Annual Report 2002 of the Rozmberk Society

The Rozmberk Society was established in April 1998 as a public benefit corporation for the conservation of natural and cultural heritage combined with regional development. The mostly flat, rural operating area covers a surface of 1,116 square kilometers (436 sq. miles) comprising the fishpond region in the eastern part of the province of South Bohemia, Czech Republic. The region harbors approximately 48,000 inhabitants in 50 villages and small towns.

Flooding in 2002

Central Europe suffered from serious flooding in August 2002, especially along the Danube and Elbe rivers. The Vltava (or Moldau as most people know this river) and Luznice rivers are part of the Elbe catchment. The flooding also hit our area, although not so severe. The rainy period some weeks before the actual flooding saturated the higher catchments and natural buffer areas. In this period Kojakovice had some flooding along its main road; the raised groundwater level flooded the cellars of our Kojakovice the Center. During the main flooding in August, bridges and houses along the Luznice River were washed out and several fishponds were overflowing. In a few fishponds the lower dams were breached. The dam of the fishpond Svet next to the town of Trebon was intentionally breached to drain surplus water into the adjacent meadows to prevent the pond from spilling into the historic town center. The main destruction occurred more westerly along the Vltava, hitting Ceske Krumlov, Ceske Budejovice, Prague, and several smaller towns and villages. Early 2003 repairs were still continuing; it is expected that it will take well into 2004 before all bridges are repaired.

I. Activities and Projects in 2002

1. Kojakovice Peasant Museum and Information Center (Kojakovice Center, Kojakovice Project).

Since 2001, the Society operates a small museum and information center in the former school of the protected village of Kojakovice. The Center was open during weekends from April until October 2002, and full-time from June until the 15^th of September. The Center was also opened outside hours to visitor groups, in particular from the Greenways program. Around 1100 people visited the Center. The special event weekends attracted another 600 people to Kojakovice. Visitor numbers were lower than expected due to the bad weather and the flooding.

Locals often come in for a short talk, to look at new things in the Center, or bring new objects. Children from Kojakovice and surrounding villages regularly come to the Center use the computers. They do use Internet and write homework on the computers, but mainly they come to play games. We allow this since it brings the children to the Center on a regular basis. This helps build their interest in our activities and their skills in use of computers and languages. We also provided a simple course on computer skills for those children.

Project MNEMOSYNE

The Society was a partner of the EU Culture 2000 project MNEMOSYNE. This project was lead by the Italian town of Torremaggiore; other partners were from Spain, Bulgaria, Lithuania, and the UK. This 1-year project started in November 2001. The project aims were to raise awareness about the local cultural heritage, help people exploit this heritage in a sustainable way, and fight unemployment and social exclusion in the region. Within the framework of this project the Society ran several activities.

The Society organized courses in like lace, ceramics, and traditional dance. They were organized as after-school activity for children; the lace course was also given as course for adults.

The Society organized two craft demonstration weekends in Kojakovice. We showed forgotten historic information about ore winning in the Kojakovice region, how to melt ore from ore-containing rock, charcoal making, forging, and bronze working. A group of young blacksmiths from the Czech and Slovak Republics, and from Belgium showed their crafts during the event. A retired charcoal burner taught the blacksmiths and visitors how to burn charcoal to be used for forging. Children and adults alike enjoyed the medieval sword fighting of a theatre group. During the preparation and the actual event, there was a lively exchange of ideas between the Kojakovice people and the visiting crafts people.

The Society also organized a market event on the Trebon market square. The event was a combined action of this project and the Youth Exchange. Several small companies were invited to show their crafts and sell their products. Children from the dance course showed group dances and taught dances to passing visitors. Invited non-profit organizations showed their material about preserving the natural heritage of the region and about environmental education.

Helping create new jobs and new companies, and involving low-chance groups in this are social and regional development aims that are an important part of all EU programs.

They were also important aims of the MNEMOSYNE project. The Society employed or contracted 1 person full-time and 4 par-time within this project, two of them low educated and unemployed. We did not manage to further involve the target groups as originally planned. This was due to underestimating the legal and social barriers restricting unemployed people and young, new entrepreneurs.

To identify the problems, we discussed this with the local and regional labor offices, local authorities, non-profit partners, and the target groups. The problems we encountered were not specific for this project, but are of a more general nature. They lay mainly within the legal and financial restrictions of the Czech unemployment and social security system, the unwillingness or fear of most people to change or become involved in anything new, and the lack of financial support and tax breaks for start-ups.

The project was used as a starting point to address at least some of these problems by developing the concept of an incubator for traditional crafts. This incubator should help provide a more favorable environment for new entrepreneurs.

The incubator will have a central office in the town of Nove Hrady. It will not be a traditional business incubator with all workshops in one central location. Instead the companies will have their own workshops throughout the region. The Society will employ 1-2 persons to provide on-location support to the entrepreneurs in topics of legislation, financial administration, and marketing. We will also develop a joint website and marketing strategy, provide access to Internet, etc.

Practical development of the incubator will start in the spring of 2003. The project has been included in the MNEMOSYNE II proposal. Additional funds are needed, even if MNEMOSYNE II is approved. Funding will also be sought through EU projects and the Czech Ministries of Social Affairs, Regional Development, and Culture.

EU Youth Exchange “Sustainable, small-scale agriculture and agro-tourism; opportunities for young farmers in the EU and Pre-accession countries?”

This year the Society hosted a youth exchange project focusing on how to develop or safeguard small scale and alternative methods of farming and agro-tourism in the Pre-Accession and EU countries. The exchange was funded by the Czech National Agency for the EU Youth Program. It was a follow-up on an earlier exchange that took place in Italy in 2001.

