Title of project

SAVE THE SPECIES NEXT TO US

Project summary

The aim of the project “SAVE THE SPECIES NEXT TO US” is to raise public awareness of endangered species that live near us, enter our homes and frighten and disgust people, and are threatened. The project is local, but there are plans to make it regional. The intent of the project is to change people’s minds.

The need for project

Geckos are lizards in the Gekkonidae family that live on my island and on the coast. There are many superstitions about them: if a gecko falls into soup or a drink it can poison the entire family; when it is exposed to light it is deadly. People kill them every day. Two species of coastal geckos are protected by law in my country. The fine for killing them is €260 to €520. There is only one problem – nobody knows this and nobody ever paid a fine for killing them. No one will report their neighbor for killing a little disgusting lizard. Even if someone did do that, the police would die of laughter, because laws like that in my country are mainly considered funny.

However, I believe that geckos are beautiful and likeable. That is why I concluded that I should try to explain to other people why it is important to preserve them.

The research I did

I found all of the information on the two species that live in my town. I used the Internet and the book "Fauna of Europe".

While looking, I found the rules of the National Cultural and Natural Heritage Protection Bureau and the fines, and I saw that the fine for killing a Mediterranean gecko (Hemidactylus turcicus) is HRK 2,000.00, while the fine for killing a Moorish gecko (Tarentola mauretanica) is HRK 4,000.00. The fact that they are already protected but everyone kills them convinced me that it is important to do something.

I talked to a lot of my friends and other people about why geckos frighten them. None of them ever heard that it is against the law to kill them.

I asked a police officer if anybody ever reported when a lizard was killed. They thought I was joking.

I asked around town to see which places I could use to put up my posters. With the help of my teacher, I arranged a radio broadcast on the local station.

The action plan I decided upon

Even before, when I was little, I did something. I took dozens of pieces of paper. I drew geckos on them and wrote that they did not have to be killed because they are not poisonous or dangerous at all, and that they are even useful. I wrote that they ate some of the harmful organisms that also live in our houses. These are: fleas, lice, mosquitoes (insects) and mites and spiders (arachnids). After writing the message, I would make a paper airplane out of it and throw it into the street. The paper airplanes helped, but most of them ended up in the garbage. That is why I decided to make posters that everyone can read.

The poster had to contain: all information about Mediterranean and Moorish geckos, photographs of the animals, and a plea for people to begin looking without prejudice and hatred. I took the photographs from the Internet, because I do not have the equipment to make them myself.

The poster was supposed to be put up on the bulletin board in the town library, in the display window of the bank in the town center and in the school. Since my town is small (a population of about 6,000), my poster would be available to everyone that way. That is how I began to save geckos, and I plan to write lectures on geckos that I would deliver in some schools in my region.

Sign of success

The first sign of success is that the newspapers wrote about this project. It was featured in Novi list, a newspaper that is sold throughout the country. I was also on the radio with my teacher and my friends from school, and I talked about geckos and why they should be protected.

After this campaign, many people started calling me “Geko.” Of course, it is not a success because I got this nickname, but because it is clear that my message got through to a lot of people.

One of my mother’s friends told me that she does not kill geckos any more, rather she takes them out of the house. That is something.

If I had help, I would hold lectures about geckos all along the coast. I think they need help in this entire region.I think some people in Mali Lošinj have learned to appreciate these useful little animals.

Naziv projekta

 SPASIMO VRSTU PORED NAS

 Sažetak projekta

Projekt SPASIMO VRSTU PORED NAS ima za cilj  upoznavanje javnosti o ugroženoj vrsti koja živi pored nas, ulazi u naše kuće i izaziva strah i odbojnost ljudi, te je ugrožena. Projekt je lokalnog značaja sa namjerom prerastanja u regionalni. Projektom je pokušano promijeniti stavove ljudi.

