Part I
The Czech Republic
Deti Zeme - Children of the Earth
Praha, 15 February 1996
- Podbabska 14
- 160 00 Praha 6
- Vrsovická 65
- 100 10 Praha 10
- Czech Republic
- Phone: 42 2 311 7075 or 42 2 6712 2577 or 42 2 527 123
- Fax: 42 2 6712 2833 or 42 2 311 7075
The person and his function in the NGO
- RnDr. Jindrich Petrlík - Chairman of Deti Zeme and editor
of the ecological journal 'NIKA'.
The NGO itself
Children of the Earth was established on 28 September 1989, some
months before the revolution in Czechoslovakia, they were an underground
ecological group during that time. The NGO was established by
people who were unsatisfied with the official environmental NGOs
in Czechoslovakia. The main fields of interest of the time were
preventing the destruction of nature, the struggle against air
pollution and activities connected with ozone layer protection.
Deti Zeme is a campaigning group working on a broad scope of environmental
issues. After the splitting up of Czechoslovakia in January 1993
the NGO also split into two independent groups, one for the Czech
Republic and one for the Slovak Republic.
Structure
Deti Zeme started as a movement and built itself into an organizational
structure step by step. Presently there are 6 groups that focus
on various topics, there are local branches in 11 cities and 3
clubs in areas where are not enough people to establish a branch
or a section that meets regularly. Each subgroup has their own
management and acts more or less independently from the head office
in Prague. The groups are centered around the following topics:
ozone layer, transportation, energy, toxic waste issues, nature
conservation and environmental education. The local branches are
mainly focused on local environmental problems. Of course the
separate groups communicate with each other.
Objective(s) / Goal(s)
Deti Zeme wants to be a platform for people who are interested
in the environment, starting with the practical situation, for
example protesting against a polluting factory, and continuing
by involving active members in more general and/or theoretical
environmental topics.
Main areas of activity of Deti Zeme
Environmental education, nature protection activities and collection
and dissemination of information are the group's main activities.
The organization on the whole is an important protest and lobbying
group in the Czech Republic on the topics that concern: traffic,
ozone layer protection and protest against polluting and/or nature
destroying industries. Environmental education and training is
focused on national and local authorities, for example majors.
Resources
- Human
- In the head office in Prague there are four employees, and the
subgroups have four employees. The other groups are organized
by volunteers. Throughout the country more than 100 activists
support Deti Zeme, the NGO has about 900 members. In the head
office there are usually one or two Westerners that are volunteering
or doing research. At the moment an English fund-raiser and a
Norwegian student are involved in the organization.
- Money
- The 1995 budget was 1,750,000 Czech Crowns, this is about 65,000
USD. Deti Zeme gets the biggest amount of money from funding organizations
like the REC, Partnership, Milieukontakt Oost-Europa, the German
Marshallfund and PHARE. About 7% of the budget comes from the
Ministry of the Environment and probably 2 or 3% from other NGOs.
Membership fees provide only 1% of the budget. Activities like
selling books and providing translations usually cost more than
they bring.
- Expertise
- Spoken languages in the head office are Czech and English and
in some offices German is spoken as well. The expertise on most
environmental issues is very high, because of the specialists
leading the sections. The expertise on both organizational and
strategical level is also considered high.
- Access to information
- The access to information from the government was much better
two years ago, because the former government was more focused
on solving environmental problems whereas the current government
is focused on solving pure economical problems without taking
environmental and social problems into account.
External Relations and intensity of the contact
Case by case and depending on if there is conflict between the
branches, cooperation and even competition occurs between governmental
bodies. Local branches both cooperate and compete with local
authorities on working in and dealing with nature conservation
areas. Cooperation with the Ministry of Environment is possible,
but conflicts exists because the Ministry is weak. Deti Zeme
cooperates with some environmental businesses, but this is very
dangerous, since the NGO has to take care about their image and
shouldn't cooperate with any organization with dubious practices.
With other Czech NGOs both cooperation and competition, for both
funds and members exist. Cooperation is usually established on
specific topics or in common projects, like wetland protection
together with the CSOP. Contacts with Western NGOs are based on
information exchange and usually very helpful. Greenpeace International,
der Grüne Liga, Global 2000, der Bund für Umwelt und
Naturschutz and Waste and Environment are good Western partners
of Deti Zeme. East-East cooperation is done on the level of information
and experience exchange. Regular contacts and common projects
have been established by some subgroups of Deti Zeme.
