Representatives of UNESCO, at the ongoing summit in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, should also decide whether the construction of the highway has devastated the bed of the Tara River. The construction of this road is the largest infrastructure project in the history of Montenegro.
For now, it is known that a similar danger does not threaten the Durmitor National Park and the area of the city of Kotor, which, by the decision of UNESCO (the UN specialized organization for education, science and culture), remain on the list of World Cultural Heritage.
"Tara is devastated"
Will the Tara river continue to be adorned with the informal epithet "tear of Europe"? It is often described that way because of its crystal clear water and the uniqueness of the canyon, the deepest in the world after the one in Colorado (USA).
"Tara is definitely devastated. We visit and observe the terrain almost every day. The river bed on Mateševo has been reduced by at least 50 meters. Huge embankments have been poured into the river" - that was the latest "report" on the state of the Tara River in the locality where the construction of the first phase of the Bar-Boljare highway is underway, as seen by Aleksandar Perović from the environmental movement Ozon.
As a reminder, UNESCO experts who visited the part of Tara in November last year, where the highway works are being carried out, submitted a report in which they stated that the area is "full of landfills and discarded material", and that it is clear that the impacts will remain visible on the environment and after the completion of the construction of the highway.
In those statements, the organization Network for the Affirmation of the Non-Governmental Sector (MANS), which was the first to draw attention to what is happening in the Tara riverbed, saw confirmation of their position that it was devastated. They followed up on the reports of the European Commission and the European Parliament, which demanded urgent measures to rehabilitate the riverbed.
However, the Minister of Sustainable Development and Tourism in the Government of Montenegro, Pavle Radulović, is not pessimistic regarding the final assessment by UNESCO and its decision as to whether the Tara river bed remains within the area protected by the "Man and the Biosphere" program.
In a statement to the public, twenty days after the first UNESCO report on the state of the Tara basin, he stated:
"In November I claimed and I claim now that the bed of the Tara has not been displaced, that the Tara is not completely threatened and that it will not be removed from the MAB (man and biosphere) list. No one has ever said that the construction of the highway has no impact on the Tara. We claimed that the the impact is limited - local, that the vast majority of these impacts are temporary, and that some of the impacts that remain have no effect on the protected parts."
The footage shows otherwise
That the minister's observations strongly conflict with what MANS claimed based on its drone footage of the place where Chinese builders are erecting a bridge as part of the future highway, was shown on the spot by his discussion with journalists about whether the Tara bed had been moved in the disputed location. Recorded before the arrival of the UNESCO mission in November last year:
"And you see that the trough has been moved?", the minister asked the journalist, who established that it was clear where there was a trough in one part, and where it is now, to which Minister Radulović responded again:
"Was the riverbed moved or was the water diverted to build the foot of the bridge?"
"If the trough is first in one place, and then in another place, it means that it has been moved," the journalist concluded.
"No," replied the minister and added: "I don't see anything happening here that is not normal for a construction site of this type."
Durmitor and Kotor remain on the world list
However, for now, two pieces of good news for Montenegro have arrived from Baku.
While waiting for a definitive decision by UNESCO for Tara, that international organization decided a few days ago at the same meeting in Baku that Durmitor National Park and the Natural and Cultural-Historical Heritage of Kotor remain on the World Cultural Heritage List.
This was greeted with relief, especially by that part of the professional public who warned of examples of devastation of natural and cultural-historical heritage in those two localities. Among them is art historian Aleksandar Čilikov, who has been dedicated to protecting the cultural and historical treasures of Montenegro for decades.
"For me, this is really great news! Because, indeed, Kotor was on the verge of being written off from the World Cultural Heritage. There was very serious devastation there with new construction. I consider the state and non-governmental organizations to be responsible for such an epilogue, and even some respectable individuals, who raised their voices for the normalization of that situation, for it to be compared to those world standards. Of course, I must also mention some opposition parties, which really stood up for the preservation of that space," says Čilikov.
Warning from Čehotina
And how did it come to be in a situation where its protected areas are under the scrutiny of UNESCO in a country that, 28 years ago, declared itself the first ecological country in the world?
Ecologist Aleksandar Perović has his own explanation.
"The ecological state was a great idea, which was also the forerunner of today's sustainable development goals of the United Nations," reminds environmentalist Aleksandar Petrović.
"So, we had something that no one else in the world had. But our decision-makers do not understand the development direction of the ecological state, they do not understand how well the protected area should be managed and how many benefits it brings. Definitely, the reason for this is that people who are in power, not only don't understand, but they don't even have the basic knowledge to govern properly," Petrović is convinced.
Ecocide, urbicide, culturocide are the words used more than ever before by the critical public, the civil sector, as well as from the ranks of the political opposition, to describe examples of the devastation of natural resources and the cultural and historical heritage of Montenegro. This is confirmed by the latest incident of fish dying in the Ćehotina river, due to the release of toxic substances from the thermal power plant in Pljevlja, in the north of Montenegro.
RSE interlocutors, however, draw attention to what they say is the awakened environmental awareness of Montenegrin citizens.
"What I can't understand at all is how some people who decide don't understand that the steam factory is exactly pure nature and a natural environment, and not these buildings with apartments made of concrete and metal. However, I have the impression that the people who decide on there is no awareness of the fate of the development of Montenegro, especially tourism," says Čilikov.
Aleksandar Perović notices, as he says, a paradox in which people who work for an investor "need to act as an expert and independent public".
"They can't do that. They took money once and they have to justify it. Unfortunately, we are the only independent public in the civil sector and we try to gather knowledge and information from people who know what they are talking about and channel it through the media. But I repeat , I hope that the small system can react quickly and that things will change and I hope that a new time will come for people who really know to get to the right places," concludes Petrović.
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