In May, group leaders came to Trebon for a preparatory visit. The actual exchange took place from 17-29 September. The 45 participants came from six countries: Italy, Spain, Belgium, Bulgaria, and the Slovak and Czech Republics. Originally, a student from the USA would join this exchange, to share some of their experience. She had to abandon her participation 2 days before departure due to illness.

The exchange offered lectures and excursions to farms and fishponds. The participants learned about problems and possibilities of agriculture and agro tourism in the Czech Republic. These topics where then discussed in working groups. The program included a 2-day excursion to the Moravian Wine Trails, co-organized by Nadace Partnerstvi – Greenways. The Moravian Wine Trail is a successful example of small-scale nice agriculture combined with tourism.

To learn about each other's culture, each of the participating groups had to prepare a “country evening”. This meant cooking dinner for the whole group in the style of their country with characteristic music and some explanations. One Saturday the participants joined the market event, showing information material and products from their countries. On 26 September, the participants enjoyed a day of language play with 55 visiting children from our partner school in Jilovice. This action was part of the Czech National Day for Languages aimed at familiarizing school children with foreign languages. This joined meeting was a big success. The exchange ended with a visit to the Kojakovice Center and participated in the crafts weekend in Kojakovice.

Project Ecomuseum Ruze and Greenways “Rozmberk Rural Heritage Trail”

The Society is coordinating regional efforts to develop the Ecomuseum Ruze. An eco-museum is based on the idea of drawing attention to a place, creating in a “museum without walls”. Nature, culture and history are interpreted in situ" through story telling, education trails, monuments, and other symbols. The interaction between nature and people is emphasized and local people should be actively involved.

The Society is now a certified partner of the Greenways-Zelene stezky program of the Environmental Partnership. The Greenways Prague Vienna runs through the region but is not very well developed. The Society is planning to help add a new loop to the Greenways under the name Rozmberk Heritage. Together with another non-profit organization from this region the Society is preparing a package of new and existing trails that can be offered to both Czech bicyclists and the more high-end foreign visitors like the Greenways clients. The trails will cover the cultural and natural highlights of our rural region that form the backbone of the Ecomuseum.

Two grant applications for developing these activities were rejected in the final decision round. The donations from the Greenways visitors of last year will be used to help fund at least the minimum needed information material in preparation of next year’s visitor season.

Migration and Intercultural Relations, Challenges for Schools Today

"Migration and Intercultural Relationships, challenges for schools today" was an education project funded by the EU Socrates Program. In 2001, the Norwegian coordinator submitted an application for enlarging the network. The Society and its local partners would join this enlarged network. That application was rejected but has been updated and re-submitted this year. It has been accepted to the final round of approval in 2003. If approved, the project will run for three years, from 2003 through 2005. As part of these activities, the Society helped two regional schools to apply for an in-service teacher training on this topic, one of which was accepted.

Cooperation with the Academic and University Center, Nove Hrady

Since 2001, the Society and its director cooperate with the Academic and University Center (AUC) in Nove Hrady. We assisted in preparing project proposals and gave logistic support. In the summer of 2002, the Society helped with organizing a Graduate Course for a German partner university and an international biotechnology workshop. This workshop focused on innovative techniques in plant biology with applications in agriculture and biomedicine.

Local collaboration, Association Ruze[1]

Collaboration with the Jilovice and other key municipal authorities has been further strengthened this year. The involvement of the Kojakovice people in the Museum activities continues at a steady level. Both large actions of the Society in Kojakovice received enthusiast support. People from the region continue to visit the Center and offer new objects for display.

The collaboration with the Jilovice Basic School was further strengthened. As of this year, all Czech state schools have become legal independent entities (as opposed to be run by municipal authorities). Smaller schools are threatened with closure unless they can attract more children or obtain additional income through after-school activities. The Society with its Kojakovice Center and the Jilovice Basic School are now jointly preparing after-school activities like language and computer courses, adult education, etc. As of 2003, these activities should attract more people to the Basic School and the Center and should generate some additional income for both partners.

In 2002, the Society was elected as full voting member of the inner council of the Association Ruze. The Society and the Kojakovice Center are mentioned in the jointly developed formation material about the region, and copies of those materials are distributed in the Kojakovice Center.

II Future activities

In the year 2003, the Society would like to focus mainly on developing the crafts incubator and the Ecomuseum program and on the historic migration activities. What activities actually will take place will depend largely upon whether the MNEMOSYNE II and the MIR project will be approved or not.

III. Financial Year 2002

The full financial and auditors report over the year 2002 are available upon request. The main points of the report are mentioned here.

In 2002, the main income for the Society came from the three-year grant from the Rockefeller Brother Fund (RBF). Additional funding was received from Nadace Partnerstvi (Greenways program), Ministry of Culture CR, Nadace Open Society Fund Prague, Labor Office Ceske Budejovice (employment support), and the EU Youth for Europe program.

2. The total income over 2002 at 79 500 EUR was well below the expenditure at 104 000 EUR. The negative result is due to the fact that the funds from the 3-year RBF grant for 2002 (40 000 USD annually) were paid in December 2001, while the funds for next year, which should have been counted as income in 2002, were actually paid in January 2003.

[1] Ruze is Czech for rose. It refers to the 5-petaled rose, family symbol of the old Rozmberk dynasty. The Association Ruze is an association of 15 municipalities and 3 non-profit organizations to further the re-development of the “Micro-region Ruze”, the core operating area of the Society.

Introduction

Flooding in 2002

I. Activities and Projects in 2002