MONTENEGRO NATIONAL PAVILION EXPO MILANO 2015 ______________________________________________ THEME STATEMENT Podgorica, October 2013 Name of Official Participant: MONTENEGRO Date of Participation Notification: 28 January 2011 Date of Application: 22 November 2013 1. Principal thematic message of Montenegro: Healthy with Every Bite! 2. Main motto of Montenegro’s pavilion and participation: Small country of great possibilities 3. Theme of participation - concept and educational plan: Awareness of one's own values, significance of and need for self-sustainability, need for relying on one's own potential and capacity, and a strong willingness for change, have relatively quickly blown away stereotypes about Montenegrin agriculture, as part of the country's economy, being static. Turned to itself and its own resources, leaning on plenty of innovations and encouraged by huge market changes and demands, Montenegro is making rapid, both quantitative and qualitative steps in the development of its agriculture. “Kiss the piece of bread before throwing it away” – has always been a warning to those, truly not many, who would treat food with disrespect in traditional Montenegro. These words of warning and reproach at the same time, as an expression of responsibility and stance towards life hardships, have become almost a part of genetic code of people here, while their treatment of food has come to resemble a kind of a cult. To feed your family and receive a guest, known and unknown, invited and non-invited, has been and still is a measure of honour and dignity. In that sense, in line with the main theme of Expo Milano 2015 - "Feeding the Planet, Energy for life”, and current cultural model, /as a set of conceptual efforts to build up on the fundamental traditional values, centuries long spiritual and cultural legacy, and, simultaneously, on contemporary economic and scientific impulses, and create 2 something that could be most broadly described as a comprehensive cultural and value-based transformation of our society/, we will present how modern Montenegro treats food in sociological, cultural and economic terms, through three integrated topics. I Ecological state Convinced that the environmental protection is a fundamental aspect of national development and that the majority of Montenegrin citizens that they represent share the same vision, members of the Parliament of the Republic of Montenegro issued on 20 September 1991 the “Declaration on the Ecological State of Montenegro”, the first ecological state in the world. “We, members of the Parliament of the Republic of Montenegro, are aware that, in view of the threat to nature, protection of the identity of the land in which we live and work has become our most immediate and pressing task. Bearing in mind our debt to nature, a source of health and our inspiration for freedom and culture, we are devoting ourselves to its protection for the sake of our survival and the future of our posterity. We recognize that all our differences are less important than the changes in the environment we live in. Regardless of our national, religious, political and other sentiments and convictions, we are fully aware that dignity and blessedness of a human being are intrinsically connected with blessedness and purity of nature. Man and creation in him and around him are one in their depths, their meaning and denotation. Thus the abuse of man has always entailed the abuse of nature. And being committed to the struggle for the dignity of man, we are also called upon to struggle for the dignity of nature. By adopting this Declaration, Montenegro defines its attitude towards nature as a state policy and calls upon all the people to show wisdom and prevent an impending ecological catastrophe.” Montenegrin “Declaration on the Ecological State” was not an objective per se. It is a story about a living concept, an expression of attitude and determination, an embodiment of a modern vision and aspiration of the society to upgrade the existing towards new values or, rather, to give the proven values modern form and content. It is an endeavour to catch up with 3 modern achievements and use new technologies and methods in order to maintain the high quality of healthy soil and be able to produce healthy products, more and more and better and better. II Organic food Agriculture is one of the pillars of Montenegrin economy. Agriculture is important not only from economic perspective but also as a branch overarching a wide spectrum of significant dimensions – environmental, social, food safety, sustainable rural development, rural traditions and cultural heritage preservation, support to tourism etc. Geographic position of Montenegro, its relief features, and its regional (coast, continent and north) and