Protected areas management in public enterprise "Vojvodinašume": Sources and areas of subsidies use

Abstract

One of the most complex issues in a protected area (PA) management is the provision of adequate financial resources. Managers of PAs in Serbia are financed from several different sources: budget through the allocation of subsidies, fees for the PAs use, revenues generated through the business operating and management, funds provided for project implementation, donations, gifts, aids, etc. Public enterprise (PE) "Vojvodinašume" is the manager of 16 and the user of 19 PAs in the territory of Vojvodina. In this paper, two research goals are defined. The first goal refers to the determination of a statistically significant difference in the sources of subsidies according to the selected PAs, and those are special nature reserves: “Obedska bara”, “Koviljsko-petrovaradinski rit”, “Bagremara”, “Gornje Podunavlje” and “Deliblatska peščara”. The second goal is the determination of a statistically significant difference in the areas of subsidising, related to the selected PAs. In this paper, PE “Vojvodinašume” internal data for the period 2009-2019 were used. The research has determined funds provided by the national and provincial budgets as the most important sources of subsidies for the observed PAs. Concerning the areas of subsidising, most of the funds were allocated for the monitoring and improvement of the PAs conditions, which determined PE “Vojvodinašume” for taking an active approach to nature conservation.

Keywords

• management
• protected areas
• subsidies
• pe “vojvodinašume”