Nature protection in Bosnia and Herzegovina: state and perspectives

Abstract

Bosnia and Herzegovina is distinguished by a very unique mosaic of high biodiversity level. However, current development activities and initiatives for construction of new dams, together with activities in the forestry sector throughout the country, emphasizes the need for establishment of new protected areas in all major ecosystem types that should be ecologically viable and effectively managed. A review of the history of protected areas and administration developments in Bosnia and Herzegovina provide useful input for analysis. However, the data on the current state and size of protected areas in the country are obsolate and inaccurate. The results of the analysis have shown that in spite of a very high biodiversity level, Bosnia and Herzegovina managed to designate only 2.6% of its territory as protected areas, which is far below regional and European level. Lack of protected areas system is one of the main direct threats to biodiversity conservation. The primary objective of establishment of protected area network (PAN) in Bosnia and Herzegovina is to ensure conservation of valuable natural areas, which contain representatives of all main ecosystem types that could be found in the country. Only in this way, sustainable conservation of biodiversity could be achieved.Bosno in Hercegovino odlikuje edinstven mozaik z visoko stopnjo biotske raznovrstnosti. Vendar sedanje razvojne dejavnosti in pobude za gradnjo novih jezov skupaj z dejavnostmi v gozdarskem sektorju po vsej državi poudarjajo potrebo po vzpostavitvi novih zavarovanih območij v vseh glavnih tipih ekosistemov, ki morajo biti ekološko vitalna in učinkovito upravljana. Pregled zgodovine zavarovanih območij in razvoja uprave v Bosni in Hercegovini je koristen prispevek k analizi. Vendar so podatki o trenutnem stanju in velikosti zavarovanih območij v državi nejasni in netočni. Rezultati analize so pokazali, da je Bosni in Hercegovini kljub zelo visoki stopnji biotske raznovrstnosti uspelo določiti le 2,6 % svojega ozemlja kot zavarovana območja, kar je daleč pod regionalno in evropsko ravnjo. Pomanjkanje sistema zavarovanih območij je ena glavnih neposrednih groženj ohranjanju biotske raznovrstnosti. Glavni cilj vzpostavitve mreže zavarovanih območij v Bosni in Hercegovini je zagotoviti ohranjanje dragocenih naravnih območij, ki vsebujejo predstavnike vseh glavnih tipov ekosistemov, ki jih je mogoče najti v državi. Le na ta način je mogoče doseči trajnostno ohranjanje biotske raznovrstnosti.