If urgent measures are not taken, on the Montenegrin coast, due to the irrational consumption of valuable and non-renewable resources, there will inevitably be a drop in income from tourism, the loss of part of the beaches and agricultural land, and enormous pollution.
This can be concluded on the basis of data from the Draft National Strategy for Integral Management of the Coastal Area, which states that the area of the planned construction area of 19.042 hectares is sufficient to house housing facilities that could house another 600.000 to 800.000 inhabitants and tourism capacities for at least 270.000 new beds.
"Planning construction areas many times larger than necessary has numerous additional negative consequences, which include dispersed construction with significantly higher utility equipment costs, unnecessary consumption of other valuable resources, especially agricultural and forest land and areas of valuable biodiversity, higher energy supply costs and higher fuel consumption, higher pressure on the environment, as well as the loss of the traditional physiognomy of the settlement and the destruction of the original regional values", it is stated in the document that the Ministry of Sustainable Development and Tourism will offer for public discussion.
The authors state that, in the long term, such a trend will lead to a decline in the attractiveness of the tourist area, a decline in the destination's rating and, ultimately, to a decline in income from tourism.
"The fact that in the best years of Montenegrin tourism (period 1985 - 1988), when the degree of construction of the coastal area was at a many times lower level, a greater number of overnight stays than is the case today is very illustrative and worrying. For example, in 1986, 10,9 million overnight stays were achieved, and in 2013, 9,4 million overnight stays. Tourists from Western European countries, for example, had 3 times more overnight stays in 1986 than in 2013. Estimates say that from 1985 to 1989, around 50.000 employees worked in tourism and for tourism in Montenegro, which is slightly more than the total number of people who today have the status of employees in coastal municipalities", says the Strategy.
In that document, it is emphasized that "significant efforts made to diversify the tourist product (including a large number of campaigns, actions and projects with the aim of recognizing Montenegro as a unique and year-round tourist destination) have not yielded significant results, so for now the sun and the sea and still remain the dominant tourist products, which account for slightly more than 90 percent of the total offer".
Although it is stated that the coastal area with its natural, cultural and landscape values is a key development resource of Montenegro, the assessment is that "the bottleneck in eliminating patterns of unsustainable coastal development is not only the insufficient compliance of regulations, but above all the unsatisfactory results of their application in practice".
The Strategy states that this is a very vulnerable area that needs to be protected from negative impacts, especially by preserving their integrity, and above all the area of Orjen, the Bay of Kotor, Vrmac, Buljarice, Rumija, Šaski jezera, and Velika plaže.
"The most threatened coastal habitats are the sand dunes on the Velika beach with the remaining fragments of the Skadar oak forest in its hinterland. The bird fauna associated with these habitats is threatened by hunting. Although there are no precise data, it is also obvious that a significant part of the existing protected natural assets has lost some or all of the properties that once placed them under protection. Such examples include parts of Bečićka and Slovenska plaža, Spas hill, Pržno beach," says the Draft.
It is stated that marine resources are exposed to various pressures and pollution from untreated municipal waste water, solid waste, shipbuilding and ship overhaul, from ports and marinas which, as a rule, are not sufficiently equipped to accept waste from vessels and minimize the impact on the environment, from vessels and from industry.
"Processes and phenomena that have the greatest impact on the loss of significant land properties are the conversion of agricultural land to construction, pollution and erosion. Improper waste disposal stands out as one of the main pressures on the land".
Even a cursory look, it is stated, reveals that the unsustainable pressures of urbanization, especially the real estate business, have resulted in numerous examples of endangering the environment, natural, regional and cultural values of the coast.
"The widest areas of high seismic vulnerability are located in the municipalities of Bar and Ulcinj, especially the wider surroundings of Ulcinj. Despite the limited data, it can be judged that erosion is very pronounced in the coastal area. However, it is not possible to give an assessment of the intensity of the impact on the beaches due to the lack of systematic monitoring of coastal processes," the document states.
"In the coastal municipalities, only 24 percent of the total available agricultural land is cultivated on about 4.800 farms where, in addition to the owners themselves, a little more than 3.800 people work. Data on the import of large quantities of products that can be produced in Montenegro are worrying. For olive oil, as a traditional product, imports are even 10 times higher than exports. The problem is that the potential for placing domestic products on the tourist market is not used to a significant extent".
