Within the three calls of Lot II „Environmental protection and sustainable development” 795 applications in total were submitted, with 126 (16%) receiving financing amounting to 13 349 712 Euro. Average value of implemented projects is 105 950 Euro. In all applications the greatest interest from the Applicants was paid to the following focus areas:

• „Education and information activities for environmental protection”
• „Activities for increase of social awareness”.

One of the possible causes for interest in these areas is the profile of the Polish NGOs. National research of the organisations (Gumkowska, Herbst 2006) shows that the most often field of activity was education and upbringing (35.6%). Moreover, in 2006 33% of the NGOs declared their activity as “Mobilising and educating the public opinion to support activities of the NGO, and running social campaigns”.

Geographical representation

Both in 2nd and 3rd Lot the voivodeship most represented among the Applicants in all calls was mazowieckie, with almost one third of applications: in Lot II the total of 188 applications (24%) were submitted, and in Lot III – 596 applications (24%). This resulted in the fact that among the granted projects, the higher amount of them was implemented by the Beneficiaries from mazowieckie voivodeship: in Lot II the financing was provided to 16 projects, which amounts to 13% of all financed projects. After analysing the data about the NGOs in Poland (Gumkowska 2009) this situation is not surprising. According to the results of research the highest number of NGOs is situated in mazowieckie voivodeship. Considering the difference connected with the size and level of urbanisation of the regions one can see that the thickest network of organisations lies, again, in mazowieckie voivodeship.

In case of Lot II the least representation came from lubuskie voivodeship (2%), kujawsko-pomorskie (2%), świętokrzyskie (1%), and opolskie (0,8%). The least number of implemented projects in Lot II came from kujawsko-pomorskie voivodeship (0.9%), whereas financing was not provided to any application from świętokrzyskie and opolskie. This situation is also shown in the above mentioned research (Gumkowska 2009) which shows that least NGOs are situated in opolskie, świętokrzyskie, and podlaskie. If one considers difference connected with the size and the urbanisation level of the regions, it appears that świętokrzyskie, opolskie, lubelskie and kujawsko-pomorskie voivodeships are the regions with the least number of organisations (counting per 10 thousand inhabitants).

Focus areas of implemented projects

The most selected focus areas of the Lot II were „Education and information activities for environmental protection” (36% of projects), and „Activities for increase of social awareness” (31% of projects), and further „Natural heritage protection” (13% of projects), „Pro-ecological restructuring of the tourist market” (12% of projects). The least number of financed applications was included in the focus areas of „Activities for partnership for ecological efficiency” (4% of projects), „Implementation of legal regulations on environmental protection” (2% of projects) and „Natural heritage protection” (1% of projects)

Quality of applications

With each call the quality of submitted applications increased , which can be seen through the lower number of applications rejected for formal reasons. The number of applications which did not reach the level of 101 points (out of possible 200) and were not mentioned on the ranking list has significantly decreased

Applications with the highest amount of points came from mazowieckie voivodeship. Among the causes one can name the highest number of organisations, close proximity of Warsaw as a natural activity centre which gives greater opportunities for acting, access to high class experts and greater opportunities for acquiring finance, which in consequence transfers onto the quality of submitted applications and gives greater experience in project implementation and acquiring financing.

Partnerships

Among all the applications submitted to Lot II, there were 1517 partnerships in total, 23% of which were foreign partnerships, and 6% were partnerships with the Donor Countries. In case of projects which received financing 290 partners were registered, including 29% of foreign partners, and 8% of partners from Donor Countries.