Montenegro

Cross border environmental programme a much needed model for regional cooperation in the Western Balkans

The countries of the Western Balkans began the 21st century with many problems. Social, political and economic structures within the countries were seriously affected by the conflicts and economic sanctions that dominated the region in the 1990s. National governments struggled to find common ground.

Post conflict reconstruction projects were undertaken across the region. Governments began to reform their institutional infrastructures to embrace democratic and market economy models. Efforts to rebuild trust and cooperation between countries began in spite of the  national governments tendency to prioritize crucial projects within their own countries. There were many initiatives for regional cooperation that did not get much further than meetings and declarations of intent.

However, when governments gathered to discuss cross border environmental problems they were able to put aside their differences and work together. The first Western Balkans regional environmental cooperation initiative of the 21st century was the Regional Environmental Reconstruction Programme (REReP), which was established in 2000. The REReP began to break down the mental barriers that had been erected between the countries of the Western Balkans. Through small but numerous environmental projects slowly but surely trust was being rebuilt.

Ways of intensifying the process were explored and in 2005 an initiative to build on the success of the REReP began. After a year and a half of planning implementation of the 15 million USD Western Balkans Environmental Programme (WBEP) funded by the Government of Netherlands involving six United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) offices in the region and with regional management unit based in UNDP Montenegro, started in 2007.

The primary aim of the programme is to remediate high priority environmental hot spots that have been prioritized by national governments. Some of the hotspots have a significant cross border impact on air and water quality. The process of selecting hot spots, of which there are many in every jurisdiction, was complicated as it needed to align sometimes conflicting desires of various sectors, governments, communites, the general populace, donor, etc.

UNDP worked with countries that were accustomed to competing for donor money and developed coordinated funding proposals during the year and a half long planning stage of the WBEP. A great deal of deliberating was done to establish the programme’s framework between the six countries and territories involved (Montenegro, Albania, Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, FRY Macedonia and the UN administered territory of Kosovo). The exercise in cooperative planning proved fruitful and remediation projects are now underway at eight sites.

Each country/territory gets an equal share of programme funding ($2.2 M per, of which $800,000, half of the funds allocated for the clean-up works needed to come from its own treasury or be ‘in kind’ contributions) and has management and financial autonomy. Regional management unit based in Montenegro is entrusted with the coordination of the overall programme implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the country/territory activities and implementation of the regional activities for which donor has provided 1.4 million USD. The programme management board, comprised of representatives from each of the six jurisdictions (usually the Deputy Minister of Environment), provides overall guidance and support to programme implementation and is responsible for endorsing budgets, timetables and reporting.

During the first year of programme operations, which concentrated primarily on physical remediation efforts at the hot spots, UNDP organized three study tours for participants from the region to sites in Austria, the Czech Republic and Slovenia, to expose them to relevant practices and technologies. Contacts made and lessons learned during the tours have resulted in enduring relationships between delegates and expanded the cooperative effort beyond the Western Balkans.

Delegates from the small northern Montenegrin town of Mojkovac - which is home to an abandoned lead and zinc mine and its hotspot toxic legacy - traveled to different former mine sites in Slovenia. From their Slovenian hosts the Montenegrins learned how to attain EU funding to begin a transitional process that will lay the foundation for the development of an eco-tourism industry in Mojkovac.

The Montenegrins also got to see the end result of mine remediation projects. They reported back to their townspeople - many of whom had become very skeptical about strangers coming to town and making promises – that remediation and transition projects really do work.

Some of the Slovenians involved in the study tour traveled to Mojkovac to better understand the challenges the town faces. Several of them identified opportunities, in addition to challenges and they are now in the process of establishing the town’s first Kayak touring company. 

Lessons learned from the remediation projects will contribute to more sound environmental policy and legislation development and implementation in the region. The remediation of Serbia’s Grand Canal lead to the passing of new regulations regarding water quality standards  in the country.

Although all the first phase remediation projects are different, all countries involved in the programme have similar problems to those currently being addressed in neighbouring countries. Therefore, lessons learned from the remediation projects in all those locations will be applicable to other similar remediation efforts in Western Balkans region in the future. 

During the programme’s second operational year, 2009, UNDP has begun an extensive public outreach effort. The purpose of the effort is to instill a stronger environmental consciousness in the people of the Western Balkans.

UNDP will continue to build capacity in NGOs, and national and local governments  across the region. As NGOs develop the skills  through different public awareness raising campaigns/activities and training, those NGOs will find places at negotiating tables alongside government officials when environmental policies and legislation are being debated, thus aiding the solidification of participatory democracy in an area of the world where the concept is mostly alien.

When that happens, much will have been accomplished to disavow governments of the notion that natural resource exploitation is always of paramount importance to economic development efforts. As the contemporary science, research and practice indicate, it seems it is in a country’s best interest to harvest natural resources in an environmentally sensitive manner.

Because many environmental concerns are of a cross border nature, citizens of different countries will learn to find common ground. The importance of cooperative cross border work between citizens groups cannot be undervalued. By diminishing the tendency of people in the Western Balkans to not look beyond their own fences and replacing it with a willingness to work together for a common purpose, the work being done today by UNDP will help assure that a healthy environment will be passed on to future generations.