Under the auspices of the Federal Ministry of Environment and Tourism and organized by the Chamber of Commerce of the Una-Sana Canton, the 11th EKO-bis, the International Fair of Ecology, Ecotourism, and the Ecological Industry, was opened by the Federal Minister of Environment and Tourism, Branka Đurić.
At the fair, which spans over 10,000 square meters on the City Island on the Una River and will last until Sunday, over 300 exhibitors from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro, Slovenia, Austria, Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Italy, France, Turkey, Finland, and Israel are participating this year. For the first time, exhibitors from China and Indonesia are also presenting, and the partner of this year’s EKO-bis is Karlovac County.
This year’s EKO-bis is dedicated to protected areas through its content and accompanying events, and as part of this fair, an international conference on cross-border cooperation titled “Sustainable Development in Protected Areas” was held. Another novelty is that for the first time at EKO-bis, the Dinaric Arc Parks – Parks of the Dinaric Arc, a networking project for protected areas from the Alps to Albania, participated as an exhibitor alongside the National Park “Una”.
One of the specific obstacles to better cross-border cooperation and economic development in the areas along the state border of Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina is the mine contamination of the terrain. Therefore, Đurđa Adlešič, the manager of the humanitarian demining foundation “Croatia Without Mines”, emphasized the importance and possibilities of financing demining projects from various international sources and their application, based on the Croatian model, through the international fund International Trust Foundation based on cross-border cooperation between Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
