The ECNC project ‘Communicating nature conservation in the Balkan Region: Capacity building and pilot projects in Croatia and FYRO Macedonia’ is now in its final phase, which aims to set up an in-country capacity for training infrastructure. The goal of this phase is to use and deliver the communication skills obtained in the first phase of the project and during the pilot projects in both countries through a series of training workshops. The in-country trainers will be supported in setting up and running a series of two-day in-country training sessions for staff of local, regional and national organizations and NGOs not involved in the original training sessions.

In order to achieve the project objective, ECNC organized a refresher course for four participants per country, who were selected for this task during the kick-off meetings of the current project phase in Croatia and Macedonia. The refresher course was designed by Dr Lawrence Jones-Walters, together with Aysegul Cil and Mark Snethlage, and focused on the use of communication skills through facilitation, specifically workshops and multistakeholder groups in countries.

The participants found the refresher course extremely useful for upcoming basic training courses, which are due to be held in May 2008 with 30 participants per country. They were also enthusiastic about giving this training for future training programmes on communication and using facilitation skills in their daily work and in stakeholder group meetings.

More information: Aysegul Cil, Programme Manager – Nature and Society.