Successful cross-border cooperation between BiH and Croatia on a project funded by the EU, “Una: unique resource for sustainable development”

Kozarska Dubica hosted an international competition for fishermen on 26.08.2012 as one of the final activities of the project funded by the EU through IPA CBC “Una: unique resource for sustainable development.”

12 teams from Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia participated in this contest, held over the weekend close to newly constructed fishing house in Kozarska Dubica, . At the same time, presentation of the project and the distribution of promotional materials with signing of a joint platform for the development of tourism were held.

Partner countries in the project are Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia.Holder of the project in BiH is municipality Kozarska Dubica with partner municipality of Kostajnica local tourism organizations, while on the Croatian side holder of the Project is the town of Hrvatska Kostajnica with its partners – municipality of Hrvatska Dubica and Tourist  Organization of Hrvatska Kostajnica.

“Three fishermen’ houses has been built as part of the project. Moreover,, fishermen’ house in Kostajnica has been restored, Una river cleaned,access roads built,  a pedestrian bridge on the river Strigova constructed, signs about the tourist offers posted, provided training and certification for the 12 rural households, which will be equipped to accommodate tourists, and hired and trained 8 tourist guides and 4 fish guardians. In the field of increasing awareness about responsible tourism, a series of workshops and presentations were held by the newly trained tour guides in cooperation with tourism organizations and fishermen’ associations. They adopted a joint platform for the sustainable development and responsible tourism and the code of conduct. They have also designed a website, printed promotional material and prepared a promotional video clip”, project leader Amir Idrizović explained.

Mayor of Kozarska Dubica, Nino Jauz,  said that this project has significantly improved the competitiveness of the local tourism industry through the creation of joint tourist offer in the lower flow of the river Una.

“The purpose of this project, among other things, was to make a certain infrastructure for the further development of sport fishing and tourism, and in this regard the municipality cooperated with local Angling Society “Klen” so the fishermen’ house, which is located on the bank of the river Una had their use, ” Mayor Jauz stated.

He added that the project gave a good basis for the development of tourism, and after its realisation remains to make a solid tourist offer in Kozarska Dubica and other border municipalities with the assistance of the Ministry of Tourism, tourism organizations and other stakeholders involved in tourism development.

Project leader from Croatia, Lidija Ikasović, said that the project will contribute to the development of fishing tourism on the river Una because there was not enough accommodation or other infrastructure for accommodation of fishermen in the area of municipalities of Kostajnica and Hrvatska Dubica. She specified that the Croatian side spent funds on the reconstruction of the existing house and the fishing pond in Hrvatska Kostajnica, building fishing trail in Hrvatska Kostajnica and Hrvatska Dubica, where they also built fishermen’ house.

“At the end of the project we have to be happy because we got two valuable tourist capacities, and as for cooperation in the future, we are already in the second round of call for two projects where once again our partners are municipality Kozarska Dubica, Kostajnica, Hrvatska Dubica and Hrvatska Kostajnica so I believe that our cooperation on cross-border projects will be continued in the future,” Ikasović said.

The EU has provided 236,023.97 Euro for this project from the Instrument of Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA) the cross-border cooperation, of which 118,170.00 Euro were allocated to BiH and 117,000 Euro to Croatia.

Europa.ba