FLAG Factsheet
FLAG Juzni Jadran (South Adriatic) is situated in the southern part of the Croatian coast in the Dubrovnik-Neretva County. The FLAG’s territory covers a surface area of 791.42km2 and consists of 11 local authority units, nine municipalities and two cities. The area has a population 36 315 inhabitants accounting for approximately 28% of total inhabitants of Dubrovnik-Neretva County. The main source of income in the area is tourism.
There are 152 fishermen, 75 shellfish producers and three fish farms. The fishing boats are on average 40 years old, and they catch mainly bluefish, primarily sardine, anchovy and mackerel. The fisheries infrastructure (fishing ports, landing places, access roads, as well as infrastructure for shellfish production) is insufficient and requires infrastructural development.
Challenges include the need to add value to locality caught fish and diversification into non-fishing activities, strengthening linkages between the fishing sector and tourism, as well as preventing the pollution of water and beaches.
The FLAG territory has a total of 24 protected areas including Mali Ston Bay, Lastovo Islands Natural Park, the Ornithological Reserve in Neretva and the Mljet National Park.
The FLAG intends to promote the economic development of the area using local assets, maintain the natural environment and improve quality of life. It intends to respond to the challenges by:
National
Project for the FLAG will be focused on the following ideas:
There will be periodic calls for projects, published on the FLAG website
FLAG Juzni Jadran is new FLAG and therefore has relatively little experience in cooperation.
The FLAG is interested in national and international cooperation on innovative approaches to promotion and marketing, selective forms of tourism based on tradition and natural assets such as Natura 2000.
FLAG Južni Jadran partially overlaps the territory of the LEADER group ‘LAG 5’ and the two groups cooperate informally. The FLAG and LAG also share certain board members. The FLAG is a member of the Croatian National Network of FLAGs.
FLAG members include the territorial units from the nine municipalities, several fisheries businesses and local NGOs.