29 January 2019 - The area of Ulcinj Salina should be declared a protected area by the end of February, said the executive director of the Montenegrin Centre for the Protection and Study of Birds, Jovana Janjušević, in an interview for TVCG, adding that the real and serious job has only started.
The European Integration Office has recently published the Common Position of the European Union for Chapter 27 - Environment and Climate Change, which represents the initial and most important document for planning the obligations that need to be fulfilled within this area in the upcoming period. This document states that without the adequate protection of the Ulcinj Salina area, Montenegro cannot count on the temporary closure of Chapter 27.
The Common Position of the European Union for Chapter 27 explains that “the EU invites Montenegro to demonstrate its capacity to manage the Natura 2000 network by ensuring effective management of existing national protected areas, by affording the Ulcinj Salina the appropriate protection status and effectively implementing the necessary conservation measures leading to the improvement of its conservation status and by designating marine protected areas and ensuring their effective management.”
Ulcinj Salina is located in the outermost southern part of Montenegro and covers approximately 14.5 km2 of salt basins. The Salina is separated from the sea by the Brijeg od mora village and Velika plaža beach, and from the Bojana River by channels and dykes against floods. It is an integral part of the Lake Skadar and Bojana River watershed system.
Janjušević told the Mina News Agency that this is by far the highest level of support for the EU civil sector in the matter of the protection of Ulcinj Salina. "Until now, no country that negotiated with EU has ever had the protection of a particular site set as a condition for closing negotiations, which speaks primarily about the importance of Ulcinj Salina in terms of nature protection, but also about the specifics that it carries as a complex problem for the whole of Europe," Janjušević said. "We have just met a formal legal protection requirement, but effective management and responsible steering remain as difficult challenges in the coming period," Janjušević concluded.
She pointed out that Salina is an artificial ecosystem based on and suited for the industrial activity of salt production, and that its production has been carried out in accordance with the rules of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.
The first act on the protection of the Ulcinj Salina was adopted in 1984 when the decision of the Workers Council banned all hunting. Several years later, the Ulcinj Salina became the first Important Bird Area (IBA) in Montenegro and afterwards became an Emerald site under the Bern Convention.
In the final study on protection of the Ulcinj Salina, according to Janjušević, two options were proposed: if the Salina will continue the salt production – the site will be protected as a national park, and if there will be no salt production, the area will be protected as a nature reserve.
