N1SRP — broadcast
20260920 163000 UTC
314 transcript segments
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[00:00:00] research center, meaning everything is developing intensively,
[00:00:03] both science and teaching in those departments. The botanical
[00:00:06] garden itself is an integral part of the University of Belgrade, more precisely
[00:00:10] the Faculty of Biology, and
[00:00:13] it is, of course, allowed for all students of the University
[00:00:17] of Belgrade to visit it without any fee. Besides that,
[00:00:19] visitors can enter at what we could call symbolic prices and
[00:00:23] enjoy a full day's stay in
[00:00:26] the botanical garden. Besides charging entrance fees, you also organize...
[00:00:30] various events. I assume that's a form
[00:00:33] of funding. That's right, that's another form of funding. The space
[00:00:36] in the botanical garden can be, let's say, rented out. Newlyweds often come to
[00:00:40] take photos or celebrate birthdays. A few people,
[00:00:44] a small group, can, for a fee, take photos in the
[00:00:47] botanical garden in an environment that is unique
[00:00:51] in the very center of the city. On the other hand, various
[00:00:54] events are organized, but of course, care
[00:00:58] is always taken, since it's a large space, that there's a certain number
[00:01:02] of visitors, so that the capacity of the
[00:01:04] botanical garden isn't exceeded, so as not to endanger the plant life, but
[00:01:08] it's not just, let's say, because we have a large number of birds here and
[00:01:11] other species that enjoy the botanical garden besides
[00:01:14] visitors, and strict care is taken for their protection so that they
[00:01:18] are not disturbed, not upset, so that all
[00:01:21] that passes without any interventions, let's
[00:01:24] say, without endangering natural
[00:01:26] assets.
[00:01:31] The Special Nature Reserve "Okanj Bara" was declared by a decree of the Government of the Republic
[00:01:34] of Serbia in 2013. We entered
[00:01:38] the protection program in 2008. So the
[00:01:41] procedure lasted five years and we were declared. The total
[00:01:44] area of the reserve is 5,480
[00:01:47] hectares and it covers the cadastral
[00:01:51] municipalities of Lemir, Melenci,
[00:01:54] Kumane, and Taraš. First of all, we are protected because
[00:01:58] of botany. species that are represented
[00:02:01] here, uh, we have
[00:02:04] in some elements also bird habitats, but that is less
[00:02:08] protected, less, less represented, it's more
[00:02:11] about botany.
[00:02:14] What difficulties do you encounter in the field? We
[00:02:18] generally don't have any major difficulties, the biggest problem is
[00:02:22] the lack of water.
[00:02:25] Uh, there is a problem, an imbalance, an imbalance in
[00:02:28] the amount and inflow
[00:02:31] of water that is annually.
[00:02:33] We have therefore prepared a project
[00:02:37] for the improvement of water regime management in the Okanj
[00:02:40] Bara special reserve in cooperation with the Provincial Institute for Nature Protection, the Provincial
[00:02:44] Secretariat for Environmental Protection and the Public
[00:02:47] Enterprise "Vode Vojvodine". That project
[00:02:50] implies that
[00:02:53] within the reserve there is a canal network. That canal network is primarily
[00:02:57] intended for drainage. The project
[00:03:00] envisages that a
[00:03:03] controlled inflow of water and retention of water up to a certain
[00:03:07] level will be established. That water would be retained by a system of overflow dams
[00:03:10] and that
[00:03:14] are foreseen up to a certain level, the highest level foreseen
[00:03:17] by the project. All excesses would automatically be diverted
[00:03:21] into canals towards the Tisa. A larger
[00:03:24] shallow water surface would be formed that
[00:03:28] would be important for livestock, because three villages gravitate
[00:03:32] here that have several thousand heads of livestock for
[00:03:35] grazing. It would be important for game and the overall
[00:03:38] biodiversity would be increased with that amount
[00:03:42] of water. How are you financed?
[00:03:45] We are financed first of all, since the Republic
[00:03:49] of Serbia declared us, we are financed from the budget
[00:03:52] of the Republic of Serbia, uh, we are financed
[00:03:56] from our own income, which is income generated by us
[00:04:00] as managers of the protected area from
[00:04:02] fees for using the protected area. These are several companies, there
[00:04:06] are strong companies here, and from international projects.
