During the 43rd session of the Permanent Committee of the Bern Convention, which is convening this week at the Council of Europe headquarters in Strasbourg, France, discussions were held regarding the Porto Scadar Lake case, opened in 2016 following a complaint by the NGO Green Home and the citizens’ group Virpazar concerning the planned construction of the Porto Scadar Lake and White Village tourist complex in the Skadar Lake National Park.
As a reminder, a joint mission of the Bern and Ramsar Conventions in 2016 provided recommendations to the state of Montenegro that were supposed to be fulfilled.
The key recommendations of the joint mission included a complete halt to the project, development of a spatial plan, zoning, habitat mapping, prohibition of the use of fast boats on the lake, and a series of other recommendations. The progress in implementing these recommendations was reported to the present delegates by the representative of the Ministry of Tourism, Ecology, Sustainable Development, and the Development of the North, as well as the executive director of the NGO Green Home as the appealing party.
The executive director of the NGO Green Home, Azra Vuković, pointed out numerous threats present in this national park, including illegal construction, poaching, the presence and spread of invasive species, poor waste management, and other threats endangering the national park.
Delegates of the Bern Convention welcomed the adoption of Management Plans for national parks, which were adopted with a three-year delay. However, they reiterated the need to complete the planning documentation for this park and to fully halt the Porto Scadar Lake and White Village project, which has not been done so far.
For these reasons, the case remains open, and the Secretariat of the Bern Convention will continue to monitor the case and demand the full implementation of the recommendations provided to the state of Montenegro.