ACCTING aims to understand the impact of Green Deal policies on vulnerable groups, prevent inequalities, and produce knowledge and innovations to advance behavioural change at individual and collective levels for an inclusive and equal European Green Deal. Read our report on all 693 mapped initiatives.
A waterway in service of local youths, elderly and low-income groups
Naš potok (Our Stream) is an initiative that motivates citizens to support socio-political change aligned with sustainability goals. The initiative focuses on a waterway (Pazinčica stream) which is affected by seasonal flooding and geomorphological changes, located in Pazin, a small town in central Istria (Croatia). The Our Stream initiative promotes sustainable behaviours that increase personal wellbeing, growth of social capital and community cohesion.
Together with the national government, the former local authority in Pazin aimed to reinforce the stream’s embankments and to straighten the streamflow, apparently to minimize the seasonal flooding damage. Our Stream rose against the maladaptive intervention, citing the Natura 2000 protection of biodiversity and access to nature for youths, elderly recreation and low-income citizens.
A new local government
The initiative’s members contributed to the formation of a new green-left political party which subsequently won the local elections in 2021. Some Our Stream members are now a part of the local authority, and its new conservation plans align with the initiative’s aims in terms of stream maintenance, its role in the local community and access for citizens.
Targeting local youths, elderly and low-income groups
The stream is a site of recreation for elderly citizens in a land-locked central Istria town, as well as facilitates vanishing low-income recreational fly-fishing. Istria is a region heavily dependent on all forms of tourism, and most fishing and shooting is now open to wealthier international tourists. The Pazinčica stream remains one of the sites open to low-income and elderly locals for fly-fishing, precisely because of its ‘untamed’ nature. For local youths the caves surrounding the stream as well as its pool puddles and vistas are a popular recreational site.
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