Project:

Support to Agro-Environmental Programs in Central and Eastern Europe (1997 - 2000)

Project 2078 CEE 78, supported by the Dutch foundation AVALON, started in 1997. The aim of the project was to prepare data for governments of all seven participating countries to draft governmental programmes for agriculture which would solve the issues of protected areas biodiversity protection and would be comparable to EU legislation. The main task was to assure the activities of national expert group preparing necessary materials for the Czech government based on data from selected regions (White Carpathians, Litovel Moravia river basin, Podblanicko area).
We consider the project very successful as the results of the project were taken over to the "Programme for development of rural areas and agriculture", the government document presented by the Czech Republic to the European Union as one of the documents for SAPARD programme which then provided subsidies on ecology activities of farmers in the above mentioned regions up to the accession of the CR to the EU. The results of the project were further on developed by the Research Institute for agricultural economy, its branch in Brno, and served as the basis for agro-environmental subsidies of HRDP after the accession of the CR to the EU.

Project:

Support to Organic Agriculture in the Countries of Central and Eastern Europe (1995 - 2001)

The project, financed by the German foundation Heindrich Boell Stiftung, started in 1995 and was finalized in 2001. Thanks to the project, there was an information system for ecology focused agriculture created and presented on Internet. Publishing of "Bioměsíčník" - monthly magazine for sustainable life - was promoted as well as that of Organic Agriculture Bulletin (Bulletin Ekologického zemědělství). There was a control and certification institution Control of Organic Agriculture established (Kontrola ekologického zemědělství KEZ, o. p. s.), which carried out training and professional education of inspectors. A new system of control over farmers, processors and bio product traders was finalized together with organic agriculture control information system.
Cooperation in processing of subject-matter intent and bill of a new act on organic agriculture was also important. The Act has already come into force and represents an important contribution to further development of the organic agriculture in the Czech Republic.

Project:

Support to Ecology Activities in the Ecology Centre of Prague (1997 - 1999)
Ecology Centre of Prague "Toulcův dvůr" was the joint project of the Brontosaurus Botič movement and FOA Foundation and it started its activity already on 1994. Under the support provided by American foundation Rockefeller Brothers Fund from New York, a partial project supporting the activities of Toulcův Dvůr Ecology Centre started in 1997 and ended in 1999. The subsidy was provided to the development of children's bio farm as well as to marketing for bio food stuff sales. Since the beginning of the project, great attention was given to the development of the children's bio farm. There was a manager of children's bio farm hired and her remuneration covered from the project funds. Her task was to take care for domestic animals stabled in the farm and for farm land. Two horses wee bought for the farm. Hypo therapy of children was one of the reasons.
The "Bio farm" project organized by the Brontosaurus Botič movement continues its activity successfully up to now.
Further on, the financial support was provided to a "Bio club" manager until the mid of 1999. His activity focused on distribution of so called "bio boxes". These are the paper boxes with vegetables, dairy and baker's products delivered to customers upon their orders.
The "Bio club" continues in its activity even after the termination of the project and is in fact financially self-sufficient.

Project Rudolf (2003 - 2005)
FOA was a partner of the European Union project "Rudolf", programme Leonardo da Vinci. Two years lasting project Rudolf associated 17 partners from 9 EU countries. The total project budget amounted EUR 13,627.00. The main target was to create and expand a model of professional training suitable for the area of organic agriculture. The project aimed at creation of more specialized system of continuous education reflecting holistic approach to organic agriculture, reacting to market demands and using innovative technologies, especially interactive communication through internet platform, distant learning and multimedia. Mainly advisors, consultants and teachers formed the target group.
Project: Soil and Water Management in Agricultural Production in Urban Areas (SWAPUA) (1999 - 2002)
It was a three-year project implemented in co-operation with the Dutch foundation ECT. The aim was to map the urban agriculture in central and Eastern European countries and to determine possibilities of its further development. There were five countries involved in the project. Prague and Hradec Králové cities were selected as the pilot ones.
The activities of the first year focused on data collection through enquiries made among small gardeners selected as a representative sample. The contacts with Gardeners' Association were established and interest in mutual co-operation expressed.
In the second year of the project, there was a movie document called "The Best Practice" shot (examples of urban agriculture in the pilot cities). The Ecology Centre of Prague - Toulcův Dvůr was chosen as an example for this purpose in Prague, gardener's colony Malšovice and medicinal herbs garden in Hradec Králové.
During the last year of the project, there was a draft paper for rehabilitation and development of the gardeners´ colony "Obora" (warren) in Hradec Králové - Věrkoše produced as an example of modern multifunctional solution for gardeners´ colony. Landscape architect Ing. Martin Weber, a member of the project team, was the author of the project. In accordance with the agreement, the paper produced was handed over to the Gardeners´ Association of Hradec Králové city for their free use. The proposed solution was also published in the magazine "Zahrádkář" (Gardener) as the gardeners´ colony of the future. In June 2002 the project was presented in the final conference in Sofia where the project outputs of each project member were presented. The future of urban agriculture was also discussed there and especially multifunctional utilization of such areas was highlighted there.
The proposed project served as a contribution to the support and development of gardeners´ movement in the Czech Republic.

