Montenegro

Removing a toxic threat to tourism promotion

In 2008, UNDP Montenegro’s demilitarization programme successfully formulated and executed a plan to dispose of hazardous toxic materials left on the shores of the country’s spectacular Bay of Kotor by the former Navy of Serbia and Montenegro. The 128 tons of deteriorating rocket fuel constituted a potential threat to the country’s important and growing tourism industry.

As Montenegro emerged from a decade of extreme regional turmoil - which included the collapse of decades old communist governments, economic sanctions, wars and all the resulting social upheavals - and started to look to the future, the country decided it was in its best interests to invite the world to explore its bounty of incredible beauty.

Montenegro is endowed with immense physical beauty, from one end of the country to the other. The country’s 293 kilometres of Adriatic coastline was ripe for the world’s tourists, who are always looking for new locations to ‘discover’. A healthy tourism industry could be one of the most important economic engines in a country that desperately needed outside money. But while Montenegro is undoubtedly a natural paradise, turning any Balkan country into a bona fide tourism hot spot would be challenging, given the chaos and carnage that ravaged the region in the 1990s.

Montenegrins rose to the challenge and the tidal wave of tourists that descended on neighbouring Croatia’s coast in the first few years of the 21st century rolled down the eastern shores of the Adriatic, creating jobs and a measure of economic prosperity for Montenegrins. The country’s GDP grew, in large part thanks to the tourism boom. Direct foreign investment grew substantially in the tourism sector. The world was discovering Montenegro and Montenegrins were thankful for it. The ‘game plan’ was working.

Montenegro was very fortunate to have been spared, for the most part, many of the devastating ecological scars that were inflicted by heavy industry in most other former communist countries.  The Government of Montenegro made a bold move that would declare to the world that it is was serious about its commitment to preserving the country’s environment. The first article of Montenegro’s constitution, which was passed in the autumn of 2008, declared the country to be the world’s first ecological state. By doing so, Montenegrins demonstrated that they understood that what is good for the environment can also be good for the economy.

Montenegro was determined to develop its economy in an environmentally sustainable manner and a large part of the effort would be to continue the building of its already successful tourism industry. But all the hard work and success could quickly come undone by one ugly environmental catastrophe. The global tourism industry is very competitive and Montenegro could ill afford the massive public relations exercise in damage control that would be necessary if the world’s news media were to report an ecological calamity in the country.

*******

Located at the northern most point of Montenegro’s Adriatic shoreline, bordering on Croatia’s Dalmatian Coast, the Bay of Kotor has everything needed to become a global tourism magnet. Although it is commonly referred to as Europe’s southern most fjord, the bay is actually a submerged canyon of the long since disappeared Bokelj River. The area has been settled for millennia and is a treasure chest of significant and magnificent historical, archeological and cultural sites. Its history is rich, a cornucopia of colourful sagas of colourful characters - some heroic, some villainous, some scandalous, some tragic. Raconteurs and tourism marketers salivate and weep when they learn of the tales to be told about the area known by locals as Boka Kotorska.

The canyon walls sharply rise 1000 metres above the bay. Tourism promoters are slack-jawed by the astonishing array of activities available to outdoor recreation enthusiasts. Rock climbers, hikers, mountain bikers, kayakers, fishers etc. will long remember their adventures in the Bay of Kotor. However, for them to do so, they must first have those adventures and they are not likely to visit the area should it become the scene of a tragic environmental accident.

One hundred and twenty eight tons of deteriorating rocket fuel leaking into the Bay of Kotor would certainly qualify as a tragic environmental accident. The fuel, used to propel anti-ship missiles, was stored on the shores of the bay. Montenegro inherited responsibility for it when the country concluded a successful referendum to break its state union with Serbia, in 2006.

The government of the newly sovereign Montenegro asked the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to assess the potential threat posed by the rocket fuel, in 2007. The OSCE quickly asked UNDP Montenegro to implement the clean up and disposal operation. Stabilizing the two elements of the rocket fuel (oxidizer and fuel, which, when mixed together, forms something known as mélange) and removing and safely disposing of the elements was the challenge accepted and met by UNDP Montenegro.

In addition to presenting a potential threat to Montenegro’s tourism industry, the rocket fuel was also a hurdle to the country’s possible aspirations to become a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). NATO’s Science for Peace and Security Programme has been actively working throughout the Eastern European and Asian theatres to eliminate hazards posed by mélange and Montenegro was eager join the effort.

UNDP Montenegro identified a Swedish company that was fully capable of destroying the hazardous material. UNDP Montenegro worked with the government and the contractor to prepare the legal documentation required to ship toxic materials through international waters. While that process was under way, the contractor successfully stabilized the oxidizer, decanted the fuel and stored the substances in secure shipping containers.

The hazardous waste was successfully shipped to Sweden and destroyed in an environmentally safe manner. When all was said and done, the effort took three months and came in at a cost of $283,385.