Montenegro has not justified the status of an ecological state and until now it was only a declarative norm, according to the non-governmental organization (NGO) Eco-team.
From that NGO, they said that the legal regulations in the field of environmental protection are mostly harmonized with the legal acquis of the European Union.
"However, the problem that we all witness as a society is reflected in the poor implementation of legal solutions, the weak capacities of institutions, especially at the local level, inspections, and pronounced corruption," the Eco-team told the MINA agency.
As they stated, the network of protected areas has been increased in Montenegro in recent years, but this is not followed by the adequate formation of management structures that would essentially take care of these areas, so that we have a large number of "paper" parks.
"In this sense, the Eco-team, together with its partners, is working intensively on the protection of several rivers - Ćehotina, Mrtvica, Morača and Bistrica, as well as ensuring that the management of these future protected areas is in accordance with the principles and goals of nature protection and is sustainable in the long term, in order to both nature and people enjoyed the benefits of protection," said the Eco-team.
As they said, these activities are carried out as part of a wider initiative, which is part of a multi-year campaign for the protection of the rivers of Southeast Europe.
"The campaign was launched by The Nature Conservancy, one of the world's most important organizations for nature protection, in cooperation with local partners in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia, North Macedonia and Serbia," stated the Eco-team.
Eco team, with the support of NGOs KOD, Zumiraj and Network for Youth Activism, sent an initiative to the Ministry of Ecology, Spatial Planning and Urbanism on March 22 to amend the Law on Environmental Impact Assessment.
They expect a response from the competent Ministry, as they stated, and they believe that department will have the ear to recognize the importance of amending the Law on Environmental Impact Assessment in the part of the provisions related to the amounts of fines that can be imposed on perpetrators of misdemeanors.
"We believe that increasing the amount of the minimum fine, which currently amounts to two thousand euros, which can be imposed on perpetrators of misdemeanor crimes, will lead to the achievement of the legal purpose of punishing and disincentivizing the perpetrators of misdemeanor crimes to repeat the same or similar offense," emphasized Eko- team.
In this way, as the Eco-team added, it will help to fulfill the function of environmental impact assessment, as one of the most important instruments of environmental protection.
In their analysis "Project environmental impact assessment - analysis of the legislative framework and changes in penal policy" it was stated that the penal policy resulting from the Environmental Impact Assessment Act does not provide significant results in the field of environmental protection.
The analysis of court processes and sentences showed that courts in a significant number of cases impose minimum sentences.
Eko-team said that the most common offenses for which legal proceedings were conducted were starting the implementation of the project without obtaining consent to the study or a decision that it was not necessary, as well as failure to implement the protection measures prescribed by the studies or decisions that their preparation was not necessary.
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