[00:04:09] Now, can we mention some plant and animal species that
[00:04:13] are significant and that inhabit this
[00:04:16] area? For example, several habitats
[00:04:19] of ground squirrels, mhm, and we have, uh, regarding
[00:04:23] plants, we have the sand
[00:04:25] plantain, which is on the system of protected
[00:04:29] uh in... the list of protected areas, and this year we started with
[00:04:32] investigations uh uh
[00:04:35] the mushroom society from Novi Sad started investigations there.
[00:04:39] I think we detected about 16-17 species
[00:04:42] of
[00:04:44] mushrooms.
[00:04:49] According to current data, in Vojvodina, 143
[00:04:53] areas are protected, uh, with
[00:04:56] most of them having an act
[00:04:59] on protection. Adopted 16. According to the Law on Nature Protection,
[00:05:02] they are considered protected because
[00:05:06] they are on the website of the Ministry of Environmental Protection
[00:05:09] and completely legitimately, how can I say.
[00:05:12] equally they have the status of a protected area,
[00:05:16] so in total we have data for 143
[00:05:19] protected areas at this moment on the
[00:05:22] territory of the autonomous province, the area is
[00:05:25] 181,000 hectares, mhm, now plus
[00:05:29] minus a few hectares, that comes to about
[00:05:33] 8.38%.
[00:05:35] These are the areas that have adopted an act on protection,
[00:05:39] now those 16 are waiting to
[00:05:43] be declared, for the procedure of adopting the act on
[00:05:46] protection to be completed. They
[00:05:50] approximately amount to about one, a little less than
[00:05:53] 1%. If we compare ourselves with the countries of the European
[00:05:56] Union, what can we say, how far behind
[00:06:00] Europe are we? The percentage of the area
[00:06:03] of state territory under nature protection currently in
[00:06:06] Serbia is around 8%.
[00:06:09] Here, around 718
[00:06:12] hectares are protected. We are according to the protected
[00:06:15] planet website in 39th place out of
[00:06:18] 40 European countries by the percentage
[00:06:21] of the area of protected areas, by the area
[00:06:25] of state territory. From us
[00:06:28] currently Montenegro and Macedonia,
[00:06:32] and Albania and Moldova, Ukraine,
[00:06:35] Belarus, all those countries have a higher
[00:06:38] percentage of protected state
[00:06:41] territory than Serbia. The Institute for Nature
[00:06:44] Protection has completed protection studies
[00:06:47] for another 45 areas that are waiting for some government
[00:06:51] authority to declare them. If those
[00:06:55] studies were, if those government authorities were to make
[00:06:59] a decision on adopting those protection studies, at this moment the
[00:07:03] percentage of
[00:07:07] protected areas would rise to over 10% of the state
[00:07:10] territory. As for those areas that are protected
[00:07:14] according to these protection studies conducted
[00:07:17] by the Provincial Institute for Nature Protection, we have a clear and
[00:07:21] complete picture of how long these procedures take, because on the
[00:07:24] website of the Provincial Institute we can find their
[00:07:28] annual reports on work. As for
[00:07:31] the Republic Institute for Nature Protection in Belgrade, these reports are
[00:07:35] irregular or do
[00:07:36] not exist.
[00:07:41] How long does the protection procedure take on average? The
[00:07:44] nature protection procedure in Serbia, according to what
[00:07:48] we can see in the documents that
[00:07:51] can be found on the ministry's website, takes an average of about nine
[00:07:55] years. Who has the authority to declare protection?
