EU-funded project underway in Montenegro to ensure long-term survival of Europe’s most threatened species and habitat types.
Multinational consultancy EPTISA Southeast Europe has signed a new EU-funded contract for a project to support the establishment of the Natura 2000 Network for Montenegro, with an allocated budget of 1.3m euro.The overall objective of the project is to contribute to the identification and establishment of the Natura 2000 network, focusing on the conservation of the ecologically most valuable and most endangered species of animals, plants and habitats, including birds, as required by relevant provisions of the EU Nature directives. As the establishment of the Natura 2000 network is one of the closing benchmarks for chapter 27, the EU’s environment and climate change policy.
The Natura 2000 network is the key instrument of the EU’s nature and biodiversity policy that works to ensure the long-term survival of Europe’s most valuable and threatened species and habitat types. Becoming a reality in all EU member states and stretching over 18% of the EU’s land area and almost 6% of its marine territory, it comprises the largest coordinated network of protected areas in the world and its extension is also envisaged in all potential EU member states.
Over the next 36 months EPTISA will provide support in relation to increased institutional administrative capacity for implementing and enforcing environmental EU law in the field of nature protection.
The project’s main beneficiaries are the Ministry of Tourism, Ecology, Sustainable Development and Northern Region Development (ministry) and the Environment Protection Agency (EPA). The roles of the ministry and EPA will be complementary on the project.
Natura 2000 is not a system of strict nature reserves from which all human activities would be excluded. The approach to conservation and sustainable use is much wider, largely centred on people working with nature. Although Natura 2000 sites are selected strictly by scientific criteria, EU member states have to ensure their management in a sustainable manner, both ecologically and economically.
