Bio-diversity

NGO Aronija in the period from 2008 to 2009 has completed the project Let s bring back the old types of apples and pears to our tables . The reason why NGO want to re-create this project is the increased interest for cultivating the old types of apples and pears in the region of Pijanec and Malesevija. The increased interest is due to the successful completion of the project in the period from 2008 to 2009. (1050 apples and 350 pears were planted by 12 farmers). Currently, 95% of the plants are in good condition and NGO expect in 2011 to collect the first fruits. Also for increasing the interest in the project contributed the presentation, held on 27.08.2009 in Delchevo, where the project coordinator presented the completed project. The local TV D1 attended the presentation and informed the public about the activities and achieved results of the project. The National Public Station also made a presentation about the project. For cultivating the old types of apples and pears are interested the members of Aronija who haven t received plants with apples and pears, members who received plants and want to enlarge their fields and also other interested farmers in the region. Another reason why NGO wants to re-create this project is to acquire useful insects and place to reproduce these insects which will keep the plants from diseases and infections, on the fields from the project of 2008-2009 and the further fields from 2011. The project activities are part of The Central Area, Biological Diversity OP 13. With the project implementation NGO wants to increase the number of plants with authentic old types of apples and pears, and by that to help interested farmers to acquire plants. Also NGO wants to secure two types of insects which are important to protect the biological balance in the nature, because there are few places for their reproduction. These insects live in old houses and barns in the walls, which are made out of clay and mud and spend the winter in it. Because there aren t a lot of places with old houses, the solar bee has no place to spend the winter and slowly dies. Also, these bees don t fly far from their home, around 200-300 meters away. Concerning the insect zlatokosa , it is important to say that huge number of them dies through the winter. The places for these insects will help protect their life cycle by making their home movable and placed in the farmer s front yards in the winter. These insects are useful in the process of cultivating apples and pears and help pollinating of the plants and protect the plants from other harmful insects, such as: lisni voski , butterflies etc. Therefore we must build special small houses for these insects, so that they will make it through the winter, and later in the spring brought back to the fields to pollinate plants. It is important to put small insect houses also on the fields from the project of 2008-2009. The target group will consist of farmers with small economic position and farmers from the small ethnical groups, such as Romes and Turks. NGO will use the experiences from Croatia (from the Croatian Institute for Agriculture, contact person Mrs. Marija Shevar, Chief. For more info: www. hzpss.hr/publikacija/ekoloska poljoprivreda) in the field of protection and the benefits from the insects in the process of cultivating fruit plants. The farmers that want to be part of this project are already new members of the NGO Aronija . With this, the NGO completes part of the long-term and short-term goals of the NGO s Strategic Work Plan for 2011.

Macedonia