Description
Poland has no coherent strategy of managing natural resources, including fossil fuels, minerals, water, air, land and forests. Such a strategy is critical as it will have an impact on the quality of life of current and future generations of Poles. This project will help develop such a policy. A natural resources management white paper will be developed offering recommendations for decision-makers. The white paper will be developed based on recommendations of an expert panel attended by civil society organizations, administration and business in Warsaw, public consultations conducted in four Polish regions, a demosEUROPA report, individual interviews with experts, online consultation tool and consultations conducted in Norway. The involvement of the Norwegian partner will ensure access to best practices developed in a country of many decades of experience with natural resource management. We will review those practices in terms of their applicability in Poland.
Summary of project results
"Poles become more and more affluent, but not more ""resourceful"". For the last 10 years. Poland has been gradually catching up with the EU average of GDP per capita. But we are still far below the EU average in the field of managing natural resources - measured e.g. by efficiency in using natural resources, energy saving efficiency or recycling. The aim of the project was to improve the quality of natural resources management in Poland. The main result of the project is developing of guidelines for reforming the natural resources management system in Poland with participation of citizens, organisations, administration, business and experts, and introducing the issue of resources management into the main course of public debate through publication a report titled ""Citizens resourceful in resources. White Paper on management"". The report was developed during long-term and broad activities, including 4 meetings of a special expert group, consultations with 47 experts from different parts of Poland and in Oslo, macroeconomic research comparing natural resources management results in Poland and in other European countries, and online civic consultations. The report was presented during the public conference in Warsaw and is available on the web page zasobni.pl. Cooperation with the Norwegian institution enabled organisation to survey and present in Poland good practices from Norway - a country that has one of the best results in Europe in natural resources management. Experts from the Fridtjof Institute participated in the process of planning and developing of the research report, e.g. by contributing materials concerning conclusions for Poland coming from Norwegian experiences in the field of natural resources management (Chapter 4 of the ""White Paper""). Tor Hakon Jackson Inderberg had lectures during the second meeting of the expert group and during the conference summarising the project. He also co-organised the study visit in Oslo, being an opportunity to exchange institutional good practices between partner teams and to organise a meeting with representatives of entities dealing with natural resources management in Norway."
Summary of bilateral results
The cooperation with the Fridtjof Nansen Institute (FNI) contributed significantly to the project’s success. Thanks to its international dimension, the project was more visible in the Polish public space and was considered as more prestigious by both Polish and other European audience. It also enabled us to focus the discussion on the best international practices in the management of natural resources, instead of concentrating only on what works well or wrong in the Polish system of natural resources management and how to fix it. The comparative study and the exchange of country-specific experiences enabled us to identify those lessons and challenges which are the most relevant for Poland. One scholar from the FNI contributed as co-author to the project’s final report (Citizens rich in resources. White paper on natural resources management in Poland) which was the project’s main achievement. He also participated in the works of the project’s Expert Working Group which met regularly in Warsaw, and participated as speaker in the project’s final public debate in Warsaw, in June 2015. The cooperation with FNI was also institutionally important for the Grantee. It enabled them to share the best practices in the management of research institutions with the Norwegian counterparts. A four-day study visit in Oslo of one demosEUROPA researcher, which included meetings with 11 representatives of different Norwegian NGOs as well as public research institutions, was particularly helpful and fruitful in this respect. Finally, participation of FNI in the project translated into broadly defined ‘positive externalities’ as it encoureaged and supported the promotion of the best Norwegian institutional practices in Poland. The Grantee would like to continue cooperation with FNI in the future, in several research areas (such as the political economy of the national energy policy or the national perspectives on the EU’s Energy Union), but so far they are at the stage of identifing grant opportunities for potential joint projects.