The final conference of the project Endemic Pathway – ePATH, co-financed within the INTERREG IPA CBC Programme Croatia – Bosnia and Herzegovina – Montenegro 2014-2020, was held on 26 January 2023 at the Biokovo Hotel in Makarska.
As part of this project event, a press conference was organized, where all three partners, the City of Makarska, the Public Enterprise Hutovo Blato Nature Park from Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the Public Enterprise for Coastal Zone Management of Montenegro presented the activities implemented within the framework of the project.
Thanks to the ePATH project, Biokovo Botanical Garden Kotišina, Hutovo Blato Nature Park and Tivatska Solila Nature Reserve strengthened their capacities, got new facilities and equipment, improved educational and tourist activities, and developed a new tourist offer.
The conference began with welcoming speeches by representatives of all three partners, who emphasized the importance of cross-border cooperation and networking in the revitalization of the natural heritage of this area.
In the past twenty-seven months of the project implementation, three protected areas were upgraded with new tourist infrastructure and facilities, which include, among others:
- the construction and equipping of new interpretation centers in Hutovo Blato and Tivatska Solila,
- adaptation of educational and walking trails,
- bird-watching towers and viewpoints,
- procurement of modern tourist equipment,
- digitization of natural heritage in the Biokovo Botanical Garden Kotišina, supported also with the development of various multimedia content.
Within the framework of the project, 6 bird-watching competitions, 3 international camps and 6 workshops in nature were held and promoted, gathering more than 300 representatives of various target groups (i.e., tourists, media representatives, educational institutions and NGOs, tourist organizations, local and regional authorities, as well as general public).
These events will be organized annually in the future to attract visitors outside the tourist season.
The end of the conference was marked by an organized tour of Biokovo Botanical Garden Kotišina, as well as a visit to the exhibition “Endemic Path in the Eyes of a Child”, which presented drawings created during workshops and camps in all three protected areas.
