ROLE OF ECOLOGICAL EARMARKED FUNDS IN FINANCING OF ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION IN RURAL AREAS IN POLAND ON THE EXAMPLE OF VOIVODSHIP FUND FOR ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AND WATER MANAGEMENT IN LUBLIN

Jacek Witkowski
Dr., Lublin University of Technology, POLAND, j.witkowski@pollub.pl

Abstract

The subject of the study is the financing of environmental education in Poland from the resources originating from ecological earmarked funds. The scope of these funds encompasses among other voivodship funds for environmental protection and water management. The purpose of each fund is to support various initiatives in the scope of natural resource protection in the territory of specified voivodship. The issues discussed in this case relate to the Voivodship Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management with the range covering Lubelskie Voivodship situated in south – east part of Poland.

The principal goal of this article is to emphasize the role of the fund in case of financing of undertakings extending widely understood ecological knowledge. The conclusions have been expressed on the basis of annual reports on fund activity as well as on the basis of questionnaire based research. The analysis of reports encompassing the years 2011-2015 leads to the conclusion that co-financing relates to various types of activity, appears in various forms and is addressed to various groups of beneficiaries. Recently, the fund resources have been used particularly to support the complex and coordinated education programs assuming the following types of activity: workshops, seminaries, trainings, exhibitions, information campaigns or fetes. This financing source is mainly used by self-governments. Basically, the fund is the basic supplier of resources used by them for financing of pro-environmental education projects. This state of things is indicated by the results of questionnaire distributed among commune heads managing the smallest administrative entities administered by self-governments i.e. communes. Furthermore, from the answers given by the respondents it appears that the organizational and financial support for campaigns informing about the need and methods of taking care for the environment, among other initiated in schools, is the most frequent form of self-governments engagement in the environmental protection.

Keywords: education, ecological fund, sustainable development