10 Strategy

10. Agenda 21 in Maribor, Slovenia Maribor (German: Marburg an der Drau) is the second largest city in Slovenia. The population of Maribor is approximately 133,000. Maribor lies on the river Drava at the meeting point of the Pohorje mountain, the Drava Valley, the Drava Plain, and the Kozjak and Slovenske gorice hill ranges. It is the center of the Slovenian region of Lower Styria and its largest city. Maribor is surrounded by moountains and hosts races for the Alpine Skiing World Cup. For the last few years Maribor has been very interested in improving its environment and has set up a group to prepare a local environmental strategy under the auspices of Agenda 21. Agenda 21 is a programme run by the. United Nations (UN) related to sustainable development. It is a comprehensive blueprint of action to be taken globally, nationally and locally by organizations of the UN, governments, and major groups in every area in which humans impact on the environment

With the independence of Slovenia in 1991, the harmonisation of the environmental legislation with EU guidelines at the state and local level was launched. Environmental parameters have been thoroughly monitored for the last ten years. In-depth monitoring of air, soil, underground water (a source of drinking water), surface water, and wastewater pollution in the years 1980 to 1995 shows that certain critical values exceed the state-defined parameters (pesticides, mineral oils, nitrates in drinking water, sulphur dioxide and ozone in the air). A continuous upgrading of monitoring databases is used for the assessment of the state of the environment, analysis of trends and as the basis of sanitation programs containing the schedules for their implementation, which depend on the seriousness of the problem. They are also used for the preparation of the long-term local environmental protection strategy - Local Agenda 21 for Maribor. The municipality of Maribor also prepare yearly reports about the state of the environment in Maribor. The Municipality of Maribor (MOM) is a member of The European Sustainable Cities and Towns Campaign and as the member the city council undertook the obligation to adopt and implement the Local Agenda 21 – the Sustainable Development Program. Municipality of Maribor has started with Local Agenda 21– Environmental protection program for Maribor (LA 21 – EPP for Mb) in March 1999 by signing the Allborg charter. It is the obligation for the city for creating gradually the sustainable development. The document LA 21- EPP for Mb was finshed in 2001.

The Agenda 21 group in Maribor is having more success with their programme to make the city bicycle-friendly, modelling it on a project in the nearby Austrian city of Graz. NGO involvement in nature conservation is also showing positive results.