Part I
The Czech Republic
Cesky Svaz Ochráncu Prírody - Czech Union for Nature Conservation (CSOP)
Praha, 15 February 1996
- Ostrov Stvanice c.p. 1125
- Zim. Stadion
- 170 00 Praha
- Czech Republic
- Phone: 42 2 375 289
- Fax: 42 2 374 359
The persons and their function in the NGO
- Dita Michalickova - Fundraising
- Markéta Klubalova - PR
- Petr Styblo - Project Coordinator
The NGO itself
The Czech Union for Nature Protection was established in 1979,
under the former communist regime in Czechoslovakia. The roots
of the CSOP, and its sister NGO SZOPK in Slovakia, were part of
the Board of Nature Protection at the Prague National Museum Society
(1958) and the Union for the Protection of Nature and Landscape
(TIS - 1970). It is an umbrella organization with several branches
throughout the Czech Republic. The aim of the CSOP was and still
is to take care of nature and to become an adviser and cooperator
of the state nature conservation authorities.
Structure
At this moment the CSOP consists of 348 local branches, 10 regional
centers and 30 eco centers which concentrate on environmental
education. Via the regional level a general assembly is elected
at least every three years, the Central Executive Council, consists
of 19 persons. The secretariat of the CSOP is in Prague and this
office is the official contact person for national CSOP activities.
Objective(s) / Goal(s)
The main goal of the CSOP is to take part in the conservation
and protection of nature and the landscape as well as in the care
of the environment. The Union's mission is to influence its members,
the public, organizations and state authorities to take responsibility
for nature and the environment.
Main areas of activity of CSOP
Nature protection through various activities is the main characteristic
of the CSOP. Collection and dissemination of information for the
NGO on the whole is a relatively new task of the head office
in Prague. Furthermore, two magazines for the public, Veronica
and Nika, and one internal magazine for the branches, Depese,
are published in CSOP branches. Nature protection and demonstration
projects are performed by most branches. Examples are clearance
of protected areas, transfers of endangered species, the building
and operation of rescue shelters for handicapped animals, conservation
of rare trees, mapping of significant landscape constituents and
mapping and recording endangered animal species, like buzzard,
stork, amphibians and crayfish. A countrywide demonstration project
of the CSOP is the yearly 'Clean up the World' day. Education
and training for both children and their teachers is done in the
environmental education centers, which is organized at local branches.
Some branches are active in the field of environmental monitoring
or with lobbying to their local authorities. Some branches near
Prague are very active in following and commenting on national
political developments. CSOP is a partner in the negotiations
around bird protection and has entered discussions about the international
treaty on trade in endangered species. The CSOP is not a protest
organization, so protest action are out of their scope.
Resources
- Human
- In the head office in Prague has 5,5 employees. Volunteers are active In all branches, but branches are also free to try to get funds to employ one or more persons. At this moment about 20 employees work within the CSOP branches. The head office would like to have a Peace Corps volunteer, but currently don't have any Westerners working with them. CSOP has 5200 paying members in the entire country.
- Money
- The budget of 1996 is approximately 280,000 USD. 80% of the budget comes from governmental grants, but this money is linked to running projects and/or the local branches' activities. Overhead costs of the office and employee's salaries are paid by fund raising. The rest of the money comes from businesses, via sponsoring (10%) and membership fees (10%). The branches raise their own funds, most of the money comes from funding organizations like the REC and Partnership. WWF also provide some funds for the CSOP.
- Expertise
- Spoken languages in the head office are Czech, English and Russian. The expertise on nature conservation issues is considered high. The organizational expertise is quite high because of the input of a young team of staff members. The same can be said about the strategical level. The direction for the future is clear, but the current structures are still of the past, so it isn't that easy to benefit from the expertise and to make the ideas come true.
- Access to information
- Phone, fax and computer(s) are available in the office. An e-mail connection will be established in March 1996. The contacts with key persons in policy making are good, because of the high social and political position of most of the members of the Central Executive Council. Contacts with press and other NGOs are only starting to begin.
External Relations and intensity of the contact
The CSOP cooperates with the Ministry of the Environment and other
governmental bodies throughout the country. For the local branches,
this cooperation can be very useful, but on national level it
would probably make more sense if the CSOP could take more distance
from the Ministry of the Environment. A more critical approach
should be taken in the future. The external relations of the CSOP
with other Czech NGOs is based on cooperation, if there is any
regular contact. On certain projects or actions they cooperate
intensively, but on general level the contact is not very intensive.
