NaturAll LIFE: Build up acceptance of Natura2000 among key audiences; bring up generation of knowledgeable supporters

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

BACKGROUND

The Natura 2000 network has been in place in Bulgaria since the country’s accession to the EU in 2007. Despite the fact that the network now covers 34.4% of Bulgarian territory and represents 3.75% of the total Natura 2000 network, at the beginning of the project there was widespread public misunderstanding of the aims of the network and the rules pertaining to Natura 2000 network sites.

This lack of awareness was also a result of targeted campaigns led by large-scale developers interested in the same sites who aimed to stigmatise Natura 2000, presenting it as a restrictive spatial protection tool that has a strict conservation regime. This has resulted in increasingly negative perceptions of the network, especially among rural communities and businesses.

OBJECTIVES

The NaturALL Life project delivered a series of carefully planned communication and information actions designed to raise awareness of the Natura 2000 network in Bulgaria. This communication campaign was launched to trigger positive behavioural changes among the following target groups: managers of ecosystems; the country’s 600 000 farmers (who directly manage some 50% of the national Natura 2000 network); and elementary and middle school children and their teachers.

The project’s actions were in line with the priority objectives of the EU 7th Environmental Action Programme, as follows:

To protect, conserve and enhance the Union’s natural capital by raising awareness of the benefits and development potential of the Bulgarian Natura 2000 network;

To turn the Union into a resource-efficient, green and competitive low-carbon economy by promoting and advocating sustainable, traditional extensive agricultural practices (potentially affecting almost half of all land in Bulgaria) and encouraging sustainable hunting;

To maximise the benefits of the EU’s environment legislation by improving the implementation of the Birds and Habitats directives by building informed support for their principles.

 

The  project successfully delivered its objective to boost efforts to conserve ecosystems and their services within the framework of the Natura 2000 network in Bulgaria. The project communicated with an array of informed supporters, joined in volunteer networks and armed with the innovative concept that standards of living do not necessarily depend solely on gross domestic product. The project is the first sizeable systematic effort towards increasing understanding and acceptance of the Natura 2000 network in Bulgaria, especially in terms of its socio-economic dimensions.

Based on the results of a nationwide opinion poll, the project drafted a Natura 2000 Stakeholder Analysis. This has underpinned the development of a strategy for communicating Natura 2000 to target stakeholder groups.

The initiative ‘Natura 2000 on wheels’ targeted farmers, hunters and managers of Natura 2000 network sites;

The initiative ‘Natura 2000 Imaginaria’ targeted middle and elementary school pupils and teachers. The project also established a support network among teachers interested in Natura 2000;

The project included large scale events at national and regional levels as part of a media campaign designed to reach 300 000 people; and eventually it measured the impact of its actions on the three target groups of stakeholders.

 

The project has succeeded in increasing awareness of the benefits of Natura 2000 in terms of quality of life, ecosystem services, income generation and wellbeing in rural communities.

RESULTS

The main elements of success of the project are:

- It increased the awareness about Natura 2000 importance as key element of the quality of life (10% of the farmers, 6.5% of the students, 1% of the teachers);
- It increased knowledge on the local income generation and well-being stemming out of Natura 2000 among rural communities (10% of the farmers);
- It catalysed policy changes in terms of integrating Natura 2000 perceptions into the formal education system;
- It established a network of Natura 2000 supporting professionals (the teachers).

These results were achieved through the following:
- Comprehensive nation-wide opinion poll to deliver the first representative national Natura 2000 Stakeholder Analysis (A1) and developed Strategy for Communicating Natura 2000 to its direct users (A2);
- Comprehensive socio-economic assessment to fine-tune the communication intervention and allow for objective monitoring of project impact (C1 and C2);
- “Natura 2000 on wheels” (B1) targeted at current N2K managers – farmers,  reached at least 5,400 people and addressed significant proportion of the organised hunters in the country;
- A network of 56 “Natura 2000 Imaginaria” (B2) targeted at current volunteers and future managers of the N2K – the middle and elementary school children, reached 32,000 school children and at least 120 teachers;
- Teachers Information Resource Pack introduced the Natura 2000 topic into the
formal educational system;
- A targeted Media Campaign (B3) was designed to reach at least 300,000 people yearly through 2 national media events and at least 28 regional events or at least 60 events during the project life-time.
- Natura 2000 Imaginarium Comes to the Capital increased project coverage targeting the largest city, where approximately 25% of the population of Bulgaria lives (D5)