East-East Cooperation
Deti Zeme cooperates bilaterally with Polish NGOs 'I prefer to
be', the Polish Ecological Club, the Croatian Green Action group
and of course the Slovakian sister organization Deti Zeme Slovakia.
Cooperation mainly consists of exchanging information on certain
topics. Common contact still exists with Deti Zeme Slovakia, but
the cooperation is getting weaker and weaker. At the moment they
visit each others annual meetings and share experience and information
on an organizational level.
Advantages / Motivation
The motivation for cooperation with 'I prefer to be' is the fact
that this group has a similar philosophy, it is a comparable group,
so information and experience exchange really makes sense. Deti
Zeme can learn from them and they from Deti Zeme. The cooperation
with Deti Zeme Slovakia is based on the common history of the
groups, and mainly useful for the Slovakian organization, since
they are about two years behind in development, compared with
the Czech group. Direct border issues exist with Germany, for
example, the case against planned highways. In this case cooperation
with them has been established, but these motivations don't exist
at the moment at other (East-East) borders.
Problems / Obstacles
Cooperation is only possible when there is common interest and
for a campaigning group it is not easy to find other like campaigning
groups in CEE. On a certain topic it is possible to share information,
but the capacity is lacking to keep regular contact or to establish
joined projects. During conferences everybody voices their willingness
to cooperate, but in fact, this is not happening when they are
back in their own group and dealing with their own problems. NGOs
in CEE are focused very much on themselves, busy with raising
funds and surviving. And since there is no money to get in CEE,
they don't even look for East-East cooperation. For getting information,
it is easier to use, for example, the Greenpeace groups than to
find a particular Eastern NGOs for answering a specific question.
And unfortunately, many people just don't see the advantage of
East-East cooperation. Finally it should be mentioned that the
NGOs in CEE are working in a political climate where East-East
cooperation is not popular.
Surplus Value / Results of East-East cooperation
The main result of East-East cooperation for Deti Zeme is getting
needed information and gaining experience on specific topics and
certain campaigns. Unfortunately, the trial for establishing an
ozone network in CEE failed because they didn't succeed in getting
the money for it.
Necessary features of a NGO for East-East cooperation
Absolutely necessary for successful cooperation is the willingness
to share information and/or experience. Then there needs to be
a common issue and enough capacity for both partner NGOs is
needed. To solve language problems, at least one English (or other
common language) speaker is needed. Finally people have to meet
each other and agree on cooperation, and to a certain extent,
on a specific topic.
Possible reasons for others not to start East-East cooperation
The majority of NGOs probably just don't think about it, or they
don't see any advantages. The constant need for funds also keeps
NGOs away from East-East cooperation, since in the East it is
not easy to find money for NGOs. In some parts of CEE, for example,
former Yugoslavia, nationalism may be the main reason for non-cooperation.
This also may be the case between Slovakian and Hungarian NGOs.
Future of East-East cooperative behavior of the NGO
Deti Zeme wants to organize a press conference on a planned waste
incinerator at the Czech-Polish border together with the Polish
Waste Prevention Organization "3R". Future cooperation
with Hungarian NGOs will hopefully be established for an anti-dioxin
campaign, because in Hungary a law specific on dioxin pollution
just came through. The sub-groups of Deti Zeme decide themselves
whether there will be East-East cooperation in the future. In
general, it can be expected that East-East cooperation will increase,
but only when there is a specific need for it.
REC and East-East cooperation
Deti Zeme applied and received an Earmarked Grant, so the REC
and its procedures are well known. The REC is already promoting
East-East cooperation with the Earmarked Grants criteria, but
this should have started before. At the same time the REC has
to be very careful when pushing for cooperation between NGOs.
Cooperation between groups just to get money may be the end result
and this is not efficient and appropriate cooperation. The REC
should focus on NGOs who want to do common campaigns on a specific
topic. Furthermore the REC could use its influence to bring people
together: in conferences, workshops and lectures where Eastern
speakers are invited. Issues for such meetings can be: 'How to
Organize a Campaign' or 'How to Establish an Effective NGO'. Finally,
enough time should be scheduled for contacting and getting to
know the participants.
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