At the headquarters of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, the 44th session of the Standing Committee of the Bern Convention is ongoing. Today, the case of Porto Scadar Lake, which has been open since 2016 due to a complaint by NVO Green Home and a group of citizens from Virpazar regarding the planned construction of the Porto Scadar Lake and White Village tourist complex in the Skadar Lake National Park, was discussed.
After the case was opened, a joint mission of the Bern and Ramsar Conventions visited the site in 2018 and provided a set of recommendations to the state of Montenegro that needed to be fulfilled. These recommendations included the complete suspension of the project, the creation of a special-purpose spatial plan for Skadar Lake National Park, zoning, the creation of habitat maps, banning the use of speedboats on the lake, and several other recommendations.
The progress in implementing the recommendations was reported to the delegates of the Bern Convention by the Executive Director of NGO Green Home as the complainant, and a representative of the Ministry of Ecology, Sustainable Development, and Tourism.
Azra Vuković, the Executive Director of Green Home, emphasized that not all recommendations related to this case have been fulfilled, such as the adoption of spatial planning documentation. She also pointed out ongoing processes that will contribute to the implementation of the recommendations of the Bern and Ramsar Conventions, such as the drafting of a new law on national parks and a law on nature protection. Additionally, she highlighted the continued threats present in the national park, including illegal construction, poaching, the presence and spread of invasive species, poor waste management, and most importantly, in the context of this project, the use of speedboats.
The delegates of the Bern Convention welcomed the steps implemented so far in the context of this project and emphasized the importance of fully implementing all recommendations and adopting appropriate spatial planning documentation for this park. They also stressed the need for the complete suspension of the Porto Scadar Lake and White Village projects, which has not been done to date.
For these reasons, the case remains open, and the Secretariat of the Bern Convention will continue to monitor this case and demand the full implementation of the recommendations given to the state of Montenegro.
