At the end of February our team implemented the first restoration activity at the project site. Controlled burning was performed on 6 hectares of overgrown grasslands at Dinara mountain.
Restoration activities of “Dinara back to LIFE” project are scheduled to start in the second year of implementation. First such activity, controlled burning, was performed at the end of the last week. Since it is an activity which has to be implemented in the cold period of the year, it was selected as the first one. The goal of controlled burning is to use it to remove unwanted wooden vegetation which is overtaking the grasslands.
In the beginning of February the project team published an article “13 questions about controlled burning”, as an announcement of the activity for the local community, answers for frequently asked questions, and open invitation for the community to further inform about the activity.
The weather conditions at the end of February were favorable for our activity, which was implemented 26.2. With coordination from the local firefighting unit and help from our volunteers, we managed to restore 6 hectares of overgrown grasslands. This experience was highly valuable for our team, as we plan to restore at least 100 hectares of overgrown grasslands by the end of the project. Implementation was also a testing activity for our team, as we learned about administrative and logistic requirements of the activity, which will help our work later on.
Controlled burning is a method we use to increase the quality of habitat for key species. In this case in Dinara mountain, it is used to improve the quality of habitat for Emberiza hortulana. This species often uses grasslands which were burned in previous years, and it’s habitat is endangered with overgrowing. The goal of our activity is to create favorable conditions for Emberiza hortulana on a larger surface, which will hopefully lead to an increase of it’s numbers.
Control and safety of the activity was guaranteed by the Public firefighting unit and 5 local firefighters. We would like to use this opportunity to express our gratitude once again for all of their advices and professionalism, and give a big thank you to our volunteers for supporting us and investing their energy, emotion and free time into nature conservation.
Don’t miss to check our photo gallery below with photos from the activity.
Media content analysis is an indispensable tool in the media that is used in assessing the effectiveness of communication about a particular subject, it’s tone and other public characteristics. When publications are collected in a certain period of time about a subject, the analysis of media publicity can see the extent to which the goal of its communication with the media and the audience has been achieved, what is the content or context in which the subject appeared. Most importantly, the analysis will help to create clearer content, monitor the interests of the media, and also to detect changes in media attitudes in the future.
One of the activities of the project was to collect media publications on the topic of “Dinara” that were published in the year before the start of the project “Dinara back to LIFE” (2019) and analyze the collected data. The analysis of the collected material will provide insight into the media space about Dinara and important topics close to the project before it’s start and give guidelines to the project team on how to implement, strengthen, but also adjust the communication of project activities to current media attitudes.
Collection and analysis of media content about Dinara, means searching for media publications on the topic of environmental protection in the project area and their analysis.
The material for the analysis was obtained by searching the digital archive for the term “Dinara”, and additional criteria were applied to the obtained publications, which improved the scope of the relevant content. Posts that only mention the term “Dinara” have been left out, due to their content not being related to the nature and topics of the project.
What did the media analysis record?
A total of 69 publications with the term “Dinara” were recorded for the period from January to December 2019. On average, the media published 6 publications a month about Dinara.
In the obtained content, the topics of the collected articles are mostly related to the quality of life and politics, but the announcements promoting the project “Dinara back to LIFE”, the announcement of the Dinara Nature Park, sustainable tourism and topics related to hiking and mountaineering activities also prevail, while a significant number of publications, mostly of commentary, sharply criticize the hydrocarbon exploration plan in the Dinara area.
Number of posts by months
The largest number of announcements was recorded in August (14) when the project “Dinara back to LIFE” was presented, but a monument to the Homeland on the Dinara was also unveiled. Next is the month of July (12) in which the plan to declare the Dinara area as a protected Nature Park was published, and the authors of the largest number of publications are Goran Šimac (tris.com.hr) and Rade Popadić (dalmacijadanas.hr).
Tonality assessmrnt and share of target topics
The tone of the announcements was predominantly affirmative (78% of the total announcements), and only 1 announcement of a negative tone was recorded. The measure for assessing the tone of publications (affirmative, neutral, negative) was determined in such a way that affirmative publications are those that benefit Dinara and its protection, those that advocate sustainable development and tourism, etc. Neutral publications are balanced reports on an event or political decision, without taking sides or expressing emotions, while those publications that advocated actions or developments detrimental to the Dinara and supporting short-term economic benefit without critical reflection on the future, consequences and legacy were negatively assessed.
Subject status and publicity
The publicity of the term “Dinara” in the collected publications is 86% primary, which means that Dinara was given a significant media space whose content is high quality (which is not the case with secondary publicity; where the subject of analysis is only mentioned, but the content does not deal with it).
