The Regional Environmental Reconstruction Programme for South Eastern Europe REReP Record

Conservation without borders Protecting natural resources that cross state lines is tricky work, requiring cooperation among governments and civil society organisations (CSOs), as well as many other key players at national and local levels. To this end, the REC project “Trans-boundary cooperation through the management of shared natural resources” has over a six-year span worked to get virtually all interested parties involved in ensuring proper management and protection of the Neretva Delta, Skadar/Shkodra Lake and the Western Stara Planina (Western Balkan Mountains). DIFFERENCES ASIDE: Marijan Djordjevic, site coordinator of a REC project on West Stara Planina, greets a local environmental stakeholder. Forming a jigsaw puzzle of sorts for environmental managers, the Neretva Delta is almost evenly shared by Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia. Skadar/Shkodra Lake lies between Montenegro and Albania, and Western Stara Planina straddles the border between Serbia and Bulgaria. The wetlands of Skadar/Shkodra Lake and the Neretva Delta host important colonies of birds such as pigmy cormorants, spoonbills and the Dalmatian pelican. The extended semi-natural grasslands of Western Stara Planina provide habitat for corncrake and the globally threatened ground squirrel. According to Ors Marczin, a project manager at the REC, these sites were chosen largely for their unique flora, fauna and landscapes. The delta and lake are currently designated as wetlands of international importance under the Ramsar convention, while parts of the mountain are designated as biosphere reserves by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). These areas not only serve as critical habitat for a wide range of species, they also support the livelihoods of a number of local communities. The natural resources of these areas support agriculture, fishing, tourism and hunting, among other livelihoods. Meanwhile, some of the sites are being eyed by national governments for the use of massive projects (e.g., highways, hydropower plants or ski resorts) that could harm nature and thereby threaten the potential for more sustainable development that capitalises on natural and cultural attractions. “Finding sustainable solutions that build on local values without degrading them has been a major challenge,” Marczin said. Local communities using the same ecosystem will have to find ways to coordinate their approaches to the management of common resources. This is the reason that one of the main goals of the project is to support local communities while building lasting trans-boundary cooperation and dialogue. To achieve this goal, the project involved a host of players in the region and launched a dialogue among partners and countries involved. This included local authorities, educational institutions, local NGOs, small businesses in agriculture and tourism, the media, and fishermen and farmers. Because the project operates in the difficult context of three cross-border sites and deals with a multitude of interrelated issues, the project has to keep an open-ended schedule to respond to unforeseen opportunities and new problems. It is likewise necessary to ensure national ownership to sustain the preservation and management of the sites; and equally important, it involves efforts to ensure that local players follow up with future action. By the end of the year, a project report detailing the activities undertaken — as well as key outputs from each of the project’s three phases — will be published. The document will list lessons learnt — one of the project’s most valuable outcomes, as it was a pioneering effort with no precedents to draw from. The project is implemented by the REC with the support of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) within the Regional Environmental Reconstruction Programme for South Eastern Europe (REReP).

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