"Save your River" Small Grants Programme
Wetlands International Black Sea Programme
prepared several project proposals in support of the Ukrainian
Rivers Network (URN) under the auspices of the Fundraising
Working Group, in accordance with the decisions of the first and
second URN working meetings.
One of the project proposals (namely, "Public
Participation in the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Small
Rivers in Ukraine; Support for the River Network in Ukraine")
was encouraged by the Government of the Netherlands. This
project, in particular, envisaged the realisation of a programme
of small grants for URN members.
In 2003, Wetlands International Black Sea
Programme implemented a project that included a contest for URN
members called "Save your River". Particular attention
was paid to the project proposals aimed at river conservation
and rehabilitation by means of:
- improving collaboration between state institutions and public organisations;
- strengthening network collaboration (e.g. agriculture – river
conservation);
- supporting local authority actions aimed at creating protected areas;
- rehabilitating natural sites;
- increasing the level of public awareness (e.g. by publishing brochures, making television and radio
programmes, etc.);
- environmental education;
- conducting nature conservation activities (e.g. planting trees, cleaning up river
banks, etc.)
A Grants Committee was established to assess the
projects. The members of the Grants Committee included
representatives of the Ministry of Environment and Natural
Resources of Ukraine, Ukrainian Rivers Network, and national
delegates from Ukraine from Wetlands International, Wetlands
International Black Sea Programme, ISAR-Ednannya and
InterEcoCentre.
In assessing the projects, the Grant Committee
was guided by the following criteria:
- Compliance of the project goal and tasks with the goal of the grant programme and with the “Strategic Environmental Action Plan of the Ukrainian NGO Network for the Conservation and Restoration of
Rivers”.
- The presence in the NGO of the proper experience and qualifications essential for the project work.
- The effectiveness of the proposed measures for accomplishing the task of river
conservation.
- The compliance of the project goal with the measures proposed, how they were to be realised and the plan of work.
- The effectiveness of information dissemination about the results of the project.
- Prospects for collaboration between public organisations and authorities aimed at solving ecological problems of
rivers.
The grants were given to registered public
organisations that were members of URN.
No grant exceeded 5,000 Euros in total.
The largest possible grants were awarded to sound projects of
high quality. A total of 28 projects were supported. |
