Montenegro

Using GIS to bring the world’s first ecological state into the world of environmental stewardship

In 2003, the use of digital technology for spatial planning was, for the most part, unheard of by most ministries, departments and institutions of the Montenegrin government, and their ability to make informed land use policy decisions was severely handicapped by the lack of technology and technological expertise.

Behind the scenes in the bigger Montenegrin picture, back in 1991 political leaders decided to do something that no other state in the history of human civilization had ever considered – in Article 1 of the country’s constitution they declared Montenegro the world’s first ecological state.

Making good on that highly ambitious, highly complex promise to future generations of Montenegrins, however, would necessitate a substantial transformation within the ministries charged with environmental protection, primarily the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management and the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Spatial Planning. In order to accomplish that transformation, it would be necessary to significantly improve the quality of and access to data.

In 2004, the government turned to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to aid it in the all important mission to truly make the country the world’s first ecological state. UNDP staff succinctly described the task:

“The formulation of coherent national environmental policy and its implementation needs to be underpinned by reliable and accurate information if correct and timely decisions are to be made. The principal need is for a system that is efficient and able to take into account the rapid environmental changes taking place. Environmental changes, especially in forestry and human habitats, are accelerating and there is a need to put in place a consistent and transparent system for managing and maintaining different types of environmental information at the national level. This information needs to be accessible to various groups internationally, within government, the citizenry and commercial organizations.”

UNDP quickly responded by establishing the Environmental Geographic Information System (GIS) project for Montenegro. Simply defined, GIS allow for the creation and constant updating of digital maps that can contain information about almost anything. As envisaged by UNDP, a concise Montenegrin GIS would be invaluable for more than environmental protection - it would make considerable contributions to economic development efforts, spatial planning, forestry, tourism and agriculture by improving transparency in the management of natural resources and all other sectors utilizing the available technology.

The governments of Finland, Japan and Montenegro, fortified UNDP with a $1.1 million budget over four years and work began in 2005.

All applicable and available data regarding hydrology, soil conditions, forest inventories etc. were analyzed and checked for accuracy and updated by government employees who were trained in proper GIS data collection methodologies in the first year and a half of the project. Data collected was of such high quality that it would, when entered into interactive digital maps, put the tiny Balkan country on a qualitative (but not quantitative) par with world leaders in GIS based spatial planning such as Canada, Finland, Switzerland, Australia and New Zealand.
                                                                                       
Illegal cutting in Montenegro’s forests is commonplace. Those charged with ensuring the sustainability of the forestry industry were aware of the long term consequences of illegal logging but had not been able to do much to stop it. In addition to various other problems in the forestry sector, illegal cutting was analyzed and addressed by working groups and consultants charged with designing new forestry policy for Montenegro. The eight step process included all forestry stakeholders. Public consultation and outreach was thorough. Montenegrins embraced the opportunity to have their say in managing the resource by participating in public hearings with great enthusiasm. The government adopted the new policy on April 24, 2008.

In partnership with the Luxembourg Agency for Development Corporation, UNDP Montenegro began work on a new forestry management system under the watch of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management. Guided by the new policy and armed with accurate GIS data, new 10 year plans are being designed and implemented. The plans will protect the resource by dividing forested land into manageable units that are designated for sustainable exploitation by forestry companies. Those companies will be responsible for infrastructure development such as roads and bridges etc. in the lands under their stewardship. Cut plans will be developed according to various data including soil conditions, rainfall, grade of slopes, annual number of days of sunshine etc. The companies will then subcontract their parcels of land to individuals in order to assure that local residents benefit from the exploitation of the lands they live in.

The new system will also establish a system of checks and balances in Montenegro’s forests. Forestry companies and individual subcontractors will ensure that the other does its part to take proper care of their parcels of land, including fire and pest control efforts, replanting of cut areas and policing against illegal logging. The new system will also assure a constant updating of accurate data by making the GIS available to all who possess or have access to the technology.

GIS are just as important to tourism development, biodiversity protection and other important efforts in the process of transitioning Montenegro into an open, democratic, prosperous and egalitarian society as they are to the forestry sector. UNDP hopes to breakdown the culture of information hording by exposing the country to the Internet driven, ‘open source’ philosophy of sharing information, the best example of which is wikipedia.

Traditionally, there are two ways to collect and distribute information that is vitally important for spatial planning and resource development. In European countries, governments have, for a fee, licensed companies to gather data about geographic areas. Those data become the intellectual property of the companies that collected them. The companies recoup their investments by reselling the data to anyone who can pay their often exorbitant prices. Conversely, in America, governments pay companies to collect such data and make it available for free, or at nominal fees, to anyone, thus eliminating a substantial barrier for entrepreneurs. Studies have concluded that the American model creates more employment and results in as much as 14 times as much tax money finding its way into government coffers than the European model.

The original GIS project budget will last until March 2009 but sufficient funding has been found to continue the effort for another six months, or perhaps as long as a year. UNDP’s efforts to establish a GIS in Montenegro will have succeeded in laying a solid foundation that can be built upon. It is hoped that educational institutions will begin to train students in GIS, thus inspiring new generations of Montenegrins to continually feed fresh information into the system for the benefit of all, either through their professional careers or as concerned citizens.

UNDP has provided the government with hardware and software to build a national GIS and trained more than 60 people from over 20 environmental institutions covering all municipalities to use the technology. Unfortunately, none of those who have been trained to use the technology are being properly utilized as of yet.

Building a GIS that contains all the information tourists want and need is essential to the effort continue to grow Montenegro’s tourism industry and UNDP will be contracting students to tour northern communities gathering and inputting all important information into the system. For instance, the regional municipality of Mojkovac contains 14 separate, distinct villages, all of which would be of interest tourists, especially LOHAS. Today, a tourist would be hard pressed to find those villages. Conversely, with the information of their existence in their hands, tomorrow’s tourist will be willing to hire a guide to tour them through the villages.

In 2008 UNDP compiled an electronic map of Durmitor National Park. The map shows trails, peaks, valleys, biodiversity hot spots, panoramic viewpoints, rivers etc. Because of this, visitors to the park can now select hiking and biking routes specifically tailored to their desires.

GIS have brought order to the forest management system in Montenegro and UNDP is ready to help the government accomplish the same in other economic and environmental sectors. The importance of GIS to the development of Montenegro cannot be underestimated and renewing the effort to build a comprehensive one should be a priority.