Threats, physical attacks, tracking, punctures of tires on private vehicles, sinking of a ship, even an attempted murder and finally the fire that engulfed the house of fishkeeper Ratko Pajović from the NGO Carp security group (CSG).
These are just some of the problems that have been faced by volunteers and NGOs working on the preservation of Skadar Lake for years, and which have never been prosecuted.
In an interview with "Vijesti", they said that despite all the obstacles and poor equipment, they have excellent results - since the beginning of the fishing ban, they have removed more than 300 nets from the lake.
Fishkeeper Mišo Banović said that they founded the NGO six years ago exclusively for the protection of Lake Skadar and the fish stock...
"The state must summarily, before it is too late, solve the issue of eco-crime and put a stop to the devastation of the national park. First of all, every serious state must stand behind the people who make great efforts for the benefit of all"
"It was founded by sports fishermen and nature lovers, without a shred of interest and without a single submitted project, without any help. "We financed ourselves exclusively from our own budgets... From the very beginning, we encountered problems caused by the employees of the Skadar Lake National Park and poachers," he said.
The story is that the problems grew in parallel with their results in the fight against organized criminal groups that are destroying Lake Skadar and life in it.
"The results have begun, and thus the problems. We experienced classic torture, both verbal and physical, and struggled with various obstructions. Our volunteers were attacked by both gamekeepers and poachers. The first major problem happened when our member Ratko Pajović's ship was sunk. Even to this day, the perpetrator has not been discovered," said Banović.
He says that after that, problems and attacks on them and their property became more frequent:
"They broke our cars, punctured dozens of car tires, followed us, threatened us. Even one of the gamekeepers - MM I can freely say - tried to kill our volunteer. For that, in our opinion, there is adequate evidence. We also had a video of another gamekeeper, RM, in which he is seen trying to physically deal with our volunteer and then head of service. The authorities remained silent. I think he was only punished with a three-month reduction in salary by 20 percent each," says Banović.
He points out that together with his colleagues from the Coalition for Sustainable Development (KOR), of which the NGO CSG is a part, they submitted to the prosecution hundreds of pieces of evidence about these and other inactions on Lake Skadar.
"After the call for cooperation addressed to the Acting Supreme State Prosecutor Ivica Stanković and the meeting he organized, we agreed with the representatives of the Basic State Prosecutor's Office to provide them with evidence of eco-crime on Lake Skadar. We have done our part, now we are waiting for them. The state, as well as all citizens, must understand that serious criminal groups and individual criminals have been destroying the lake for years. They are bothered by us, who, out of love for the lake, discover illegalities, that's why they terrorize us, but if the institutions of the system would start a final showdown with them, something could be done to save this national treasure. We are ready to help them in that fight, and if they don't want to, then we will continue on our own, as far as we can go. "Maybe after the burning of the fisherman's house, our member will think and realize that they have put a group of nature lovers at risk by doing nothing for many years," said Banović.
He pointed out that even after the burning of the fisherman's house of one of them, the fish keepers from CSG did not stop their efforts to preserve the lake and the fish stock.
"Our fight did not end even when, due to unfulfilled conditions for work, we terminated the contracts with the National Park last year, halfway through the fishing ban. Even then, we fought, we sent videos of poaching to the portal 'Vijesti', so that the authorities would not react, we patrolled and tried in every possible way to reduce the rate of poaching", he said.
The lake, he said, cannot be preserved if NP "Sladarsko jezero" does not increase the number of supervisors, but also cleans up its ranks.
"The protection service, according to systematization, has 16 supervisors. At least five of them are on sick leave at any given moment. And that for several months, and sometimes even over a year. For conservation, twice as many supervisors are needed... They also need better equipment, but also to break the bond between them and the poachers," he said.
Poacher boats significantly faster
Poachers are better equipped to poach than the National Park Service. Poachers' vessels are sometimes three times faster than service vessels, Banović said, explaining the carelessness in the "Skadar Lake" National Park.
"Most of them are tin cans, of which 90 percent could not be registered and used according to all the regulations... Who allows them to do this and register them - we do not know, but it is evident that no one takes care of it," he said. .
Emphasizing what all the fish keepers from the NGO CSG are struggling with, he also said that the fact that the Municipality of Golubovci asked the NP to lift the prohibition measures during the covid-19 epidemic, just so that people could to catch fish...
"Lake Skadar is a systemic problem, the solution of which institutions must get involved as much as possible... We have repeatedly warned the authorities through the media and in writing - that eco-crime is flourishing on Lake Skadar and that the protection service is not up to the task of preserving the national park".
Bonus video:
