One of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s greatest assets is the varied natural landscapes and biodiversity it possesses. Bosnia and Herzegovina’s 6th National Report to the Convention on Biological Diversity recognizes these assets and their uniqueness given the geography and climate of the country. The existence of protected areas for many of these landscapes is a promising start to ensure their protection. However, budgeting and capacity shortfalls alongside the absence of comprehensive management plans and dedicated protected area management institutions remain as difficult challenges. Moreover, while globally there has been increasing recognition of the vital interconnections between environmental, habitat and species degradation and the impact of climate change, this reality is not well understood and recognized within Bosnia’s protected areas. Collectively, these challenges threaten the long term preservation of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s sensitive protected landscapes and species and weakens the potential responses to climate change in the country.

Prepared by the UNDP and implemented by project partners CENER 21, Enova d.o.o. Sarajevo and FEA, this initiative seeks to enhance the management and technical capacities of 5 selected protected areas: National Park Una, Nature Monuments Prokoško Lake and Vrelo Bosne, Nature Parks Blidinje, and the Protected Landscape of Vjetrenica-Popovo Polje. In doing so, the project works to increase the resilience of protected landscapes in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH) to the effects of climate change.

In order to do so, the project will implement 4 key activities between October 2023 and May 2024:

  • Updating management plans for the 5 selected protected areas, while integrating climate change measures.
  • Creation of a database for monitoring the impact of climate change on biodiversity in pilot protected areas.
  • Finalizing updated management plans for the protected areas that consider the impacts of climate change.
  • Preparation of a methodology for a comprehensive risk assessment of the impacts of climate change in the pilot protected areas.