Montenegro

Mojkovac: From an Industrial Hub to the Center of Adventure Tourism

Remediation and recultivation activities on the Tailing mine impoundment of lead and zinc mine Brskovo is a part of the $15 million Dutch funded Western Balkans Regional Environmental Hot Spots Programme, coordinated by the UNDP Montenegro and which includes nine locations in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia FYR, Montenegro, Serbia and UN Administered Province of Kosovo. 

In year 2007 the UNDP Country Office Montenegro thru the Western Balkans Environmental Programme financed by the Government of the Netherlands funded a portion of Phase I works totalling USD 360,230.55 (out of USD 1.634.890 allocated for the clean up activities) toward construction of the wastewaters treatment plants in Mojkovac.

In years 2008 and 2009 the remaining funds, USD 1.274.660,00 will be used to finance the works on solidification and stabilization of muddy material of Tailing mine impoundment. Duration of these activities is 13 months and estimated value of this part of the project is approximately €4.000.000,00.

What has been done so far and plans for the near future

1. Tour to Northern Montenegro for national and international media. In April 2008 the UNDP organized a visit to Mojkovac for more than 20 representatives of national daily newspapers and TV stations and representatives from prominent German, Dutch, Croatian and other international dailies, magazines and TV stations. The participants showed great interest in plans for development of nature-based tourism and economic revitalization of the area of Northern Montenegro, specifically in the Municipality of Mojkovac providing significant media coverage of this event and presented plans and ideas.

 

 

 

 

2. Making promotional documentaries on the Sinjajevina mountain, Mojkovac municipality. The UNDP activities in Mojkovac attracted the team of the production company Pilot Film and Television Productions LTD. This company made two promotional documentaries for the serial ’Globe Trekker’ and ‘Treks in a Wild World’, which will be broadcasted on the most influential global TV stations. A team of cameramen filmed scuba-diving in the Kotor Bay and then they moved to the Mojkovac municipality to shoot mountain biking on Sinjajevina - organized by the local tourism organization Mojkovac and the UNDP; then, rafting down the Tara Canyon, Zabojsko Lake, horse racing organized especially for this purpose, as well as traditional Montenegrin dance called “oro”, etc.. The Globe Trekker is broadcasted in over 40 countries, through the following channels: Channel 4, BBC, LWT, Travel Channel, Discovery International, PBS in USA, OLN in Canada, ABC in Australia and other satellite and cable channels, including Voyage & France 5 in France, Mediaset in Italy, NRK in Norway, Denmark Radio TV in Denmark and TVE in Spain. This show has over 30 million viewers and has won over 20 international TV awards. The serial ‘Treks in a Wild World’ is broadcasted on the National Geographic channel.

 

3. Adventure Race Montenegro. The UNDP participated in the organization of the Adventure Race Montenegro which provided an opportunity for 60 local and international participants to compete in a race involving kayaking, hiking and biking in the municipality of Mojkovac and Boka Kotorska bay. That event strongly promoted Mojkovac on local and international levels as an adventure tourism destination.

 

 

 

4. Kayak development. The UNDP works on development of kayaking in Mojkovac in order to enable the municipality to use its full natural potentials for kayaking as a sport and a tourist offer. The first step was training of 16 guides from the Mojkovac area and work on kayak promotion on local and national levels. Those activities provided solid ground for creation of local and international partnerships, so at this point a company from Slovenia and local partners are planning to establish a kayak school and a kayak shop in Mojkovac.

 

 

 

 

5. Leave No Trace Programme. The UNDP organized a training for 12 Master educator trainers and 12 trainers for implementation of Leave No Trace Programme for the representatives of hiking and biking associations, Local tourism organization in Mojkovac, National tourism organization. Leave No Trace Programme is an international programme on outdoor ethics and outdoor recreational impacts as well as techniques to prevent and minimize such impacts. This programme is designed to assist outdoor enthusiasts with their decisions about how to reduce their impacts when they hike, camp, picnic, snowshoe, run, bike, hunt, paddle, ride horses, fish, ski or climb. After organization of those two courses Montenegro today has the largest number of master educators per capita in the world. This programme is very well known in Ireland, USA, Australia, and Canada and Europe. We plan to support the development of a training network, while Mojkovac would be one of training centers.

