Measuring progress in nature conservation against the CBD and PEBLDS

Elaboration and finalization of a management plan for the Pelister National Park

The Pelister Mountain Conservation Project (PMCP) is a project run by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) in cooperation with the Ministry of Environment and Physical Planning, and with technical support of Pro Natura-Friends of the Earth in Switzerland. Overall goal of the project is to contribute to the reinforcement of a state-civil society dialogue in the context of natural resources management. During the first phase of the project, a draft management plan was developed for Pelister National Park, though incompletely and without formal legal base.

The new Law on Nature Protection (2004) provides the necessary basis for Management Plan development (articles 73 and 98 to 102). Following this, during the second phase in 2005 activities were taken towards the elaboration of a clear concept of management and finalization of the Pelister National Park management plan accordingly.

Makmontana - Association for Sustainable Development of Mountain Regions in the Republic of Macedonia in partnership with the relevant stakeholders and through a participatory process took active part during the elaboration and finalization of the Pelister National Park management plan.

Makmontana stressed out the importance of incorporating the CBD principles in the Pelister National Park management plan, and pointed out the Convention as the first global instrument taking a comprehensive approach to the problems of conserving the world's biodiversity and to using its biological resources sustainably. The Convention recognizes that networks of protected areas are central to conserving biological diversity. Two vital provisions, among others, relate to protected areas:

• Under Article 6, each Party has to develop national strategies, plans or programs for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity and to integrate them into other relevant sectoral or cross-sectoral plans, programs and policies;
  
  
• Under Article 8.a, each Party has to establish a system of protected areas where special measures are taken to conserve biodiversity; this is followed up by other clauses in Article 8 on in situ conservation.

The Convention is best seen as providing a framework for conserving biodiversity (as well as for achieving other goals, such as on access to genetic resources). Most of its Articles set out policies that Parties should follow, such as on planning protected area networks or controlling the spread of introduced species, rather than establishing precise obligations (as does the World Heritage Convention) or setting targets (as do the EU Directives). The Convention provides a good opportunity for Parties to update and bring into line a wide range of biodiversity-related policies, and in particular to make the linkage between policies on protected areas and policies on other sectors of national life.

During the participatory process of the finalization of the Pelister National Park management plan, Makmontana introduced to the relevant stakeholders the concept of Ecosystem Approach as a strategy for the integrated management of land, water and living resources that promotes conservation and sustainable use in an equitable way;

Currently, the Pelister National Park management plan is under public hearing until December 30th, 2005, and after this period it will be submitted to the Ministry of Environment and Physical Planning of the Republic of Macedonia for official adoption.