PROGRAMME

PONT enables protected areas in the Wider Prespa Area to develop and implement their management plans to conserve the environment through sustainable co-financing of operational costs. PONT supports the development and use of standard operational planning and reporting systems for the implementation of proprietary protected area programmes. Standardised biodiversity monitoring systems must be developed in which data collection, data analysis and habitat management are implemented, with an efficient division of what can be done by the protected area staff themselves, local people and what to outsource to third parties. Enabling the protected area staff to increasingly use scientific data in managing the area must be included in the third-party contracts. The inclusion of minimum Natura 2000 requirements will garner importance in the coming years.

Grants to environmental actors are for qualified NGOs, municipalities and research institutes with a local presence in the Wider Prespa Area and with a strategy in developing society, improving communities, and promoting citizen participation in conservation. PONT funding priorities identified for environmental actors are mainly focussed on transboundary conservation activities and some important specialised conservation activities. In addition, the environmental actors with a focus on conservation in the Wider Prespa Area are supported with their operations and organisational development so as to make the organisations more robust and capable of sourcing third party funding.

In addition, PONT financial support to NGOs and research institutes is directed towards the implementation of activities identified in the management plans for the respective protected areas and where there is a lack of capacity within the protected area management bodies. Applied research, with the involvement of protected area staff, directly focussed on species or habitat management is also supported, but fundamental research is not.