CZIP: Activities were also carried out on state-owned plots of land, which were obviously illegally usurped

The Center for the Protection and Study of Birds (CZIP) announced today that it has been monitoring and ringing birds in the area of ​​Mareza for many years, which is an inseparable part of the ecosystem complex of the "Zeta River Valley" Nature Park.

That non-governmental organization (NGO) reacted to the statement of the families Bulatović, Savković, Đurović, Vidaković, Radević and others, in which it is stated, among other things, that CZIP published inaccurate, unverified and unprofessional information in the media, thus leading the public to delusion.

Those families announced this in response to the CZIP statement, which states, among other things, that "there is no reaction from the competent institutions due to the devastation of Mareza".

In today's announcement, the CZIP states that all observed harmful and illegal activities were regularly reported to the competent institutions, and the same was done when another in a series of devastating activities was recorded.

"Unplanned urbanization in the protected area has taken off, which is clearly visible on the comparative satellite images from October 2022 and May 2023, so we once again call on the inspection to go out into the field to determine illegal activities and prosecute the perpetrators. Namely, it is gravel filling. which leads to the permanent destruction of wet meadows - habitats that are otherwise extremely affected by human activities and are therefore increasingly endangered," the CZIP press release points out.

They added that while the world is making efforts to preserve such habitats, in our country the practice of converting them into construction land is a frequent occurrence, and awareness and responsibility for the damage caused is almost non-existent.

"The mentioned construction works are carried out without a prominent board with information about the permit and details of the purpose of the works, which the investor, in accordance with the law, is obliged to have on the construction site and in the legally prescribed dimensions. By simply searching the site www.geoportal.co.me, which is publicly available, it is clear that the mentioned activities are carried out next to plots in private and on plots in state ownership, which are obviously illegally usurped. However, in the whole story, the answer to the question of who is the owner is less important compared to the damage caused and the fact that someone must bear responsibility for it," said CZIP.

They stated that neither the state nor the citizens who own land in the zone of protected areas, but also outside protected zones, cannot carry out activities that "come to their mind" and as they "want" without a building permit and in violation of the law.

"As stated in the reaction to the CZIP's announcement, in the protected area in zone III, settlement development activities, business-industrial and supporting infrastructure are allowed to the extent that they do not cause damage to the basic values ​​of the area. These guidelines were given to spatial planners who should be a guide when creating spatial plans and therefore future issuing of permits, prescribing construction loads and capacities of a certain area, possible urbanization and the purpose of developing a certain area of ​​the city, and it is certainly not left to the will of each individual to freely interpret it according to his own assessment and in accordance with his personal interests, which are otherwise known in jargon as wild construction," said CZIP.

They tell the Bulatović, Savković, Đurović, Vidaković and Radević families that the conversion of land from agricultural to construction and the implementation of preparatory works without an investor board with clear intentions for future construction projects are nothing from the list of permitted activities in a protected area.

"On the contrary, they are considered a permanent devastation for which the Criminal Code provides a punishment. If the respected families, who for some reason found themselves summoned to the inspection, can determine that they are planting potatoes on the plots in question using the new technique of buffering with gravel, we will be immensely pleased to we will try the same, as soon as it is ripe. We also want to inform the respected families that such activities do not belong to the domain of revitalization activities, and that these measures must be carried out only with the permission of the manager, and with the consent of the Environmental Protection Agency and with appropriate reports. we see that such measures in practice are serious applications of scientific techniques, and gravel buffering has not yet taken the position of a habitat revitalization measure in the scientific community. , areas of zero biodiversity," said CZIP.

They said that they are once again calling on the competent inspections and the Agency for Management of Protected Areas in Podgorica to finally start performing their regular activities and urgently stop the unplanned and illegal urbanization in Mareza.