The Environmental Protection Agency's publication "Montenegro - between mountains and sea, landscape and biodiversity" was published on a completely voluntary basis by the authors of the texts and photos.
The Director of the Agency, Milan Gazdić, said today at the presentation of the book that it is a small contribution to the nature of Montenegro.
"The goal was to present to the citizens all the beauties that the majority do not know about," he said and added that many who live in Montenegro do not know about Trnovačko Lake, that Montenegro has one of the tallest trees in Europe, one of the oldest. olive tree in the world, that most people do not know that in Montenegro there is one of the three European rainforests, Biogradska gora.
According to Gazdić, the book, which was published in Montenegrin and English, is a new personal identity card of the institution headed by him.
He also said that it is significant, not only because of its content, but also because of the cooperation that EPA established with other institutions, non-governmental organizations and individuals during the production of that publication.
"This is how the Agency should function in the future," Gazdić said.
And the editor of the publication, ornithologist Darko Saveljić, is proud of the fact that all authors, including 38 experts, provided content for the publication free of charge.
"It was an honor for them to help their country in this way," he said, adding that they all agreed that the opening of the book should contain the Declaration on the declaration of Montenegro as an ecological state and that they had a consensus that 30 years since the declaration had been lost , but that there is still potential for Montenegro to develop as an ecological one.
Saveljić explained that the book represents the zero state of biodiversity in Montenegro. He also said that the texts were written in clear language, so that they would be accessible to parents and educators, so that they could further present the content to children and young people.
At the same time, as he said, there is enough material in the book to write textbooks for primary and secondary schools.
The agency provided funds for printing the book from a fund dedicated to greening, and the seedlings were replaced by the action "We give you a book, you give us nature".
"Due to the great interest of citizens and the public, we managed to provide 50 percent more seedlings than we could have bought with the money we had," said the director of the EPA.
Donated seedlings, like more than 5.000 seedlings previously provided by the Agency, will be planted in urban areas, in the courtyards of hospitals, schools and universities.
In the introductory speech, Gazdić also notes that almost all the texts of the experts who worked on the book end with paragraphs warning about the threat of the natural world they wrote about.
"Therefore, this book warns that all that is written about in it should be urgently and seriously introduced into the framework of sustainable development and wise use of natural resources," he states.
After the New Year, as announced, the Red List of Birds will be published. When it comes to lists of other protected species, their preparation is ongoing.
"There are more than 2.700 types of plants in Montenegro, it's a bit more work, our experts are currently working on creating those lists, it will take some time, but we will certainly publish and print them one by one," Gazdić said.
He also said that in 2022, the EPA will conduct an audit of around 20 protected areas, mainly on the coast of Montenegro, that a record collection of eco fees was achieved this year.
"So far, about 600 have been collected, we expect to manage to collect about 1,2 million by the end of the year. Until now, it was at the level of about 300 per year," he said.
According to him, the agency has also provided trap cameras, with which they will monitor the number of wild animals.
In addition, the cameras will be a support in preventing illegal activities in the field.
When asked by journalists about the initiative of part of the non-governmental sector to introduce a moratorium on hunting for a while, Gazdić said that the Agency is aware of the problem and that, although it is not their responsibility, they ordered cameras to monitor the number of game populations.
"I hope that we will succeed in creating a system that will be based on real and correct data," he said.
Saveljić said that Montenegro needs a moratorium for at least two years.
"Until we agree on how much we have in Montenegro, since we have left game without forests, and forests without game. I think that this chaos in Montenegrin hunting grounds can only be resolved with a radical approach, which is to leave game without lead and let's form an independent commission or institution that will carry out an independent count, with which this Agency will be satisfied, considering that in several publications of indicators, that is, the biological situation in Montenegro, it is clearly indicated that the data held by Monstat, this Agency and "The hunting association is not harmonized. A lot of things do not agree with common sense. The word hunting is a word that should be in the dictionary, but not in nature, it is an outmoded pastime that does no good to anyone," said Saveljić.
The book "Montenegro - Between Mountains and Sea, Landscape and Biodiversity" will also be at the Montenegro pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai, a world exhibition that will be held until March 31, 2022.
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