Potreba za projektom

Macaklini su gušteri iz porodice gekonidea koji žive na mom otoku i u primorju. O njima postoji praznovjerje: ako macaklin padne u juhu ili napitak može otrovati cijelu porodicu;  kad dođe na svjetlo smrtonosan je. Ljudi ih svakodnevno ubijaju. Dvije vrste primorskih macaklina zaštićeni su u mojoj zemlji zakonom. Za njihovo ubijanje predviđena je kazna od 260 – 520 EUR. Ima samo jedan problem – nitko za to ne zna i nitko nikada nije platio kaznu za njihovo ubijanje. Ne postoji onaj tko bi prijavio svoga susjeda zbog malog odbojnog guštera. A da ima, policajci bi umrli od smijeha, jer je takva vrsta zakona u mojoj zemlji većini smiješna.

Ja, međutim, držim macakline lijepima i simpatičnima. Zato sam  zaključio, da bih mogao pokušati i drugim ljudima objasniti tko su oni i zašto je važno da ih sačuvamo.

Istraživanje koje sam obavio

Pronašao sam sve podatke o dvije vrste koje žive u mome gradu. Koristio sam se internetom i knjigom "Fauna Europe".

Tražeći sam našao Pravilnik Državne uprave za zaštitu kulturne i prirodne baštine sa popisom zaštićenih vrsta i visinom kazne i vidio da je za ubijanje kućnog macaklina (Hemidactylus turcicus) predviđena kazna od 2.000,00 kn, a zidnog macaklina (Tarentola mauretanica) 4.000,00 kn. To da su već zaštićeni, a svi ih ubijaju samo me uvjerilo u to da je važno nešto poduzeti.

 Razgovarao sam s mnogo svojih prijatelja i drugih ljudi o tome što ih kod macaklina i zašto plaši. Nitko od njih nikada nije čuo da bi bilo kažnjivo ubijati ih.

Pitao sam policajce da li je ikada netko prijavio ubijanje guštera. Mislili su da se šalim.

Raspitao sam se u gradu koje bih prostore mogao koristiti za svoje plakate. Dogovorio sam uz pomoć moje učiteljice radio emisiju na lokalnom radiju.

Plan akcija

I prije kad sam bio mali ja sam nešto poduzimao. Uzimao sam na desetke i desetke papira. Na njima sam crtao macakline i pisao da ih ne treba ubijati jer uopće nisu otrovni ili opasni, nego su i korisni. Pisao sam da jedu štetne organizme koji borave također u našim kućama. To su: buhe, uši, komarci (kukci) i grinje i pauci (paučnjaci). Nakon napisane poruke, od poruke bih napravio raketu – avion koji bih zatim bacio na ulicu. Rakete su pomagale, ali većina raketa je završila u smeću. Zato sam odlučio napraviti plakat dostupan svima.

Na plakat je trebalo smjestiti: sve informacije o kućnom i zidnom macaklinu, fotografije životinja, također poziv da ih ljudi počnu gledati bez predrasuda i mržnje. Plakat je trebao ići na pano u gradskoj knjižnici, u izlog banke u centru grada i u školu. Budući da je moj grad malen (oko 6000 stanovnika) na taj bi način moj poziv bio svima dostupan. Tako sam ja počeo spašavati macakline, a planiram još napraviti predavanja o macaklinima s kojima bih obišao neke škole u mojoj regiji.

Znaci uspjeha

Prvi znak uspjeha je da je akcija doživjela da se o njoj piše u novinama. O njoj je bilo u Novom listu, to je dnevni list koji izlazi u cijeloj državi. Pored toga sam sa svojom učiteljicom i školskim prijateljima bio na radiju gdje sam govorio o macaklinima i zašto ih štititi.

Nakon te akcije mnogi su me zvali Geko. Naravno, nije uspjeh to što sam ja dobio nadimak, nego to što je postalo jasno da su moje poruke doprle do mnogih.

Jedna mi je mamina prijateljica rekla da macakline više ne ubija, nego ih iznosi iz kuće. I to je nešto.

Kad bih imao pomoć, krenuo bih sa predavanjem o macaklinima po školama duž primorja. Mislim da im je pomoć na cijelom tom području veoma potrebna. Vjerujem da su neki ljudi u Malom Lošinju naučili cijeniti te male korisne životinje.