Croatia, Fearless project: demining completed

On April 26, the closing conference of the “Fearless Velebit ” project was held in Gospić, led by “Hrvatske šume d.o.o.” (public enterprise for the management of forests and forest land in the Republic of Croatia) which provided for demining in forested areas of the Ličko-senjska and Zadarska counties.

The demining of 1,645 hectares of forest was completed, with the clearing of 2,177 mines and explosive remnants of war, in the area of the Velebit Natural Park and the Paklenica National Park. The project has also enabled the reclamation of a number of hiking trails in the southern area of Velebit.

The project, worth 35 million euros, of which just over 29 million insured by EU funds, is part of the “Razvoj okvira za upravljanje ekološkom mrežom Natura 2000" program (Development of the framework for the management of the Natura 2000 ecological network) launched by the Croatian government in 2017 with EU co-funding under the cohesion policy 2014-2020.

The conference was attended by the Minister of Regional Development and European Funds, Šime Erlić, the secretary of state at the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development, Mario Šiljeg, the president of the board of directors of Hrvatske šume, Nediljko Duić, the director of the Fund for Environmental Protection and Energy Efficiency, Luka Balen, among others.

Minister Šime Erlić underlined that the continuation of demining activities is ensured in the new financial envelope of EU funds with 120 million euros which will allow the demining of another 9,000 hectares of land. He also announced that one of the first tenders of the new programming period 2021-2027 will concern demining …