It Is About the People! This is the slogan of the specific campaign for raising public awareness about nature protection.

The main goal of the Center for Development of East Planning Region campaign’s strategy is to inform the local citizens, business sector, local government as well as civic associations in East planning region about the benefits of nature protection.

Center for Development of East Planning Region is a strategic partner of the Nature Conservation Programme in Macedonia implemented in the East planning region for the period 2013 – 2016, a project of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation coordinated by Helvetas Swiss Intercooperation and Farmahem.

The campaign is directly related to the mid-term goals defined in the Program for Development of East Planning Region. The 3rd mid-term goal states the following “Preserved and improved environment”.

The sustainable development towards which the East region strives is based on environment protection. Neither sustainable development of tourism, nor sustainable development of agriculture, as well as the development of other economic sectors is possible without providing environment protection. The implementation of this mid-term goal will create conditions for sustainable development of the region. It is planned to achieve this goal through measures in the field of waste management, waste water management, climate change, as well as re-cultivation of polluted soil and biodiversity protection.

Towards fulfilling CDEPR goals, especially the one about biodiversity protection, lies the justification of tailoring such specific campaign about the benefits of protected areas. Protection of biodiversity can not exist without environment protection.

The goal of the Programme is to support the state, especially the East planning region, in using the benefits of sustainable management of natural resources. One of the head voices of this campaign, as part of the Nature Conservation Programme in Macedonia, delivers a message that nature and environment protection and conservation, as well as proclamation of protected areas will provide benefits for the local population, and will definitely not interrupt the local economic development.

The campaign will include several activities, such as public television debates among mayors, representatives of public and civic sector, and domain experts. Furthermore the local population, business sector, media will be actively involved in the activities, especially youth as an important target audience when it comes to raising public awareness about nature protection.