Drina Transboundary Biosphere Reserve—Opportunities and Challenges of Sustainable Conservation

Abstract

This study aims to explore the opportunities and challenges of sustainable conservation in the Drina Transboundary Biosphere Reserve (TBR Drina). Two countries in 2004 launched activities on the designation of TBR Drina, which would make a unique territorial system of Tara National Park (NP Tara) in the Republic of Serbia and Drina National Park (NP Drina) in the Republic of Srpska/Bosnia and Herzegovina. Through the analysis of institutional and legal jurisdiction, the authors presented the management system of protected areas in both countries, with detailed insight into the specific mechanisms of government functioning and management in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Its complex state apparatus represents the biggest limiting factor for the formation of TBR Drina. Through qualitative research, the researched area’s natural, cultural-historical, and socio-economic potentials were identified and recommendations were made for their optimal valorization and utilization. Research has shown that the natural, cultural-historical conditions of TBR Drina represent the potential for development, in contrast to the socio-economic conditions that make up its limiting factor. By planning through the cooperation between the border regions of both countries through support at the state level, TBR Drina can be recovered gradually, with the relative coexistence of ecological, social, and economic components of space, in the forthcoming period.