Overview of Nature Protection Progress in Kosovo

Abstract

This paper presents an overview of progress in the area of nature conservation in the last decade in Kosovo. Two very important laws were promulgated in 2012 about two national parks: Bjeshket e Nemuna and Sharri National park. With this expansion, the protected area network that in 2003 was about 4.36 % of the territory was increased to 10.9%, reaching a satisfactory degree of protected areas and increasing the number of protected areas in a total of 116. While in terms of conservation of protected areas a significant progress has been achieved, stagnation is seen in the conservation of rare and threatened species of flora and fauna. Although envisaged by legislation, the Red List of Kosovo of rare and threatened species has not been adopted yet. Also, there is a small progress in the implementation of practical conservation and management measures contained in the legislation.

Keywords

• biodiversity
• conservation
• protected areas
• legislation
• environment