In a situation of non-existence of other economic opportunities, it is stated, individuals tried to take advantage of the opportunities provided by the land trade.
"Earnings based on the increase in the value of land that has been repurposed for construction are large, often ten times higher than the real value of the land. The problem is also reflected in the effort of the local self-government to, in good faith, meet the citizens and enable them to build on their ancestral land. "Unfortunately, both of these lead to uncontrolled and scattered expansion of construction areas, for which it is not possible to finance the costs of communal equipment," the draft says.
The situation in fishing is also analyzed and it is stated that the total value of the fishing sector is 7,4 million euros, and that, excluding the mariculture and fish processing sector, about 400 people are employed in that area.
"In general, the fish stock of the Mediterranean, and even the Adriatic, is close to the point of overfishing, and more attention should be paid to its preservation. The registered catch of marine fish in Montenegro during the past few years was modest and ranged from 700 to 800 tons per year. "Due to the lack of complete supervision and control at sea, the illegal entry of foreign fishing boats into the territorial sea of Montenegro, as well as examples of illegal and unregistered fishing within the national framework, are evident," the document states.
It is also interesting to note that almost 13 million euros are allocated annually for the import of fish and fish products.
"The causes of this situation are, among others, a relatively small (total of 101 vessels) and a relatively old fleet (on average older than 30 years), as well as the absence of organized purchase or processing of fish," says the analysis.
The document also foresees a large number of measures to improve the situation. A coordination mechanism will be established, which will be made up of representatives of state institutions and experts, and the actions should be carried out in the period until 2020, after which it is necessary to perform an analysis of the achieved performance and prepare a framework proposal of actions for the period of the next five years. To begin with, the first (zero) priority action of NS IUOP will be the verification and development of the proposed indicative list of priority actions in the period up to 2020.
Everywhere is still being built illegally, the rocks cannot hold the hills
The document states that uncontrolled construction has cut off a significant number of torrential streams, resulting in the flooding of certain areas and the cessation of replenishment of some beaches and the reduction of available beach areas.
The natural ability to defend against floods is also reduced. The sea is excessively polluted in Boka and in the area of Ulcinj, and to a lesser extent in Budva and Bar, as well as in the Bijela Shipyard and the former overhaul facility - now Porto Montenegro.
There is still illegal construction, and the draft says that "the total fund of illegal buildings is unknown (the area is estimated at around 560 hectares)".
The percentages in coastal Croatian counties do not exceed ten
"The share of construction areas in the total area of the six coastal municipalities is 15,5 percent, of which only 18,5 is built, and the rest of 81,5 percent is the undeveloped part of construction areas. The same indicators in a width of one kilometer from the coastline show that as much as 46 percent of the territory is planned for construction, of which less than a third has been built. As a comparison, it can be stated that the share of construction areas in the total territory of Croatian coastal counties (which have a similar population density as the Montenegrin coast) amounts to five to seven percent, and the same share within coastal local self-government units is eight to 10 percent."
Six times more beds in private accommodation
The average occupancy of accommodation facilities is low and amounts to about 16 percent, which means that converted into days, the majority of tourist traffic takes place during 58 days. The average occupancy of hotels with 4 and more stars rarely exceeds 45 percent, which can be considered the threshold value for return on investment. S
residential capacity of the coastal area has doubled in the last 10 years to slightly more than 160 thousand beds. Of this, 74 percent (121.222 beds) are in private accommodation, that is, the number of beds in private accommodation has increased by about six times during the last decade.
"Low rent tourism" dominates the daily consumption of sixty euros
"Intensive construction over the last 20-‐years has not resulted in proportional benefits for the economy and society. Newly built areas are dominated by vacation apartments and private accommodation facilities (estimated at 74 percent of the total), while the share of hotels, especially higher category ones, is low. Low rent tourism still dominates (average daily consumption 60 euros). Pressure was expressed on the limited beach resources (it is estimated that in the height of the season the reception capacity of the beaches was exceeded by 40 percent)", the draft states.
The unsettled system of land and tax policy and the inefficient and non-transparent operation of the public administration were singled out as a special problem.
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