoring support particularly to organizations/groups in rural regions, while taking into account the specificities of individual countries

2. Regional: holding cross-border workshops and networking meetings with at least 3 countries represented at each

3. European: international conferences in Budapest, Brussels and Prague, developing expert and policy papers.

Our vision is a thriving civil space in a democratic and enabling environment, where people take action, get organized and advocate for their interests together freely, without fear or restrictions. We believe in a society where everybody is capable of improving their own life and environment and is provided with the opportunity to live up to their potential.

Implementing organisations:

• Members of the Environmental Partnership Association (EPA)

• Bulgarian Environmental Partnership Foundation ( Фондация ЕкоОбщност)

• Czech Environmental Partnership Foundation (Nadace Partnerství)

• Hungarian Environmental Partnership Foundation (Ökotárs Alapítvány)

• Polish Environmental Partnership Foundation (Fundusz Partnerstwa)

• Romanian Environmental Partnership Foundation (Fundația pentru Parteneriat)

• Slovakian Environmental Partnership Foundation (Nadácia Ekopolis)

• Hungarian Civil Liberties Union (TASZ)

• Civil Society Development Foundation (FDSC)

• Norwegian Helsinki Committee (NHC)

• Youth Initiative for Human Rights - Serbia (YIHR)

Train the Trainers: How to deal with propaganda media? - preparing for Reclaim Our Civil Space! events in your country

We organised a series of events called "Train the Trainers" for our project partners to get ready for the work within the Reclaim Our Civil Space! project. We wanted to be prepared when it comes to project activities (training, webinars or workshops) about how to fight shrinking civil space in your country. So we shared our know-how among partners, scanned the situation specific to each participant country, discussed the nature of assaults by propaganda media and focused on efficient media communication. Now we are one step closer to delivering you what we have learned. Events in your country are coming soon - watch out for them, and let's build a thriving civil space together! Here is what we were at in the past couple of months: November and December 2020 was about Train the Trainers in ROCS project, where all partners met and had a 3 days long training about communication and political participation. The training was held by Hungarian Civil Liberties Union (HCLU), a human rights NGO, also a partner in the ROCS project.

There were different aims for the communication and the political participation part of the training. 2 days of the event were focusing on media communication and communication with propaganda media. Unfortunately propaganda media is gaining ground across all participating countries. The same pattern is perceptible everywhere, for example how propaganda media is dividing the society using misinformation and fake news, as well as putting NGOs on the framing of that they are foreign agents and working for someone’s favor but their citizens. Therefore the necessity for preparation was drawn. The last day of the training was about political participation based on the experiences of partners. All NGOs participating in this project work with active citizens and communities who are trying to make a difference in their communities and neighborhoods. Based on this experience the last part of the training was about sharing knowledge and discussing the potential solutions.

The event was about training other trainers but on the way of self-experience and the method of ‘learning by doing’. It means that participants were part of a training that can be useful for themselves, also, as trainers they can reuse the agenda within their trainings through the project.

Part of the communication training there was a session about propaganda media in general, scanning what is the situation in each participant country, also, to see how affected are project partners with the issue of assault against them by propaganda media.

A major part of the communication session was about media communication, focusing on the following topics: how to prepare for a media appearance, what should be part of a media plan, what are the tricks that reporters do to make interviewee uncomfortable, how to prepare for an interview in a hostile environment. Also, there was a simulation where HCLU members were fake propagandist reporters and made a quick interview with the training participants. It helped participants to experience how they would act in such situations. In the end of the simulation a colleague of HCLU, who has years of experience of media appearance, shared his experiences on getting used to assaults and interview situations resembling the simulation.

Including the communication part of the training there was a discussion about communication of an NGO in general, framing the communication of the organisation and what hope based communication means and why it is important especially for a NGO.

The last day of Train the Trainers was about political participation training. Most of the participants were experienced trainers on this field. Because of that the session was based on the experience and most worrying questions they have. As a start, participants collected all purposes and aims that a training about political participation can have. These goals were legal aims, community building and -participation, mobilisation and education. These aims completed each other and as a whole they created a “cake”. The slices of the cake were the different kinds of goals and approaches that a political participation training can have.

During this session there was a discussion about the hardships and obstacles participants have with political participation training. In group work participants were figuring out different kinds of solutions for mentioned problems. The solutions can help for each partner during their work when they organise new trainings.

Website: http://civilspace.eu/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/reclaimourcivilspace/

Project 0477

Environment, Energy, Climate Change and Low Carbon Economy

Joint Effort for Honey Bee Conservation and Selection –BeeConSel

Bees perform an essential ecosystemic function of pollination, not only in agricultural crops but also in other plants and thus represent a critical link in the ecosystem chain – or to name it more appropriately – a critical stone in the ecosystem pyramid. Managed honey bee Apis mellifera is perhaps the most known and its role in the environment surely most highly appreciated. So far, more than thirty subspecies of the honey bee have been identified, which are native to the old world (e.g. Europe, Asia and Africa) and were adapted to the local environment. Human migrations and trade flows have spread these species all over the globe, besides the Antarctic. Bee products have been highly appreciated and become an important source of occupation and income for many beekeepers. Desire to improve the colony management or yield often prompts them to look for the genetic material with traits that are matching their needs. Such traits might be calmness, improved honey yield, resistance to some diseases, etc. Selective breeding of honey bees is therefore an important tool to reach their expectations.

It is not widely known that honey bee queens mate only once in a lifetime with several drones, at the beginning of their tenure, few days after hatching, which happens mid-air. Drones’ genetic material, sperm, is then stored in specialised organ and is used sparingly for egg fertilisation. This genetic reservoir is supposed to last for the duration of the queens’ life. Therefore, installing or replacing the genetic material of the colony is relatively simple. The queen is the only vessel of genetic material that is involved in reproduction; hence she is the only individual that needs to be replaced in the colony.

Some countries have followed the demand and specialised in honey bee genetic breeding material fostering the production and marketing of their local subspecies. In practise this specialisation has gradually replaced native or local subspecies in most of the countries. However, honey bee subspecies have optimal survival rate and economic yield in their native environment.

Therefore, it is crucial to preserve and improve the local honey bee subspecies.

When setting up the BeeConSel project partners have been driven to prevent the conservation and well-being of local honey bee subspecies.

Our focus is three honey bee subspecies: Carnica (A. m. carnica; Slovenia and Croatia), Macedonica (A. m. macedonica; Northern Macedonia) and dark honey bee (A. m. mellifera; Norway). Each of them bears its respective conservation status: the dark honey bee is endangered subspecies; Macedonica is still often discounted by beekeepers, who are looking for promising and promoted non-native lines, hence pushes Macedonica toward the diversity endangerment; Carnica is threatened due to banned import of genetic material from other countries despite the fact there are legal boundaries to prevent this in Slovenia and Croatia. Breeding programs in the involved countries were designed and implemented to counter such threats and genetic erosion by the improvement of the local subspecies and making them more attractive to local beekeepers. A prerequisite for a successful and efficient breeding program is the mating control, which in beneficiary countries have been neglected, and thus much of the selection effort was watered-down.

Know-how and expertise of the Norwegian Beekeepers’ Association that have been successfully implementing all elements of the breeding, along with the assistance of the Swedish Agricultural University will be accustomed to the needs of the beneficiary states and hopefully transferred to end users and policy makers in the beneficiary countries to protect the diversity and richness of the local honey bee populations and stop genetic erosion.