Coalition 27: Draft Environment Protection Program Not Ambitious Enough

Nature (BETAPHOTO/DRAGAN GOJIC)

A network of civil society organizations called Coalition 27 assessed on May 27 that the draft Program of Environment Protection was not ambitious enough, did not contain clear mechanisms for implementation and was significantly behind the contemporary European approaches in the field of biodiversity protection.

The Coalition 27 stated that a particular cause for alarm was the fact that the Program laid too much emphasis on procedural activities, instead of concrete measures for nature renewal and clear mechanisms for improving the state of biodiversity. “In a number of cases, there is a lack of precise performance indicators and clear division of responsibility, and a clear financial framework for carrying out predicted activities, which additionally undermines the implementation and monitoring of the Program,” the statement reads.

The analytical part of the document, the statement reads further, almost does not recognize the contemporary approaches that lay at the core of European environment protection policies, such as nature-based solutions, revival of eco-systems and environments, or integrated management of natural resources.

The Coalition went on to say that the program was being brought in times of growing pressure toward the utilization of natural resources throughout the country, while the percentage of Serbia’s territory that is under protection remains small – less than 11 percent, and the system for managing protected areas is centralized and insufficiently functional.