A relatively low level of cooperation has been established with
the German Bund fur Naturschutz and some Austrian NGOs. Historically
cooperation existed with the Slovakian SZOPK, but it has decreased
in the last 2 years. Now the cooperation is very low intensive,
because the SZOPK had no money. It has to be mentioned that all
CSOP branches have their own cooperative projects and/or strategies.
Finally the CSOP is a member of the International Union for the
Conservation of Nature.
East-East Cooperation
The CSOP cooperates historically with the SZOPK in Slovakia, because
both groups have the same roots in Czechoslovakia's history. New
contacts have recently been established with the Polish League
for Nature Protection (LOP). At borders, branches of both the
Czech and the Polish nature protection NGOs have common cooperative
projects. With Russia, especially one Siberian NGO, cooperation
is based on personal friendship of the employees, mainly to serve
the Russian NGO with information and financial help.
Advantages / Motivation
The main reason for cooperation across borders is the fact that
nature and pollution doesn't stop at borders. Protected animals,
like for example the wolf in Czech, can not be protected only
at one side of the border, as borders don't affect wolves' movement.
Several nature conservation areas are close to or on the borders.
Cooperation for better protection with the neighboring countries in those cases are simply necessary. Another advantage of cooperation
is that it allows the exchange between NGO's of information and
experience. Learning from each other, getting to know the problems
and projects of NGOs in other countries and the solutions they
found can help your own organization to be more effective in the
future.
Problems / Obstacles
The biggest problem is the lack of money for contacting and meeting
potential Eastern partners. For example, the SZOPK, under the
current circumstances does not even have the money to call the
CSOP. For both money and information the cooperation with Western
NGOs maybe more beneficial. An important reason for the preference
of Eastern NGOs to look for cooperation with the Western groups
is historical, since before the changes it was impossible to
do anything with Westerners. Language problems don't exist between
Slovakia, Poland and Russia, nor does nationalism play a role
in cooperation between these countries. Some political problems
exist with Russia, but this does not influence the contacts on
NGO level.
Surplus Value / Results of East-East cooperation
The final result of all cooperation has to be a better protected
nature areas. By cooperating it is the possible to see how others
solve all kinds of problems in their own group. Learning from
each others experiences can give big results for the development
of your own organization.
Necessary features of a NGO for East-East cooperation
East-East cooperation will only be established when NGOs are willing
to cooperate. A mutual interest in a certain topic is necessary, such as the border or dealing with a transboundary problem.
Personal contacts at the other side of the border are needed and
finally the money makes everything easier to establish a common
project.
Possible reasons for others not to start East-East cooperation
When NGOs are focused on local problems, which are not connected
with any border, it is simply not useful for them to start international
cooperation. Two other reasons more specific for East-East cooperation
can be mentioned as well. First is the fact that the most Eastern
NGOs are very busy with themselves; gaining capacity, organizing,
finding the right structure and so on. Second the preference of
most Eastern groups for East-West cooperation, because of the
particular history in CEE.
Future of East-East cooperative behavior of the NGO
The CSOP will continue with East-East cooperation. The CSOP branches
have their own policies for East-East cooperation, and will go
their own way in this respect.
The future of East-East cooperation in general is seen in a very
positive light. It seems to be the right time to start and organize
East-East cooperation. We believe every active environmental NGO
will find out that only with international cooperation can international
problems of nature and environment protection can be solved. The
CSOP hopes with a common lobby throughout CEE to have a bigger
influence on industrial and political lobbies. For example, for
Siberia it would help a lot when at least everybody knows what
enormous pollution is going on there. Later on a group of CEE
NGOs would probably be able to have some influence on the Russian
government, or other governments, to stop the pollution and to
clean the polluted areas.
REC and East-East cooperation
The REC and the Earmarked Grants project are known, but the CSOP
is not very familiar with the criteria and procedures of the REC.
The CSOP head office once received a local grant from the REC.
The branches have their own fundraising methods and the head
office doesn't know exactly what their individual connection with
funding organizations is.
The REC should provide NGOs with better information about their
available programs, procedures and criteria. Money has to be
given to NGOs who are really able to do what they promise in their
project proposals. This was not always the case in the past. The
REC needs to know the NGO and the responsible persons for the
project better before giving such a big grants. A recommendation
to the REC is that it should concentrate more on the real project,
the activities that has to be done and by who, than on the paperwork
around it.
The promotion of East-East cooperation is important, but it is
probably not the right way to set aside money only for East-East
cooperative projects. Then NGOs are pushed too much, and they
will come up with East-East cooperation projects just to get the
big grants, while in fact they are not able to run such a project.
REC * PUBLICATIONS * BEYOND BORDERS - SIDE REPORT * THE CZECH REPUBLIC
