International Conference ICZM/RBM, 10-11 November 2010

On Wednesday and Thursday, 10-11 November 2010 ICPE hosted an International Conference on Integrated Environmental Management of the Adriatic/Mediterranean Black Sea Coastal Areas and the Danube/Sava River Basins, focused on Tourism and Transport.

After the welcome address by hosting institution Director General Dr Štefan Bogdan Šalej, ECPD Director Mr Janez Podobnik and Deputy Mayor of City of Ljubljana, Prof Dr Janez Koželj, the keynote address was held by Minister of the Enivironment and Spatial Planning, HE Dr Roko Žarnić.

The first day has demonstrated that quite many activities are undertaken in the regions under consideration, and that there is quite some legal support to further expansion of these activities with further projects and their results. The effective ones of them are close to the concepts of social responsibility as an informal way to inclusion of requisite holism, i.e. integrated behavior rather than one-sector-based one-sidedness that is unfortunately quite frequent in both scientific, business, and political practices. The panelists were discussing Law, Social Responsibility and practice, regarding waters, International water Strategies, Case Studies of Integrated water Management, waters and Tourism as well as waters and Transport.

The second day of the conference began with some crucial information of essential components of writing successful projects and after that the following projects were introduced:

1. project drafts tackling the Danube/Sava River basins included:

1.a. The contribution of the SMEE Sector to the Development of Sava basin with the Danube Region, by Institute of Economic Science, Belgrade, Serbia

1.b. Integrated Management of the Nature Park Goričko, by the Nature Park Goričko, Grad, Slovenia

1.c. Recreational and Long Distance Tourist Bicycle Lanes along Sava River, Connecting Capital Cities Ljubljana, Zagreb and Belgrade, by City of Ljubljana, and Urban Planning Institute of the Republic of Slovenia, Ljubljana, Slovenia

1.d. Integrated Management of the Sava River between Krško and Zagreb, by Ministry of Environment and Spatial Planning, Republic of Slovenia, and Water Science Institute, Ljubljana, Slovenia

2. project drafts tackling the Mediterranean-Black Sea coastal areas included:

2.a. The HEART of Adria – Heritage, Environment, Archeology, and Tourism, by University of Primorska, Koper, Slovenia

2.b. Network of Observing Systems in the Adriatic Region, by Maritime Biology Station, Piran, Slovenia

3. connecting project drafts included:

3.a. Social Responsibility and Sustainable Development – Innovation and Systemic Approach, by University of Maribor, Faculty of Economics and Business, and IRDO Institute for Development of Social Responsibility, Maribor, Slovenia

3.b. Sustainable Entrepreneurship: Green Franchising, by Franchising Slovenia, Ljubljana, Slovenia

After the presentation the discussion followed and the conference concluded with adoption of recommendations and suggestions on how to work and develop the draft projects further.

Mr Janez Podobnik, ECPD Director	HE Dr Roko Žarnić, Minister of the Enivironment and Spatial Planning