Project:

Creation of Ecology Network and Agro forest and Cultural and Educational Assumptions for Sustainable Development of Socotra Island in the Republic of Yemen (1999 - 2004)
The project implemented in the frame of bilateral foreign development assistance was financed from the state budget - Ministry of Agriculture of the CR. The amount of funds reached CZK 3,688 thousand. The first stage of the project started in 1999 and ended in 2001. In 2002 the second stage started and was finalized in 2004.
The main objective of the project was to determine principles of sustainable development of the Socotra Island I the Republic of Yemen. The Republic of Yemen is one of the least developed countries of the world (in respect of GDP per capita) and according to the Czech Republic's foreign development assistance concept as well as from the territorial point of view belongs to priority countries to which the foreign development assistance is provided. The project corresponded to the national activities of Socotra Island protection and development, and solved a part of development intents of the Yemen government in respect of the island. The government of the Republic of Yemen took the decision about development activities in Socotra Archipelago already in 1999. The development goals, direct targets and project outcomes corresponded to the intent and needs of EPA/MoWE - Yemen beneficiary institution.
Two working trips to Yemen were undertaken in the final year 2004 following the aim of finalizing activities in the areas of water management, ecotourism, EEC exposition, project presentation and physical hand-over of the project results to the Yemen party.
Main project results were:

• Installation and commissioning of water treatment plant ČOV EO 50 including walling in against rain water leaking for the state premises in Hadibo city
• Installation and commissioning of water treatment plant ČOV 250 in the area of Hadibo hospital
• Creation and installation of permanent nature exposition for EEC EPA Socotra Branch (Ministry of environment)
• GPS surveying and definition of eco tourist routes

Agro forest activities and concept of Land Cover for the draft of territorial systems of ecologic stability. The ecology network of Socotra Island is formed by an area with natural ecosystems representing variety of natural conditions of the island and assuring continuous preservation of genus fond.
Conclusions of the project
Czech know-how and implementation of selected proposals aiming at the solution of project goals in the area of water treatment, nature protection, ecology and improvement of environment was the benefit for Yemen party.
Recognition of the project results may be evidenced by Yemen interest in implementation of some other proposals of us. The intent and direct goals of the project are fully comparable with the aid provided by more developed donors. However, we can hardly face the competition of economically stronger countries in respect of financial contributions provided. Nevertheless, the results of the second stage of Socotra 2000 project with the total budget of CZK 8,095 million provided in three years have been assessed very positively by the Yemen party, and the Czech project was a very good complement to UNDP/GEF -YEM/96/ project amounting USD 4.5 mil + contributions of UNDP- 2.5 mil.USD + EU-0.5 mil EUR + GB-10,000 UKP in 1999 - 2001 and two times EUR 400,000 in 2002-2004 focusing to similar development goals.

Project:

Creation of an Information Network for permanently sustainable agriculture (1998 - 1999)
Project financed from TAF PHARE started already in 1998 and was finalized in 1999. It was undertaken in co-operation with the Ministry of Agriculture of the CR, Dutch consulting company Agro Eco Consultancy and Ministry of Finance of Netherlands which provided funds for the project.

The project comprised three main elements:
1) Connection of Czech scientists with continuous agriculture research in Europe
The European Union supports mutual co-operation between scientific institutions of member states. That is why there are efforts to create closer relations between Czech scientists and their colleagues from EU member states where greater and greater attention is given to the development of sustainable agriculture, and that is also the reason why the mentioned project focused on co-operation in this area.

2) Two databases were created - the research of permanently sustainable agriculture and the research of production of plants designated for non-food production
A group of Czech specialists was charged with the task to identify the level of research in the CR. The results of the group were stated as short excerptions in a database making information easily accessible. The database was then interconnected to similar databases already existing in Germany, France, the United Kingdom etc.

3) Policy of sustainable development of agriculture and policy of sustainable agriculture research
EU agricultural policy continuously shifts from the production of food-stuff to the focus on development of rural areas and environment protection. Such shift effects also the research focus in the frame of the EU. It is assumed that the research institutions operating in the EU candidate countries will be also involved in the sustainable agriculture development issues.