BRCKO / BELGRADE - Representatives of state institutions, business sector and non-government organizations from the countries signatories of Framework Agreement on the Sava River Basin recently held a workshop in Brcko (Bosnia and Herzegovina) on the public participation in negotiations and implementation of the agreement signed in Kranjska Gora, in Slovenia on 3rd December 2002.
The regional workshop, that was also attended by representatives of international organizations, was held from 22 to 23 December in the fram...
DURBAN (South Africa) - Serbian conservationists have appealed for international help to protect an ecologically important mountain range straddling the ethnically tense border between Albania and Kosovo (Territory Under Interim UN Administration).
At the recent Fifth World Parks Congress in Durban, South Africa, representatives of the Institute for Nature Conservation of Serbia promoted the idea of declaring the Prokletije mountain range a "peace park."
As the largest mountain range of the Dinaric region, the s...
BELGRADE - Three tankers carrying toxic vinyl chloride from the Ukraine to Macedonia overturned at Belgrade's main railway station on August 10, in the populated area and after the process of repouring substance was sent to Macedonia in new tankers.
Few days after the incident, three officials of Serbian railway company ZTP were dismissed from their posts and a ZTP report on the overturning of three tankers carrying vinyl-chloride assessed the incident occurred due to deteriorated tracks, although it adds that the thre...
BELGRADE - More than 200 hectares sown with illegal genetically modified (GM) soybeans were discovered last July in the province of Vojvodina, the most fertile swath of land in Serbia.
Two farmers were detained recently in connection with GM soybeans found in the fields near the capital of Vojvodina, in Novi Sad, and province Agriculture Secretary Igor Kurjacki warned that those who plant GM crops could face up to three years in prison.
He said that GM soybeans have been discovered in almost all parts of Vojvodina...
BELGRADE - A landfill that already pollutes a tributary to the Danube may fall into the Danube if plans for expand the dump go through.
The main waste dump for Belgrade poses one of that city's biggest utility problems. The landfill, sited 14 kilometres away next to the town of Vinca, accepts most of the solid waste for 1.6 million residents.
The city produces around 1,200 tonnes of waste per day. On a weekday about 160 truckloads of refuse are dumped at the site, and traffic slows only slightly on Saturday and Su...
BELGRADE - Two Serbian hunting-guide firms have been convicted of smuggling more than 2 million birds into Italy, including some rare species, an Italian court in Vicenza, has determined. Seven perpetrators admitted to wrongdoing that spanned six years, according to the Society for the Protection of Wild Birds of Serbia.
The first firm, DOO "Eric-Mir", brought 12 shipments of birds into Italy between 1999 and 2000, all of them hidden in a compartment of a vehicle, according to the court. The other firm, "Lube UU", smuggled...
BELGRADE - More than a century after relentless hunting and drying of their natural habitat- marshes, which brought them on the verge of extinction, the beavers made their "big come-back" in Serbia.
Bavarian environmentalists from Bundensnaturshutz have released, together with Serbian scientists from the Ministry of science and environment and Faculty of Biology, around 30 Bavarian beavers into the tiny Zasavica river, some 90 kilometers west of Belgrade, after two years of research and planning by Serbian and German exper...
NIS - Nis, the second largest city in Serbia and Montenegro, has one thing in common with other municipalities in the country - a landfill that is in critical condition.
Since the landfill began accepting waste in 1970, very few steps have been taken to improve it.
The problem is that the waste is not covered by inert material that would keep it - and its stench - from blowing around in the wind. It has no lining to keep it from contaminating the ground and lacks a sorting facility.
The surrounding water, ...
BELGRADE - A delegation from the Italian Ministry of Environment recently visited the city of Pancevo (14 km from Belgrade) to assess the level of pollution and draw up plans to protect the environment.
The project will help to define and implement a technique for assessing the quality of environment in Pancevo's industrial zone, which includes Rafinerija nafte (an oil refinery), Petrohemija (a petrochemical complex) and "Azotara" (a fertiliser company) - the biggest polluters of air, land and water (the Danube and Tamis...
