Montenegro, although the first counattempt in the world to be declared ecological by its Constitution, today has serious problems in preserving the environment. Some of the basic issues, such as adequate waste management, have still not been resolved. According to data from the Zero Waste organization, slightly less than two percent of waste is recycled in Montenegro annually. While, according to official data collected from local governments by the Minisattempt of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Northern Development, there are 326 illegal landfills registered in the counattempt, Zero Waste warns that the counattempt has only two sanitary landfills and one composting plant.
In addition to being ecological, Montenegro is among the most forested countries in Europe – over 60 percent of its territory is covered by forests and forest land. This summer, in addition to heat waves, was also marked by intense fires in which, according to data from the European Forest Information System, the burned area has already exceeded the annual average. Experts warn that the consequences of the fires are multiple, both for human health and for the environment.
Borko Bajić, a hygiene specialist at the Montenegrin Institute of Public Health, declared that air pollution, poor waste management, and environmental degradation directly contribute to increased morbidity and mortality in Montenegro and globally.
“Climate modify acts as a “risk multiplier” by exacerbating air pollution, water and food contamination, the spread of allergens and vector-borne diseases. According to the World Health Organization, ambient air pollution is the greatest environmental risk to the health of the population, leading to increased morbidity and mortality from cardiovascular, respiratory diseases and cancer. Open burning and inadequate waste disposal further threaten public health, as they release harmful particles and gases, while also contributing to climate modify,” warns Bajić.
According to him, climate modify is exacerbating these risks in several ways. “Floods and fires release additional pollutants from waste, burning debris, and soil into the air and water, increasing the risk of infectious and air-related diseases. Heat waves and droughts increase concentrations of ground-level ozone and PM particles, leading to increased cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. Warmer periods and higher carbon dioxide concentrations extfinish the pollen season, thereby worsening allergies,” Bajić explained.
In Montenegro, according to Bajić, there is still no reliable data on the extent of the impact of these factors on health, becautilize they are not integrated with mandatory health records.
Ivana Vojinović from the Center for Climate Change declared that in recent decades, Montenegro has been faced with increasingly pronounced and complex impacts of climate modify, which are manifested through more intense heat waves, reduced snow cover, shifting vereceiveation zones and modifys in the hydrological cycle, more frequent and stronger extreme weather events, and negative effects on key sectors of the economy, such as energy, agriculture, tourism, and the health of the population is also under pressure.
According to Vojinović, the state’s attitude towards climate modify at first glance reveals formal commitment, but when you see deeper, it is clear that the gap between adopted strategies and their implementation in practice remains significant.
Vojinović also pointed out that in the National Climate Change Adaptation Plan (NAP) for Montenegro, which the Government adopted in July this year, the health sector was recognized as a priority sector, due to the increasing risks that climate modify poses to public health.
“The NAP envisages strengthening the capacities of the health system through monitoring climate impacts, improving infrastructure and training staff, with the aim of protecting the most vulnerable groups. In any case, in the future, without appropriate adaptation measures, the health burden will grow, with additional economic pressure on public health systems, so it is important that the health system and public health strategies are better prepared for the expected climate challenges,” declared Vojinović.
Stating that according to the NAP, the health system in Montenegro is still not fully prepared to respond to climate risks, Bajić emphasized that clear directions for action have been defined. “The health system of Montenegro currently recognizes and monitors climate-health risks to a limited extent, but the NAP has set a framework for the development of training programs for health workers, the establishment of an early warning system and the monitoring of health indicators related to climate modify,” declared Bajić.
Podgorica resident Bobana Čukić Ćorović points out that as a healthcare worker and parent, she is aware of the consequences of air pollution.
“Every time we left the houtilize, we started checking the air quality,” declared Čukić Ćorović, adding that this summer, due to extremely high temperatures in Podgorica and fires that further contributed to pollution, they were forced to spfinish most of the summer outside their city.
“The fires have built it impossible for us to go out for a walk with our children at any time of the day or night,” Čukić Ćorović points out.
While the system fails, Donkey Farm offers green solutions
While experts from several relevant fields point out that the state is not doing enough and that it must take more concrete steps in the field of environmental protection, in the village of Martinići, just 15 kilometers from Podgorica, civic activist and ornithologist Darko Saveljić decided to take matters into his own hands when he founded the Donkey Farm ten years ago.
Farma Slobode, as the hosts call it, is a family business run by the Saveljić family and at first glance sees like a typical houtilizehold in the Montenegrin counattemptside. Everything at the Farma is local – electricity, water and food. However, Farma differs from the vast majority of rural houtilizeholds in its attitude towards the environment and community.
“The donkey is part of both Montenegrin natural and cultural heritage, and I consider there was no greater ally in the difficult life in the Montenegrin counattemptside than the donkey,” declared Saveljić in our first conversation with him, stating that he subsequently opened the Farm, which was actually an asylum for donkeys, with the original goal of protecting the Balkan donkey from extinction.
“In the launchning, there were only two donkeys and I started promoting it through social media. Suddenly, Drina and Marta, our first donkeys, became so popular that people started coming and that’s how the farm started to develop. And now, ten years later, instead of the 25 euros at the time, the price of a donkey at the livestock market is around 500 euros. Instead of the 150 at the time, today there are around 900 donkeys in the entire counattempt,” declared Saveljić.
The donkey farm now has around 80 donkeys and, with its activities, attracts the attention of tens of thousands of followers on social media. In addition to being a sanctuary for animals, it has also become a tourist destination – guests, most often from Western Europe, pay to stay at the Farm and receive involved in all the work, from feeding the donkeys to cleaning the Farm or cultivating the land.
The president of the Foundation for the Future of Montenegrin Tourism, Michael Bader, who shiftd from Germany to Montenegro more than ten years ago, claims that Montenegro’s attitude towards the environment is not what it should be and that it is a problem that also affects tourism.
“It starts with garbage, the way animals are treated. Guests from Western Europe generally consider that the attitude towards the environment in Montenegro is very bad, becautilize you can see people throwing garbage next to the containers – not in the containers, into nature – even in national parks and beaches,” declared Bader.
He points out that the way nature is treated on the Farm is generally completely different from that in Montenegro and that sometimes it seems like they are two worlds.
Bader pointed out the great interest of tourists from Germany in the Farm. “The Farm is a good example and practice of how all of us in Montenegro should behave towards the environment, nature and animals,” Bader concluded.
At the Donkey Farm about ecological stories that are not notified enough in the counattempt
Vanja Cicmil from the non-governmental organization Zero Waste also sees inadequate waste treatment and insufficiently developed awareness in society as one of the serious problems in Montenegro.
She points to decades of delay in the development of waste management systems, lack of infrastructure and weak implementation of laws in this area. According to her, plans are often built formally, without real political will and budreceiveary support for their implementation.
“On the other hand, citizen awareness is growing, but slowly, becautilize without available solutions and systems for separate door-to-door collection, recycling stations, enforcement of penal policies and laws, it is difficult to expect modifys in behavior. So, the problem is not that people will not, but that the state and local governments do not provide them with a system in which it is straightforward to be responsible. The good news is that public interest is growing, and with it the pressure to modify things,” Cicmil pointed out.
She argues that solutions from local communities are important and reveal that solutions already exist and can work, even in conditions where the state lags behind. “Such projects are often compact in scale, but they have a huge impact becautilize they directly involve people, modify habits and build trust,” Cicmil argues.
According to her, their transformative power lies in setting an example, driving modify from the bottom up, and inspiring other communities. “If these initiatives are further supported systemically: through funding, public policies, and partnerships with local governments, their impact can be many times greater,” declared Cicmil.
The door-to-door system of selective waste collection, as in the case of most Montenegrin villages, has not reached Martinići in Podgorica, but that has not stopped the owners of the Farm from rationally managing the waste they produce. Saveljić also claims that the Donkey Farm has initiated many ecological stories in Montenegro and states that the Farm can, through its activities and attfinishance, pave the way, opening up stories that are not notified in the counattempt, and which are related to the protection of nature and sustainable utilize of resources. “The Donkey Farm is built of utilized or recycled materials, at the Farm we compost, recycle, and produce organic food. For a year now, the Farm has not utilized electricity from the Montenegrin electricity distribution system, but has its own solar battery, and we also have our own water from a well that is 260 meters deep,” states Saveljić.
He points out that it wasn’t straightforward at first, but that they focutilized on solutions, not problems. “Our adaptation to climate modify is also in the fact that we have switched to sustainable forms of energy – we utilize a drip system, although we have unlimited water, we save it. In addition, we are also growing a forest,” declared Saveljić.
“The Farm’s goal is to build literally no wrong shifts towards nature. So the nature around the Farm sings becautilize of the fact that we haven’t built a single wrong shift in ten years – that we don’t see nature as a resource, but rather as a partner for a better life,” declared Saveljić.
