INA’s Green Belt Expands with 15 New Projects Focused on Environmental Protection

Today, a ceremonial award presentation was held for the winners of INA’s Green Belt, which received as many as 158 ideas this year.

The Green Belt is INA’s program aimed at all civil society organizations, public and educational institutions, nature parks, and volunteer fire departments in Croatia, with the goal of promoting environmental protection and sustainable development.

– Eleven years ago, when we started this project, we never dreamed it would become this big and important. Thanks to everyone who applied to our competition this year, as well as in previous years and realized their green ideas, we can say that the Green Belt has become a real movement! I congratulate all the winners; your ideas are an inspiration to all of us and proof that together we can achieve great things and create a greener and more beautiful tomorrow – said Krešimir Katić, Director of Marketing Communications at INA.

This year’s competition received 158 applications, and a total of 15 brilliant ideas were selected to expand the Green Belt and contribute to the preservation of our planet. The winning projects were chosen based on clearly defined criteria that include the expansion of green areas, sustainability, revitalization of land and water surfaces, preservation of biodiversity, combating climate change, and education. Additionally, three kindergarten projects were presented on INA’s YouTube channel, where the criterion was the highest number of views.

– Thank you to everyone who submitted educational, socially beneficial projects that also showed love for our planet. It is a great honor for me to be part of this project, although it was not easy for us in the expert jury to select only 15 from among them. They are all truly beautiful stories. One of the criteria we followed was that the project should green as large an area as possible to ensure ecological, health, and climate benefits – stated commission member Kristijan Iličić.

A total of 60,000 euros will be awarded for the implementation of the selected projects, and some projects will be realized with the help of INA’s Volunteer Club.

– In accordance with the need to raise awareness in the local community about the importance of preserving indigenous tree species, the project ‘Parks for the Future’ plans to plant educational parks with indigenous tree species at 17 locations throughout Međimurje. The project will raise awareness about maintaining the forest fund by reforesting with indigenous species, while at the same time allowing children and citizens to actively participate in shaping public space and contributing to the preservation of biodiversity. INA’s Green Belt competition has proven to be an excellent solution for realizing projects that pay great attention to such sustainable initiatives – said Vedrana Radmanić, head of the Local Action Group-LAG.

– With this project, we want to create a new, green playground for future generations, so that today’s children, by learning about nature and caring for it, leave a more beautiful playground for future generations, full of natural shade, with fruit trees, beds where children will grow vegetables to be used for meal preparation, as well as a more natural environment, safer for play and learning. In collaboration with children, educators, parents, the local community, and INA, and with the goodwill of all actors involved in the realization, we are achieving the vision of Regoč as a place of quality living for children and adults in a stimulating environment – stated Vlatka Marošević, director of the Regoč Kindergarten.

The selected projects are:

1. Public Institution Nature Park Žumberak – Samoborsko gorje – Learning from schoolchildren – the return of millennial beauties
2. Mountaineering Society Paklenica – Mountain without waste
3. Association for the Protection of Animals, Nature, and Society Happy Courtyard – Green Gates of Sopnica
4. Elementary School Žakanje – From the clean lake, the heart shines
5. Secondary School Center for Education and Upbringing, Zagreb – More than rain
6. HGSS Station Gospić – Clean seabed of Pag
7. LAG Međimurski doli i bregi – Parks for the Future
8. Association Depaul Croatia – Recycle, Reactivate, and Rehabilitate
9. Secondary School Ilok – Green Fingers of Ilok
10. Association Green Plan – Green Plan for a Cleaner Adriatic
11. Elementary School Matija Petra Katančića, Valpovo – Let’s Green the School
12. Volunteer Fire Department Grabarje – Revitalization of the Playground
13. Kindergarten Sabunić, Privlaka – Green Islands – home for pollinator insects
14. Kindergarten Tratinčica, Brinje – Greener Brinje
15. Kindergarten Regoč, Babina Greda – Green Playground for Future Generations (most views on YouTube)

INA has been contributing to improving the quality of life in local communities for 60 years, and through the Green Belt, it aims to help address environmental issues so that together we can build a greener Croatia.

More information: www.ina.hr/zelenipojas.