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Description
In Bulgaria, environmental protection NGOs often confront shady businesses and political umbrellas over them. Such NGOs are some of the first that have been affected by the targeted attacks against the civil society. At the same time the environmental protection sector is one of the permanently consolidated sectors owing to For the Nature coalition. The coalition is one of its kind in Bulgaria and Europe, it is an informal network of more than 20 different NGOs and civil society groups voluntarily working together for more than 10 years. We believe that the Coalition plays an important role in overcoming the public stigma and that nothing is simply up to the individual and we want to raise the recognition of the Coalition with this project and recover and boost our capacity to support democracy and environmental protection in Bulgaria. The project has two man groups of activities: 1. overcoming the effects of the “black PR” with a positive proactive campaign of information activities aiming to recover the main “resource” for a strong civil society, namely public trust and support; 2. empowerment of local communities to develop environmentally friendly opportunities in their communities and deal with upcoming environmental protection issues. It is expected that information activities and outputs will reach more than 600.000 people in the social and mainstream media and more than 2000 people will be involved in direct conservation and information activities. The project will be implemented in partnership with two of the leading organizations in For the Nature Coalition (Bulgarian Biodiversity Foundation and Green Balkans), which complement their expertise and regions of work. However, if the project is implemented, it will support all organizations from the Coalition as well as the environmental protection community in Bulgaria because the project aims at “bridging” the gap between citizens and state governance.
Summary of project results
As the environmental NGO sector often stands against shady businesses and the political umbrellas over them, this sector is one of the main targets in the attacks against civil society in Bulgaria. At the same time, the nature-conservation sector is one of the sectors that has been permanently consolidated - through the coalition "For Nature to Remain in Bulgaria". The aim of this project was to raise the profile of the Coalition and to rebuild and further develop its capacity to support democracy and nature conservation in Bulgaria. The project was implemented in partnership by two of the leading organizations in the For Nature to Remain Coalition - the Bulgarian Biodiversity Foundation (BBF) and Green Balkans, which complement their expertise and regions of work, and the activities were supported by all organizations of the Coalition, as well as by other nature-conservation organizations in Bulgaria.
The project had two main groups of activities: 1. Overcoming the effects of the "black PR" with a positive, proactive campaign of information activities aimed at restoring the main "resource" for a strong civil society - public trust and support; 2. Empowering local communities to develop environmentally sound options to address emerging conservation issues.An awareness campaign was implemented in traditional and social media.At a working meeting of the Coalition "For Nature to Remain in Bulgaria" a so called "audience map" was prepared to assess the situation with purpose of planning specific actions to addreess different negative and positive stakeholders.In the framework of the project, experts worked/consulted in depth on 21 cases, 10 of them did not require long term involvement, and 15 cases were handled with a submitted mechanism for response, referral or provision of information.6 trainings were held for the members of the Coalition "For Nature to Remain in Bulgaria" on topics concerning capacity building and acquiring necessary skills for greater visibility and sustainability of the Coalition.
The project involved 20 organizations and 100 experts and team members of the organizations which are among the members and friends of the Coalition, as well as 67 volunteers.Over 480,000 Facebook users and over 150 other media outlets and their audiences, as well as all users of the forthenature.org website, were reached through the posts. 22 informative public events were held, Instagram posts reached over 3,000 people, the Youtube channel reached over 10,000 people, press releases reached a total of over 660,000 people.A total of 9 events have been published for long-term access: 4 lectures at the Faculty of Biology of Sofia University and 5 "Ask the Expert" lectures, which are part of the outreach events, were filmed so that more people can benefit from the information and knowledge shared. They are freely available on the Coalition''s Youtube channel.The group of volunteers, activists, local groups, a total of 69 people, participated in the trainings live or online, another 28 people got registered and received a recording of the training and materials.Added value of the project partner:The team of the partner Green Balkans Association were actively involved in working with the media (media partnerships) and with local communities by actively travelling and creating content for social networks.To what extent are the positive effects of the project likely to continue after the funding period?The project helped to create sustainable partnerships. The BFB is actively working with the Big Picture Student Club at the Faculty of Biology at SU for future events, involvement in activities of hopefully young experts to enrich the Coalition. An ecological section was established in the Regional Library "Pencho Slaveykov" in Varna. The Coalition is also supporting more and more local groups to develop their capacity and be more confident in championing their causes. Coalition members are more connected and meet more often comparing to the past when they did not find much time for that.The green festival "Nature Fest" was successfully held, which through activities presented the environmental organizations and they themselves appreciated the festival as something necessary and the goal is now to make it an annual event.The website has been updated and is growing as a communication channel for environmental organisations.