SNV ( www.snvworld.org) organised field visits for participants of the embassy on 14 March and 19 March to Berovo and Zajas. In Berovo Govert Visser was shown activities that are being supported by SNV in the fields of tourism (marketing and standardisation), environment (waste collection campaigns) and forestry (National Association of Private Forest Owners - NAPFO,  http://www.naps.com.mk). Discussions focused on the sustainability aspects and their further improvement. NAPFO informed about their problems in determining their plots via the Cadastre, especially when those plots border government owned forestry.

The mayor of Berovo, Mr. Venko Pasaliski informed the visitors about the plans of the Berovo municipality ( http://www.berovo.gov.mk) with regards to tourism, culture, education and spoke about decentralisation issues. During this meeting SNV offered to support the municipality in drafting a plan for a nature park in the region of Malesvia. Moreover Cross Border Cooperation - also within the framework of component II of IPA - was discussed, especially with Bulgaria. During the summer season Berovo is visited by organised groups from the Netherlands that enjoy hiking and the local culture.

The visit to Zajas, in which SNV regional Director for the Balkans Courtney Bickert, SNV Director Albania/Macedonia Jack Cortenraad and EKN representative Maaike Fekkes took part, focussed on the Tourism Action Plan that Zajas has developed in cooperation with SNV. The mayor of Zajas, Rufat Huseini, and his employees explained that Zajas will focus on transitional tourism, the establishment of a village tourism center and the further promotion and development of its summer festival. During the visit, the cooperation with neighbouring municipalities, including the merge of Zajas with four adjacent municipalities, which is foreseen for 2009, were discussed as well. The mayor expressed his belief that the merge would lead to faster development as well as improvement of municipal services.