Establishing the ICZM Plan for the Šibenik-Knin County

On Thursday November 7, the first meeting of the Steering Committee and a workshop on the Integrated Coastal Zone Management of the Šibenik-Knin County was organized, in the old Town Hall of Šibenik in Croatia. This project is part of the MedPartnership project under "Integration of climate variability and change into national strategies for Integrated Coastal Zone Management", a Mediterranean initiative led by the UNEP/MAP.

This meeting was co-organised by the Šibenik-Knin County and PAP/RAC. It was an opportunity to step forward towards the definition of the ICZM plan for the County. The host of the event was Mr. Goran Pauk, President of the County, who welcomed the participants and highlighted "the need for special planning tools to better cope with the challenges of climate change and variability". It is now widely accepted that adaptation measures are necessary to guarantee a future sustainable development of the County. He also insisted on the importance of such a local initiative for the development of a strong national strategy.

The meeting was attended by 60 participants, representing a wide range of local and national experts from relevant authorities and institutions, and different sectors facing impacts of climate change. Special emphasis was placed on the presentation of the first steps made in establishing the ICZM Plan for the Šibenik-Knin County. Various experts presented their work in progress, explained the integration of the different researches and pointed out the next key activities and actions to be implemented. In a special session of the meeting, the members of the Steering Committee adopted the preliminary documents to the project: Inception and Scoping Reports. These first achievements were crowned by the political support given by the County and local representatives.

The meeting was concluded by a preparatory session for the “Climagine 2” participatory workshop, organised on the next day (November 8). It is widely recognised that participatory approaches are a corner stone to the definition of any ICZM strategy or plan. This workshop will be the second of its kind, bringing together local stakeholders, with the stress placed on the definition of priority themes, dimensions and indicators that will contribute to the preparation of the ICZM Plan with special focus on adaptation to climate change and variability impacts.