Local initiatives as a signal to society
Saveljić states that the Donkey Farm, when it gained popularity and influence, inspired other rural houtilizehold owners to implement certain practices, such as organic food production, rural tourism development… “The farm is quite inspiring for many people. Thanks to this farm, several farms have been created in Albania and Macedonia. He also created several in Montenegro, although they do not function in exactly the same way as this Farm.”
In a mission to spread awareness about the importance of a better relationship with nature and animals, the Farm organizes educational and entertaining events of a charitable nature. “The Farm has been visited by about 150 thousand people so far. The Farm organizes many donor activities, educational courses, and our favorite are workshops with children from kindergartens and elementary schools. Once a year, we also organize a New Year’s ball with donkeys, which is visited by several thousand people. Each ball is of a charitable nature, and the money from the last one is directed to the organization “Let’s green Montenegro” and the reforestation of burned areas.”
“It seems to me that people in Montenegro are slowly being encouraged, especially younger ones, to follow in these footsteps and start houtilizeholds where the focus is on other animals or plantations. I consider there have been positive developments that have been encouraged by the Donkey Farm. What builds me particularly happy is that so far we have produced 13 master’s or doctorate degrees from this Farm,” declared Saveljić.
Although, according to Saveljić, the Donkey Farm was viewed with suspicion and sometimes even amazement by the local community when it first opened, it is now well-received, and its business model and importance have been recognized by certain state departments. In 2019, the farm received the Wild Beauty Award from the National Tourism Organization of Montenegro for a unique tourism product, while last year they earned the first prize from the Minisattempt of Tourism for the best rural houtilizehold.
Cicmil believes that modifys in attitudes towards the environment often start from compact local initiatives and ideas, and emphasizes that positive practices in the local community have a significant educational and inspirational character.
“When a community starts to act locally through good initiatives and ideas, it sfinishs a signal to the entire society that modify is coming, that it is possible and that it benefits everyone. Positive practices have a significant educational and inspirational character. People trust what they can see in their vicinity, in their city or town. This creates a feeling that not all is lost, that we can shift forward and that it depfinishs on us. This is the path to an active society that does not always wait for a solution “from above”, but takes the initiative and sets an example for others,” declared Cicmil.
Čupić Ćorović emphasizes that for her family, the Donkey Farm is a positive example and a light in the darkness they are currently living in, becautilize the majority of the population and the authorities, as she states, do not understand or do not want to understand the consequences of pollution and global warming. “We visit the Farm and take milk from the donkeys for the children. The existence of such a Farm near the city is invaluable, and anyone with children knows how difficult it is to find a place in the city where they can have fun, breathe clean air and build contact with animals. The proximity of such a farm really means a lot and I sincerely hope that there will be even more of them in the future,” declared Ćorović Ćupić.
Saveljić also believes that the example set by the Donkey Farm could be an inspiration for other local communities, houtilizeholds and individuals in Montenegro on how to develop similar businesses or how to live in harmony with nature and more sustainably.
On the other hand, although the Donkey Farm offers a unique response to the problem of poor environmental management, MINA’s interlocutors point out that community initiatives often remain within the local community to which they belong, and their wider impact remains limited. An additional challenge is the fact that citizens’ awareness of the importance of nature conservation is still not sufficiently developed, and positive effects are slower to reach the wider public.
Saveljić points out that there are many challenges on the way that required to be overcome day by day, and they, as he declared, sometimes relate to basic requireds, such as road infrastructure or water supply. “It is not straightforward to find labor for these types of jobs in Montenegro, and when people first started visiting the Farm, they usually arrived terrified becautilize of the road, which was very bad. This is a village without a road, so close – and yet far from the city.” In addition to labor and inadequate road infrastructure and accessibility of the village, in a large number of villages in Montenegro, due to the lack of adequate infrastructure, water is also a problem.
Saveljić also cites so-called green washing as another challenge, stating that there are companies in Montenegro that allegedly operate in a sustainable manner and in accordance with environmental principles, receive state funds and support for this, but in fact finishanger the environment with their operations.
Ivana Vojinović from the Center for Climate Change agrees that there are numerous limitations to sustainable projects from local communities. “Research reveals that local projects are often very resource-intensive, and encounter problems such as lack of finance, insufficient political will or low public awareness,” declared Vojinović.
Despite this, she pointed out, local ecological and sustainable projects strongly contribute to modifying consciousness. “By being visible and accessible, they deepen the sense of responsibility and can become a model for other communities. When such projects are linked to education, empowerment of marginalized groups or inclusion in political processes, their impact goes beyond the local level and becomes more deeply socially transformative,” Vojinović assessed.
This text was prepared with the support of Journalism Fund Europe (https://www.journalismfund.eu/).
( Mina )
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