ANNEX 3
PUBLIC CONSULTATION RECORD ON ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT REPORT
WITH THE ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT PLAN FOR
THE CENTER OF EXCELLENCE IN BIOINFORMATICS
1.
Notices, dates, locations and identified stakeholders for
public consultations
Following the World Bank's requirements, the public consultations on Environmental
Assessment Report with the Environmental Management Plan (EA Report with the EMP) for the
Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics (BIO-ICT) were held from July 07 to July 16 2014.
The Faculty for Electrical Engineering announced an invitation for public consultations for
the interested public, bodies and organisations through various media, as follows:
- In Daily Newspaper “Dan", on July 05 2014, (Attachment 1);
- On web-site of the Faculty on Electrical Engineering, on July 04 2014:
http://www.etf.ucg.ac.me// (Attachment 2);
- On web-site of the Institute for Marine Biology in Kotor (partner institution), on July 04
2014: http://www.ibmk.org/ (Attachment 3);
- On web-site of the HERIC project, on July 04 2014: http://www.heric.me/en/news/publicconsultations-ea-report-environmental-management-plan-project-center-excellence
(Attachment 4);
Draft EA Report with the EMP for BIO-ICT was published on the web-sites of the Faculty
for Electrical Engineering, of the Institute for Marine Biology and on the web-site of HERIC project
– Section: ABOUT THE PROJECT/ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT/CENTER OF
EXCELLENCE.
The notifications were sent to the following institutions and NGOs (on July 04 2014):
The Environmental Protection Agency (by e-mail);
The Ministry of Sustainable Development and Tourism (by e-mail);
The Capital Podgorica - Department for Planning and Spatial Regulation and
Environment Protection (by e-mail);
Municipality of Danilovgrad - Department for Spatial Regulation and Environment
Protection (by e-mail)
Municipality of Kotor- Department for the Protection of Cultural and Natural Heritage
(by e-mail)
Local Community Dobrota in Kotor (by mail)
Aarhus Center Podgorica (by e-mail);
NGO “Eko centar Delfin” Kotor (by e-mail);
NGO “Green Home” Podgorica (by e-mail);
The copies of notifications are in the Attachment 5 and 5-A .
Interested parties had been able to get insight into the hard copy of the draft EA Report with
the EMP every working days from July 07 to July 15, 2014 from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. as follows:
- At the Faculty for Electrical Engineering in Podgorica, Džordža Vašingtona b.b., in the
Office 343 (third floor);
- At the Institute for Marine Biology in Kotor, Dobrota b.b. in the Director’s Office and
- In the HERIC Office in Podgorica, Rimski trg 19, first floor.
2.
Public discussion and final conclusion
Nobody of the stakeholders has got insigt into the hard copy of the draft EA Report with the
EMP.
Interested parties had been able to submit all comments and objections to the addresses of the
Faculty for Electrical Engineering, Institute for Marine Biology and HERIC Project Office and to the
e-mail address: igordj@ac.me by July 15, 2014.
Public discussion was held at the Faculty for Electrical Engineering in the Meeting Hall on
July 16 2014 from 10 a.m. to 10:50 a.m. The participants were representatives of the FEE, IMB,
BTF and Ministry of Science (members of PMT). There were not the representatives of the
interested public, bodies and organization. Introductory presentation of the BIO-ICT project was
given by mr Maja Ilic Delibasic , representative of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and was
followed by a discussion as recorded in Minutes from public discussion (Attachment 6).
List of Attendees are in the Attachment 6-A.
There were not specific written comments or statements neither objections during
public discussion on the draft EA Report with the EMP for BIO-ICT.
Final version of the EA Report with the EMP with the Record on public consultation
will be published on the web sites of the Faculty for Electrical Engineering and HERIC
project.
In Podgorica, July 21 2014
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Attachment 1 (Invitation for public consultation published in Daily Newspaper “Dan”, July 05 2014)
Attachment 2 (invitation on public consultation announced on the website of the FEE)
Attachment 3 (invitation on public consultation announced on the website of the IMB)
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Attachment 4 (invitation on public consultation announced on the website of the HERIC project)
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Attachment 5 (Copy of notification sent to stakeholders by e-mail)
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Attachment 5-A (Copy of notification sent by mail to Local Community Dobrota in Kotor)
Attachment 6
Minutes from the Public discussion on the subject: EA Report with the EMP for CoE in
Bioinformatics
Date: July 16 2014
Time: 10 a.m.