climatic variety have facilitated the development of several forms of agricultural production. Accordingly, the coastal zone favours fishing and fish and seafood farming, olive growing, citriculture, early vegetable and medical herb growing and plastic house farming; the central continental part – early vegetable, fruit growing, viticulture, egg, meat and milk production and, in rocky parts, livestock, particularly goat raising; while the northern mountainous part is dominated by potato and fruit growing and extensive animal husbandry (cows and sheep). Expressed through the prism of statistics and numbers, Montenegro has 518,067 ha of agricultural land, or 38% of the total territory of the country or about 0,84 ha per capita, of which arable land, orchards and vineyards account for only 58,262 ha or 12% of agricultural land, while the rest consists of meadows and pastures that are mostly unexploited. The share of farming, hunting and forestry in the country’s GDP is 11.3%. Montenegro’s agriculture offers organic food of outstanding quality, which is produced in well preserved environment (unpolluted soil, clean air and healthy water) and thereby helps in maintaining traditional products, rural communities and their distinctions, biodiversity and desirable existence of local forest fruits. To represent organic food, impeccably pure drinking water, traditional healthy products, intact nature, small Montenegrin farms and possibilities for the development of agriculture and overall society on the principles of sustainable development – is an objective of prime importance. 4 III Four vacation seasons If, decades earlier, Montenegro declared tourism to be its priority course of development; if tourism generates, directly and indirectly, about 25% of GDP; if most reputed international travel and tourism magazines have been placing Montenegro among 10 top must-see destinations in the world for several years now; if Montenegro has beautiful nature and about 270 sunny days in a year; if it has a clean sea and kilometres of astounding sandy beaches; if it also has 5 national parks: Lovcen Mountain, Durmitor Mountain, Skadar Lake, Prokletije Range and Biogradska Gora, as one of the two last virgin forests in Europe; if it has the Kotor Bay as one of 25 most goergous fiords in the world; if it has the Tara Canyon as the longest and deepest canyon in Europe, and the second deepest in the world after Colorado, the Tara River being the purest river in Europe (“the tear of Europe”); if it has some 30 natural glacier lakes; if it has UNESCO protected old towns of Kotor, Perast, Budva and Ulcinj; if it has beautiful monutments of culture in the town-museum of Cetinje and numerous religious buildings of all faiths: Cetinje Monastery, St. Tryphon Cathedral in Kotor, Husein-Pasha Mosque in Pljevlja, Ostrog, Piva and Moraca Monasteries; if you can swim in the sea and ski on Durmitor all in one day and eat sea fish in a restaurant at the coast or local cheese, proscuitto or lamb in milk at a cottage high in the northern hills; and we can continue for hours if it has…, if it has …, if it has …; then it is clear why tourism is so special for Montenegro and why it has to have a special role in the Exhibition – importance of tourism for Montenegro cannot be overestimated. Tourism is related to every aspect of our life, economy, living standrad and lifestyle of citizens; it boosts employment and general prosperity. If the two previous topics (environment and organic food) are, in mathematical terms, “a necessary and sufficient precondition” for a good vacation, it is quite obvious that you can actually enjoy your vacation in Montenegro (its international marketing slogan being “Wild Beauty”) any of 365 days and any of the four seasons in a year. Strategic goals: - Develop identity and positive image of Montenegro - Position Montenegro as a distinctive and quality tourist destination - Present Montenegro as a growing country, a positive story in the Balkans - Position Montenegro as a country that shares the values of modern democratic societies - Develop trade in the field of agriculture and increase sale of Montenegrin products 5 Promotional goals: - Raise awareness of Montenegro - Raise awareness of Montenegro as an ecological state - Improve distinctiveness /recognition/ of Montenegro in international community - Develop the brand of Montenegro as a tourist destination - Present Montenegro's natural strengths /intact nature, pure rivers and lakes, sandy beaches, mountain ranges, forests and .../ - Present Montenegro as a synonym of organic food, healthy food, clean water, drinking water and ... - Present Montenegrin products that have the status of organic food - Present companies and products labelled by a collective stamp indicating “Good