Summary from Annual report 2006

Program for the support of sustainable energy sources

In 2006 we consecrated several projects to the enforcement of necessary changes in the energy sector, not only at the local Czech level. We pushed for modification of the Nuclear Act, but in spite of a first favorable vote and a positive standpoint of the Environmental Committee deputies of the lower chamber of the Czech Parliament finally rejected it just before the general elections. We tried to contribute to the public debate with conceptual arguments raised at the international conference "Economic aspects of the nuclear energy" organized together with the Movement DUHA. Together with this association we continued our support to the population of villages concerned by plans of construction of a deep storage site of burned-out nuclear combustible. We helped to open a discussion on this topic at candidates' forum before the general elections in one of the selected localities. In order to support public discussion of a new proposal of the European Energy Policy in the Czech Republic, we elaborated our own suggestions and a web page with the possibility to send suggestions to this document directly to Brussels office. We finished the international project CER2 "Central European Regions Cluster for Energy from Renewables", to which since 2004 apart us participated fourteen partner organizations from Central Europe.

We participated to the organization of South-Bohemian Renewable Energy Day with a graphic contest "Clean Energy for the Blue Planet" for elementary schools and presentation of energy documentary films in the KOTVA cinema in Ceske Budejovice. We gave a number of lectures on renewable resources at high schools and universities and also to the general public. Together with the association Jihoceske matky we organized an exhibition of the photographer Vaclav Vasku reminding the twentieth anniversary of the Tchernobyl nuclear plant accident. We organized a training of ecologic consultants in Ceske Budejovice and also an excursion to a new Czech wind-power plant. We were very busy as energy consultants, too. Thanks to the participation in the South-Bohemian consultancy network the demand of consultancy considerably increased. Only on the energy issue, we received 266 questions. 

Program for the protection of environment and landscape

Thanks to the support of the EU project "Protection of South-Bohemian Nature - citizens issue" granted through the intermediary of the Civic Society Development Foundation (NROS) we continued our activities linked to our direct participation in authorization and decision-making processes. We fully resumed the monitoring of long-term causes and campaigns. Thanks to the projects oriented to nature conservation in the military area of Boletice and against the construction of a winter sports center we obtained that peripheral parts of the military area of Boletice were released for soft tourism. Exceptionally successful was a two-days workshop with an excursion to Boletice.

Every month we actively participated in approx. 20 selected authorization and decision-making processes on ministerial, regional and local levels within the framework of the project "South-Bohemian Nature - with and for people". Depending on the importance of the issue, we were entering into the processes of environmental assessment for the constructions following the Act Nr. 100/2001 Sb. (EIA) and we tried to improve the involvement of general public and to attract more public attention to those processes. We were collaborating on this issue with other NGOs for which we organized a workshop on the issue of public participation in administrative processes, including the use of legislation on the right to information.

Further on we developed an expert program for the protection of sandpits with a valuable natural environment. Thanks to the support of the Ministry for Environment of the Czech Republic - the program Transition Facility, of the company Telefónica O2 and of private donors we succeeded to map the sandpits in South-Bohemian region and created an extensive database of localities with a photographic archive. We organized two lectures on gravel mining and protection of sandpits, one of these lectures resumed the long-term activities of Calla association in the protection of a nesting area of sand martins in Trebec sandpit, where we managed to get an important terrain permitting us to create a land owners association. In November, Calla organized the workshop "Importance, exploitation and protection of South-Bohemian sandpits" that had a great success among officials, miners and scholars.

The project KRASEC supported the number of cultural, information and educational events. Among the most successful was the exhibition "The Nature of Boletice", accompanied by topical lectures in different locations. Green Thursdays oriented to the protection of nature were traditionally met with interest from the general public. The care for the Brouskuv Mlyn National nature reserve focused on the organization of a weeklong student participation and cleaning of the water sources by members of the association. Thanks to the support of "large" projects we managed to publish several didactic and information materials, of which in particular the brochure The Nature of Boletice had a great success not only at exhibitions, but equally as a background material for the organization of celebrations of opening of the Bird Area of the Year.

Thanks to our partnership in the project of the South-Bohemian Regional Network of environmental centers KRASEC we strengthened and improved ecology consultancy capacity of the Calla association. We provide common ecology consulting, while specializing in two fields - nature and environment protection and sustainable energy. Part of the activities of the KRASEC network is also publishing of a quarterly bulletin consecrated to regional topics and environmental issues. The project will end in 2007, but a civic association KRASEC is being created, that will resume the existing consultancy network cooperation.

We publish the e-magazin "Ďáblík" which provides information about our activities and projects. It contains opinions, topical essays, invitations, advice and other important information. Information is also available on our Internet homepage. With the co-operation of the ROSA association we hold regular workshops called "Green Thursdays", with interesting guests discussing various topics concerning the environment. We regularly take part in ecological markets, with a stand with educational and advertising materials.

Management report for 2006

Rate of exchange as of 31.12.2006: 1 EUR = 28,165 CZK (Czech Crowns)