[00:07:59] Protection, everyone has the authority to declare
[00:08:02] it, meaning both the Ministry of Environmental Protection, i.e.,
[00:08:06] the Government of the Republic of Serbia, on behalf of which the ministry acts, in
[00:08:10] this case, and the government
[00:08:12] of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, on behalf of which there is the Provincial
[00:08:15] Secretariat for Urban Planning and Environmental Protection, and
[00:08:19] local self-governments. Can you guess why that
[00:08:22] procedure takes so long? There are several reasons why these procedures take so
[00:08:26] long. One reason is still
[00:08:29] the lack of capacity in the ministry
[00:08:33] in the Institute for Nature Protection. They have a small number of experts
[00:08:36] who can process all those requests and all those procedures,
[00:08:40] and one of the more
[00:08:43] important reasons why these procedures take long are pressures from other
[00:08:47] sectors, primarily the pressure of forestry,
[00:08:51] agriculture, then the pressure of mining and
[00:08:54] energy, who want to
[00:08:57] postpone nature protection, reduce the area, reduce
[00:09:00] the level of protection, or in any other way
[00:09:04] hinder it. Besides the lack of expert
[00:09:07] people who will perform these tasks, it is evident that
[00:09:10] nature protection and the institute and the ministry suffer
[00:09:14] pressure from some
[00:09:18] powerful sectors, they suffer
[00:09:21] pressure from political and economic powerful figures,
[00:09:24] investors who advocate for
[00:09:27] nature protection to be either prevented or
[00:09:31] reduced. So these pressures exist
[00:09:35] and they are in fact the main
[00:09:38] reason why these procedures
[00:09:41] are. Certainly, the financial
[00:09:44] aspect, even after the declaration,
[00:09:47] represents a significant
[00:09:50] item because no protected area can
[00:09:53] function adequately in terms of implementing
[00:09:57] protection, equipping, improving something,
[00:10:01] revitalizing areas, habitats
[00:10:04] within any protected area, if
[00:10:07] there are not enough finances. Finally,
[00:10:10] when the authority needs to make a decision on protection,
[00:10:14] there is a certain kind of misunderstanding and pressure, but this
[00:10:17] time from political decision-makers. It often happens,
[00:10:21] especially at the local level, that
[00:10:24] councilors in the assembly or those who constitute
[00:10:27] the executive power in the municipality do not understand why
[00:10:31] an area should be protected and
[00:10:34] avoid making a decision on protection. For example,
[00:10:38] we have the case of the city park in Vršac, where the Institute for
[00:10:41] Nature Protection completed a protection study back in 2001,
[00:10:45] so 23 years
[00:10:48] we've been waiting for protection to be declared. You have more such cases in Serbia,
[00:10:52] meaning there are various
[00:10:55] pressures from various centers of power,
[00:10:58] investors, uh, various sectors. What happened
[00:11:01] there, I can't say, but local self-governments very
[00:11:05] often, after they are handed this
[00:11:08] protection study, did not further forward it, did not
[00:11:11] implement the protection procedure. Is it simply
[00:11:15] that they need help or what? Most likely
[00:11:19] it's that. It happens that some protection studies, like for example
[00:11:22] for, uh, for the protected area of Bosut forests
[00:11:26] were completed in 2014, and still, more than
[00:11:30] nine years later, uh, the notification
[00:11:33] of the initiation of the protection procedure
[00:11:36] has not been published on the website. The protection study was done back in 2014,
[00:11:40] right? Bosut forests are still not
[00:11:43] protected? No,
[00:11:46] uh, because it was necessary
[00:11:48] to harmonize with other
[00:11:52] sectors. The ministry will declare it as a first
[00:11:55] category, so we hope for some sooner time, because
[00:11:59] they also wanted to speed that up, with the plan being
[00:12:02] for it to be a special nature reserve, not a nature park as
[00:12:05] it was in the first, this first
[00:12:08] variant. When the notification about
[00:12:12] the protection procedure is published, then a public discussion
[00:12:15] and public review follow. The users of that space give their
[00:12:19] opinions, they give comments on the
[00:12:23] protection study. And
[00:12:27] finally, the competent authority, meaning
[00:12:31] either the government or the provincial assembly or
[00:12:33] the municipal assembly or the city assembly makes a decision on
[00:12:36] protection. When that whole
[00:12:40] procedure is reviewed, meaning from the beginning of the preparation of the protection study
[00:12:44] to the adoption of the decision on protection, on average
[00:12:46] in Serbia, nine years pass for 43
[00:12:50] areas that we observed in
[00:12:54] some... last six or seven years. After the preparation
[00:12:58] of the protection study, the next step
[00:13:00] is for the Institute for Nature Protection to complete
[00:13:04] the study and submit it to the competent
[00:13:07] authority for decision-making. That competent authority can be
[00:13:11] either the Government of the Republic of Serbia or the Assembly of the AP Vojvodina
[00:13:15] or the municipal assembly
[00:13:17] or the city assembly.