 

6. Capacity building plan for 2009. The UNDP prepared a plan of activities that will focus on strengthening capacities both for national and local levels in the areas identified as highly important for further municipality development. A special focus will be placed on environmental management policies- Strategic Environmental Assesment (SEA) and Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and the municipal absorption and management capacities for the EU integration process, in order to adequately prepare for and implement programs in environmental protection, cross border cooperation and development in general.

7. Organic food production. In agriculture, jointly with the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, the UNDP and the municipality will work on developing of organic farming and food production that would partly satisfy the internal demands of hotel industry. In the initial phase we will support 10 households through capacity building for organic food production, certification, and monitoring.

8. Overview of current situation in the area of abandoned mining operations. To this end, considering that Lead and Zinc mine was never properly shut down, we have secured additional funds from the Czech Government for the beginning of that procedure that will yield the first step by September 2009 and that is the current environmental status and impact on environment and human health in the area surrounding the mine. This report will provide a basis for any future development of the area regardless of whether it will regard tourism or any other developmental path. 

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Within the recent working visit to Montenegro of H.E. Mr. Ronald J. P. M. van Dartel, Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the representatives of the Government of Montenegro, the Royal Netherlands Embassy, the Municipality of Mojkovac, the Public Works Agency and the UNDP Montenegro visited the tailing mine impound, where the Project of remediation and recultivation is under the process.

The high officials and the representatives of the Municipality of Mojkovac expressed their satisfaction with the work carried out so far.

On that occasion Deputy Prime Minister for European Integration, Ms. Gordana Đurović said: “It is a pleasure for me to conclude that the results of the remediation of the impound are visible. We expect this process to be finalised by the end of 2010. This project reaffirms good cooperation between Montenegro and donor community and international organisations, such as UNDP and our important partners in the European Union, such as the Governments of the Netherlands and Czech Republic. It also represents affirmation of a good cooperation between local authorities and Governmental institutions. This project contributes to the solving of ecological issues, and it creates a basis for economic development of this region.” She added that 2,5 million Euros for remediation of the impound would be included in the capital budget of Montenegro for 2009, and in this way the Government of Montenegro will continue fulfilling its commitment in line with the project dynamics. “Beside the UNDP which is present in other sectors as well, we consider as very important the overall contribution of the Government of the Netherlands in the second phase of the impound remediation project, as well as the fact that the Government of the Netherlands entrusted Montenegro to coordinate the Western Balkans Environmental Programme at the regional level,” said Deputy Prime Minister Đurović.

H.E. Mr. Ronald J. P. M. van Dartel, Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands announced that the Government of the Netherlands allocated 2,2 million out of total 15 million dollars for the remediation of the impound in Mojkovac. “We are investing in solving of these ecological hot spots because clean environment is an important precondition for the welfare of current and future generations. Healthy and reliable environmental protection policy for this region, particularly in Montenegro, implies stimulation of economic activities, such as development of tourism and agriculture. There is a direct corellation between development of this region and our activities within the Regional Programme. I hope that we are also creating a higher level of consciousness on how much is important that we deal with ecological problems,” said Ambassador van Dartel.

Ambassador van Dartel reminded that the status of Montenegro as a potential candidate for accession to the EU and Euro-Atlantic Alliance implies adequate environmental protection. “Compliance of environmental legislation with the European and international regulations is one of the challenges. I hope that I have expressed on behalf of the Government of the Netherlands an obvious wish to be partners in that job because we are cooperating with Montenegro in many sectors. We want cooperation to become even broader in the domain of environmental protection but in other sectors as well,” Ambassador van Dartel concluded.

Mr. Alexander Avanesov, UNDP Resident Represendative/UN Resident Coordinator in Montenegro reminded all that Lead and Zinc Mine “Brskovo” used to employ at least one person from every family that lived in Mojkovac up until its closing in 1991. “Once shut down, the mine left a source of pollution and ecological disaster of unknown proportions to both the city and its inhabitants and the World Heritage Site of river Tara, and it acted as a hurdle to foreign investment in the municipality. The UNDP has set out to leverage the donation from the Dutch Government to attract private investors and equip the municipality to access European funding in order to develop Mojkovac into a prosperous city whose sustainable development is based on protection and preservation of its unique ecosystem and biodiversity,” explained Mr. Avanesov. 

“The technical remediation of the Tailing Mine Impound (TMI) and its transformation into a tourism and recreational area will hopefully be completed in the next two years thereby turning the ecological threat into an development opportunity and creating a basis for growth of tourism and agriculture- two alternative sources of revenue generation that UNDP and municipality identified through the policy integration assessment,” said Mr. Avanesov.