We can conclude that the websites and portals have expressed interest and followed Dinara and projects related to it, which is especially evident in the increase in the number of publications about the proclamation of Nature Park, Natura 2000 and the presentation of the project “Dinara Back to LIFE”.
It is positive that some portals, especially locally oriented ones, react in a timely manner and invite the public to express reactions to projects that could have catastrophic consequences in the long run, such as hydrocarbon exploration in the Dinara area.
Researching what the media scene recorded about Dinara last year, what kind of content the audience followed and how much space was opened for topics that were less written about, is a great opportunity for the project team to continue achieving its communication goals.
The results of the analysis and the full report are available here.
If you are visited by field examiners with a short questionnaire in the next ten days, don’t worry – LAG “Cetina Krajina” and the Biom association are conducting a field survey about the importance and biodiversity of the Dinara and its potential for the local population.
The research is conducted as part of the “Dinara back to LIFE” project, which aims to preserve the Dinaric grasslands, encourage their sustainable use and provide support to the local population for the development of agricultural and tourist activities in the Dinaric area.
”To live by the Dinara certainly has its privileges and advantages. The whole area is an exceptional nature resource which should be known how to make the most of and to encourage local people to develop the potential that Dinara has. That is why the opinion of the local population is important to us, and through this examination it will be a great help to us in further activities” , says Melani Glavinić from the Biom association.
The survey is completely anonymous and takes only 15 minutes. After, it is followed by data entry and processing. The test results will be published on the project website as well as the local media. The collected data will help guide the project team to direct further project activities and see how the local population perceives the Dinara.
If you have any questions about this research or aquire additional information, you can contact the phone number 021/274 946 or e-mail: dinarabacktolife@gmail.com. The examiners will conduct research the towns of Knin, Sinj, Trilj and Vrlika and the municipalities of Hrvace, Kijevo, Otok and Civljane.
We are proud and joyful that another LIFE project has officially started in Croatia, for the first time in the Cetina valley. The project was created by the joint effort of Biom association with the University of Zagreb Faculty of Agriculture, Hrvatske šume d.o.o. and the LAG “Cetinska krajina”.
At the first meeting of project partners, the goal was to gather all members of the project team, present the goals and activities in the first phase of the project and to announce the upcoming activities. Each partner presented their share in the project with an emphasis on the identification of key activities within the project area, which will contribute to the knowledge of biodiversity, but also to encourage the population for sustainable management. The team met with representatives of the City of Vrlika, Mayor Juro Plazonić, his deputy Nikola Uzun and a representative of the Alkar stud farm to identify opportunities for cooperation in the project area for breeding horses.
Except of the work meeting, the team toured part of the project area; meadows near Vrlika, Ježevićko Suhopolje, part of Vrdovo area at the foot of the Mali Maglaj peak and wells through out Gornji Bitelić.
With the aim of encouraging and perseverance biodiversity on Dinara Mountain, we have started the project entitled “Dinara back to LIFE”.
The project consists of conservational activities for restoring grasslands, including manual removal of overgrown vegetation, its removal by planned grazing and controlled burning, as well as additional activities, creating institutional requirements for preserving grasslands and providing support to the local population in developing agricultural and tourist activities basing their value on co-existence with nature.
In the first few months, while habitat analysis and selection of appropriate approach to perseverance of grasslands are underway, the project team plans to visit examples of good practices within Croatia, but also in neighboring countries to improve their future activities.
The total duration of the project is three years and seven months. The activities will be implemented in the area of Knin, Sinj, Trilj, Vrlika and the municipalities of Civljane, Hrvace, Kiev and Otok. It is important to emphasize that the project area is a part of Natura 2000, an ecological network of areas important for the conservation of endangered species and habitat types of the European Union.
Former grasslands in the Mount Dinara area, used as pastures for livestock since the ancient times, are now mostly unkempt. In order to bring back life and pastures to the Dinara area, the “Dinara back to LIFE” project will restore overgrown grasslands and work on creating institutional requirements for their future sustainable management as well as promote livestock farming as a nature preserving traditional activity.
With the aim of bringing life back to Mount Dinara, we have started the project entitled “Dinara back to LIFE”. The project consists of conservational activities for restoring grasslands, including manual removal of overgrown vegetation, its removal by planned grazing and controlled burning, as well as additional activities, creating institutional requirements for preserving grasslands and providing support to the local population in developing agricultural and tourist activities basing their additional value on co-existence with nature.
Habitats targeted by restoration are dry grasslands, while endangered species in the main focus are bird species dependant on this type of habitat such as the ortolan bunting, greater short-toed lark and stone-curlew. Furthermore, the impact of project activities on orchids, cade juniper, the red-backed shrike, endemic grasshoppers and the activity of bees, as well as on the phenological dynamics, development stage, productivity and dry pasture nutritive value will be monitored.