[00:13:22] The European average is about 25% for
[00:13:25] protected areas. You said about 8% in Vojvodina, so
[00:13:29] is there any hope that we will ever get close to that European
[00:13:33] average? So, what the European Union
[00:13:36] talks about, uh, what percentage should be under
[00:13:39] protection, refers not only to those areas that have an act on protection, but precisely
[00:13:43] also to habitats of strictly protected species, to ecological
[00:13:47] corridors, meaning all elements of the ecological network. In
[00:13:50] principle, that is some percentage
[00:13:53] that we can expect to be maintained. What about the obtained
[00:13:57] results, what next? As for the results of this
[00:14:00] research, these results will help us
[00:14:04] to, to write some
[00:14:07] proposals for amendments to the law and for changes in some
[00:14:11] procedures. We will certainly seek amendments to the Law on
[00:14:15] Nature Protection, uh, we will seek to shorten
[00:14:19] the procedures
[00:14:21] for establishing protection, where in some way, some of
[00:14:25] those phases are temporally limited.
[00:14:28] Currently, there are no
[00:14:31] limitations. Amendments to the law should shorten these procedures and
[00:14:35] limit the time within
[00:14:39] which the authority should declare itself on some study.
[00:14:41] And
[00:14:46] why is it important to protect natural areas? It is extremely
[00:14:50] important to protect it because of the diversity of flora and fauna
[00:14:54] that is found within these protected areas.
[00:14:57] So, when an area is declared protected, it is precisely
[00:15:01] because of the presence of these different large biodiversity
[00:15:05] that it is put under protection. So, it is important to preserve
[00:15:08] the different, let's say, genetic fund
[00:15:12] itself in that area. It is important
[00:15:15] for people to see these plants, animals. Another
[00:15:18] thing, every link in that chain, in every
[00:15:21] ecosystem, is important for the survival of the entire ecosystem. Nothing in one
[00:15:25] ecosystem functions on its own, so every
[00:15:29] species that seems insignificant to us, perhaps as
[00:15:32] laymen, is not there for no reason. It has its
[00:15:36] place and a big role in the specific
[00:15:39] ecosystem in which it is located, so it is extremely important for the very
[00:15:43] survival of that protected area for the entire
[00:15:46] ecosystem that has been put under protection. What if
[00:15:49] certain areas are not protected? What
[00:15:52] consequences can we expect? We can expect
[00:15:56] that that area will gradually lose
[00:15:59] the values for which protection
[00:16:02] was proposed. That happens.
[00:16:05] We need to implement those changes to the law
[00:16:09] and improve and advance the procedures
[00:16:12] for making decisions on
[00:16:15] nature protection. However, that is not enough.
[00:16:19] We first need to change our value-based attitude towards nature
[00:16:23] protection. We need to understand as a society why
[00:16:26] it is necessary to protect
[00:16:30] nature and why it is and what all
[00:16:33] benefits we, as a society, as a community, have from protected
[00:16:36] nature. When we finally realize that, when we
[00:16:40] grasp it, then those legal
[00:16:44] procedures and quality legal solutions will function
[00:16:47] to their full extent. As long
[00:16:51] as that does not happen in that value sense,
[00:16:54] we will always have difficulties
[00:16:57] with implementing the procedure and there will always be those who
[00:17:01] will want to stop those procedures, delay them, or prevent
[00:17:05] them.
[00:30:20] Good evening, N1 daily news begins, I am Tanja Veselinović, this is the news
[00:30:24] of the day.
[00:30:28] Ursula Von der Leyen bypasses Serbia on her tour of the Western
[00:30:31] Balkans. In October, the European People's Party initiates
[00:30:35] proceedings to exclude the Serbian Progressive Party. Is
[00:30:39] Brussels' course towards the government in Belgrade changing, or is this just one
[00:30:42] in a series of reprimands? They
[00:30:45] are partially reacting to this, they no longer see a stable partner in Vučić or
[00:30:49] his party.
[00:30:53] And other topics in the news
[00:30:54] tonight.
[00:30:59] Republican election.