Deputy Minister Ermina Salkičević-Dizdarević at Expanded Constituency Workshop.

Sarajevo, 5 September 2013 – Deputy Minister Ermina Salkičević-Dizdarević  attended the Expanded Constituency Workshop of GEF for East Europe, organised by the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Global Environment Facility (GEF).

The GEF supports projects related to biodiversity, climate change, international waters, land degradation, the ozone layer, and persistent organic pollutants.

The Expanded Constituency Workshops are part of GEF's comprehensive programme to provide assistance to states in the period of the current GEF-5 financial period (July 2010 - June 2014). The goal of this workshop is to give participants the ability to share experiences and to encourage coordination between the GEF focal points and other stakeholders in the region and to familiarise them with all the latest information regarding the strategies, policies and procedures of the GEF - the so-called 6 GEF Replenishment process being among most important ones.

Up to 2010, the GEF approved 10 national projects in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the amount of $ 20,494,898 and 17 regional and global projects worth $ 66,072,346.

Deputy Minister Salkičević-Dizdarević stressed in her speech that Bosnia and Herzegovina, as a country that supports regional cooperation, acknowledges the importance of the workshop as a means to address main ecological issues. She also said that our country is ready to work together with the GEF on achieving environmental goals and thanked the GEF for the project called “Forest Mountain Protection Area“, worth $3.4 million – which helped increase the protected area in Bosnia and Herzegovina from 0,5% to 3% - and their assistance in the realisation of the project „Capacity development for the intregration of global environmental commitments into national policies and development decision making“.

On the sidelines of the workshop, Deputy Minister took the opportunity to speak with the Deputy Minister for Environment and Natural Resources of Georgia, Mr. Shalva Amiredjibi on joint GEF activities of the two countries.