BELGRADE - Serbia and Montenegro this month decided to reorganise its nuclear programme, part of a long-term plan to find permanent storage for the remnants of a recently shuttered research reactor.
The most serious remaining safety problem at the Vinca Institute of Nuclear Sciences involves its large research reactor, which ceased operation in 1984. Filled with spent fuel, it still needs to be dismantled. Also on the institute's grounds are 30-year-old hangars filled with radioactive waste from the use of radio-nuclides...
BELGRADE - The research ship "Argus", which will monitor the water quality, flora, fauna and sediments in the Sava and Danube rivers, has recently arrived in Belgrade.
The Arguslab boat is a gift by the Government of the German state of Hessen and it is the single largest donation to Serbia and Montenegro. "Argus" is equipped with a modern laboratory and automatic navigation system. Technical value of the ship is 400,000 EUR.
The ship's large laboratory enabled on-board processing and immediate analyses of the co...
BELGRADE - A new centre for environmental issues, a joint endeavour of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) - Mission to Serbia and Montenegro and the Serbian Ministry for Natural Resources and Environment has been recently opened in Belgrade.
Environmental Centre will provide a coordination link between the Serbian government and international and local environmental organizations. It is also envisaged that it will act as a support structure, enabling full implementation of environmental legis...
PIROT - An international conference on the state and potentials of eco-tourism in the Southeast Europe, held recently in Serbian town Pirot, defined the territory between Nis, in Serbia, Bulgarian capital Sofia and capital of Macedonia, Skoplje as centre of eco-tourism on Balkan peninsula.
The conference, which was organized by Jovan Cvijic Geography Institute in cooperation with the Bulgarian Academy of Science, and Art and Catering and Tourism University in Ohrid (Macedonia), was attended by some 70 representatives ...
BELGRADE - An international conference for the promotion of environmental protection and general security in South Eastern Europe (SEE) was organised in Belgrade by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Mission to the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
UNEP, OSCE and UNDP have launched a project on Environment and Security in SEE and Central Asia (SEECA Initiative), to help public decision makers...
BELGRADE - Environmental legislation, environmental education, environmental monitoring and control, air pollution and management, water management, solid waste management, soil pollution, clean technologies, recycling, radioactivity, ecology, biology and risk assessment were the key themes of the fifth international conference on transboundary pollution in South Eastern Europe (SEE).
The conference was organised in Belgrade by the Balkan Environmental Association (BENA). It brought together scientists, politicians an...
BELGRADE - The Serbian Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection has proposed a bill to prevent the import of used car tires, plastic waste and animal waste.
"Last year, 187,000 used tires were imported in Yugoslavia. The fact is that we have our own waste too, and we don't know what to do with it," said Vladica Cudic, an expert on waste problems. In the last few years, hills of car tires, mostly brought in from Western Europe, have been appearing in sites around Belgrade.
Dumping of foreign wa...
BELGRADE - A new "Ecological Atlas of Belgrade" is designed to help the capital city engage in carefully planned development that takes environmental issues into consideration.
The atlas, prepared through the cooperation of the City Institute of Public Health and the Agency for City Building Land and Development of Belgrade, was unveiled in a presentation at City Hall.
"The Atlas is designed to help maintain a balance between environmental quality and the functional structure of Belgrade, connecting ecological...
BELGRADE - A group of 140 families living in 28 buildings in the southern part of the capital city, about nine kilometres from central Belgrade, have been protesting for almost 10 years in an effort to be relocated from their homes, which have been constructed with asbestos.
The buildings were built as temporary dwellings in 1966, and they are in poor repair, so that the asbestos in the walls, which is known to become cancerous after 20 years, circulates freely in the air as a dangerous dust, according to residents. Th...
BELGRADE - A cistern containing 30 tonnes of the banned carcinogenic polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) will be exported from its site near the bank of the Sava River to Germany in about a week, according to Serbian Environment Minister Andjelka Mihajlov.
The plan to export 30 tonnes of transformer-oil PCBs from the "Minel-Dinamo" factory was reportedly initiated by the Serbian Environment Ministry in cooperation with the special United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP)-UNOPS project.
Since 1995, the cistern ha...