Venue: Faculty for Electrical Engineering in Podgorica
Abstract of the discussion:
At the beginning the representative of the Faculty for Electrical Engineering mr Maja Ilic
Delibasic welcomed all participants. She presented the BIO-ICT project giving short description of
the objectives and expected results of the project. The project foresees, among other, the
implementation of the information and communication technologies (ICT) in the area of sustainable
agriculture, monitoring of the crops, forest and water/sea ecosystems, development of techniques for
controlling and reducing air pollution, analysis and standardization of food products, control of land
quality, improvement in the public health area. In order to deliver new products and services in the
area of bioinformatics, the BIO-ICT will use the ICT platform, developed by the researchers from
the FEE in order to boost the life sciences research, conducted by the staff from the domestic partner
institutions. She outlined that the BIO-ICT is follow-up of the Fore-Mont (FP7 project) aiming to
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integrate three research groups into a stonger ICT research team. The Fore-Mont project has
provided significant part of the laboratory equipment, while BIO-ICT will provide additional
equipment. Afterwards, mr Ilic Delibasic said that researchers from FEE have published about 100
papers in domestic scientific journals during the last five years as well as 50 papers in international
journals. The Faculty has also organized several significant conferences. Three FP7 projects are
ongoing, as well as projects financed by the TEMPUS Programme and NATO.
Mr Sasa Ivanovic, Project Manager for Research within the HERIC project outlined that the
CoE recipients will be required to show best effort to ensure that the funded activities are carried out
with attention to good environmental management. All approved projects have intermediate risk
with impacts that can be readily identified and prevented (such as BIO-ICT) or with low risk for
which environmental assessment was not required. After this public discussion, the Report on public
consultation will be prepared. The Ministry of Science will perform desk and field-based monitoring
functions to assure compliance by the CoE grant recipients with environmental obligations specified
in the EA Report with the EMP and report to WB (at least twice a year).
Ms Ilinka Beatovic, Environmental Safeguards Specialist on the HERIC project underlined
main principles of the WB safeguards policies (do no harm, do good, reduce and manage risk
for the Client and for the Bank). She informed attendants that the BIO-ICT project activities fall
into screening category “B” according to the World Bank rules and require partial site-specific
environmental assessment and development of the EMP.Possible major issues considered under the
EA process are laboratory safety, waste management, minor civil works related to the renovation of
the laboratory at the IMB and agricultural and ecological field works. In addressing environmental
safeguard issues related to project activities, all mitigation and monitoring measures are comply both
with Montenegrin legislation and World Bank safeguard policies and procedures. The applicant with
the partners developed the draft EA Report with the EMP and organized public consultation
including announcement through various media, sending notices to different stakeholders with a
suitable feedback mechanism for comments or objections. She explained that it is multiplex
document considering it covers project activities in several institutions in three cities on six
locations.The Check List with the EMP for renovation of the wet laboratory at the Institute for
Marine Biology is also part of the document and will be included in the contract for civil works.The
Environmental Assessment Team composed of experts in the field of environmental assessment,
marine biology, agriculture and ICT prepared the EA/EMP following the ToR provided by Ministry
of Science. It consists of the following parts: introduction with the short description of the
environmental segments and project activities and locations, possible negative impact on the
environment and finally EMP with proposed prevention and mitigation measures and capacity
building with the clearly defined responsibility and costs for all mitigation and monitoring activities.
Some prevention and mitigation measures are already used in laboratories, while some will be
introduced, like establishment of appropriate medical surveillance program and supervision for staff
and using the system of treating, reporting and recording injuries. Regarding capacity building,
training in best laboratory practice and waste management will be provided partly in collaboration
with the partners from abroad. She has also emphasized that the obligation of the Faculty of
Electrical Engineering to implement the EA/EMP will be laid down in grant agreement, while
obligations of partner institutions will be laid down in partnership agreements between the FEE, as
the project leader, and other partner institutions.
Dr Mirko Knezevic from Biotechnical Faculty asked if the costs for appropriate medical
surveillance program for laboratory staff will be paid from the project budget or from other sources
and how frequently the measure will be performed.
Ms Ilinka Beatovic answered that this is innovative and new measure in our laboratory
practice taken from the “Best Laboratory Practice for Safety in Research Laboratories” (from EMF
for the HERIC project). It is planned to carry out once a year and the Team for Environmental
Assessment envisioned to be financed from the project budget.
Dr Nedeljko Latinovic from Biotechnical Faculty as a member of the Environmental
Assessment Team for the BIO-ICT project provided information regarding to the research in
agriculture. He explained that research activities include two wholes: analysis of vine samples (taken
from the sites of weather stations) in the laboratory and examination of resistance to the presence of
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pesticides and processing the soil samples with vegetable crops with the view to researching the
nutritive elements. Weather stations will ensure weather data that will be used as the basis for
decisions on treatment of the vineyards and to develop the anti-resistant strategy aimed at using the
most efficient pesticides to fight plant diseases on the vine. Anti-resistant strategy related to vine
production will aim at reducing the number of treatments, which will reduce the danger of the
possible negative environmental impact. Regarding vegetable production, the experiment would
include two systems for fertilizing and irrigation for each of the sites and obtained results should
improve safety and cost-effective of production. Two weather stations already exists, while the other
two will be provided from the project in order to enable much better data.
Dr Knezevic outlined that among other sensors will be developed for control of humidity and
water flow and also some new kinds of sensor. The results will enable applying appropriate models
and developing programmes for automatized irrigation.
The public discussion ended at 10:50 a.m.
Minutes prepared:
Ilinka Beatovic, Environmental Safeguards Specialist in the HERIC Project
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Attachment 6A (List of persons who attended the public discussion)
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