At today’s session in Mostar, the Government of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, at the proposal of the Federal Ministry of Environment and Tourism, submitted to the parliamentary procedure the Proposal for the Environmental Protection Strategy 2022-2032. year.
This strategic document for the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina covers important areas, including environmental, water and waste management, biodiversity and nature protection, air quality, climate change and energy, chemical safety and noise, and sustainable resource management, including agriculture, forestry, fisheries and mining. activities.
“The federal environmental protection strategy that the Government adopted today is extremely important for everyone’s health, but also for Bosnia and Herzegovina’s approach to the European Union. It will be part of the comprehensive ESAP BiH strategy for the next decade, and the environment is one of the issues that BiH will negotiate with the EU in accordance with Chapter 27 – Environment and climate change. It is our obligation to implement policies and regulations in accordance with the EU acquis in this area. The entire process of drafting the federal strategy was carried out with the cooperation and participation of more than 300 representatives of the relevant ministries, public institutions and other institutions at all levels of government in the FBiH, representatives of the academic community and the non-governmental sector with the continuous involvement of the public,” explained Federal Minister of Environment and Tourism Edita Djapo .
According to her, at the beginning of 2019, with the financial support of the Embassy of the Kingdom of Sweden in BiH, Bosnia and Herzegovina began activities on the development of a comprehensive environmental protection strategy of Bosnia and Herzegovina (ESAP BiH). It is four-component, that is, it will consist of strategies for four levels of government: BiH, Federation of BiH, Republika Srpska and Brcko District of BiH.
In November 2019, the Government of the Federation adopted information on the development of a federal environmental protection strategy and tasked federal and cantonal institutions to actively participate in this work, with the task of adopting and strategic environmental impact assessment for components related to water and waste management.
“I am pleased to confirm that we were the first in BiH to fulfill this task. Next comes the adoption of the strategies in the Brcko District and RS governments, and then the BiH Council of Ministers, and I hope that both houses of the FBiH Parliament will adopt the federal strategy as soon as possible,” said Minister Djapo.
Among the priorities, she highlighted the establishment of effective legal, strategic and institutional frameworks for the sustainable management of forests and forest resources in FBiH, as well as the management of hunting game, fish stocks, land resources and mineral resources and their responsible research and exploitation.
”Strategic goals are protecting water quality and ensuring the availability of water resources, reducing the amount of waste and increasing the amount of reused materials, preserving biological and landscape diversity, adapting to climate change and improving air quality. All this is in the service of preserving human health and improving well-being and quality of life in general,” Minister Djapo concluded.
