Montenegro

Exhibition "My Forest" in Podgorica and Žabljak: cooperation between Finland and Montenegro continues

Podgorica, July 2006 - Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Finland together with the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management of the Republic of Montenegro and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Montenegro, organized an exhibition titled "My Forest", which took place on July 6th in Podgorica and on July 17th in Žabljak/National Park Durmitor. The exhibition showed photo collages excerpted from the Finnish book «My Forest, Full of Life» (photographs Hannu Hautala and Lassi Rautiainen – text Lasse Lehtinen) and panels concerning the forestry and biodiversity in Montenegro and the project "Environmental Geographic Information System (GIS) for Montenegro".

«Covering 76% of Finnish territory, forest makes a unique core component of identitety of our country which is most heavily forested one in Europe», said Ms. Anna-Maija Korpi, Ambassadoress of the Republic of Finland in Serbia/Montenegro in her introductory speech in Podgorica. - By using forest resources in a sustainable way, its inhabitants and authorities created an extensive network which supports economic, social and cultural continuity without which Finland would not be what it is, she reminded.

- Besides informing about the activities of the Republic of Finland in domain of sustainable forestry, this exhibition provides an opportunity to present the activities of the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs related to the support to the Montenegrin Forestry Sector. These activities are intended to support the regional cooperation in domain of Forestry Sector staff education and they also entail $ 500.000 worth finanancial support to the project "Environmental Geographic Information System (GIS) for Montenegro". The duration of this project is one year and a half and the local UNDP Office is assisting the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management in the realization, said Mr. Miodrag Dragišić, Social Inclusion Programme Team Leader on behalf of UNDP office in Montenegro.

- Our aim is to permanently promote protection and development of forests which cover 54% of Montenegrin territory, said  Mr. Milutin Simović, Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management. “In Montenegro, as well as in Finland, forests are extremely important for preservation of natural balance, biodiversity and the quality of the environment but also for the development of economic potentials, especially in the northern, underdeveloped part of Montenegro”, Mr. Simović said. He also added that the introduction of Geographic Information System will help a great deal in changing the current way of utilization and protection of forests and forest lands to a sustainable one.  

At the opening of the exhibition in Žabljak, Mr. Aleksi Vakkuri, Second Secretary of the Embassy of the Republic of Finland in Belgrade said that people of Finland had «innate capability to respect the nature».  - The largest part of Finnish industry is based on forests and the Finnish forest industry employs 65,000 people. Finnish forest growth over the last 40 years was 20-30% greater then cutting resulting in 8% of GDP and 30% of exports. Also, 95% of forests are FSC certified and 3 out of 5 most successful Finnish companies deal with lumber industry, said Mr. Vakkuri.

"My Forest" in Podgorica - Photo gallery