FBiH Ministry of Tourism and Environment started a project ”Protected Forest and Mountain Areas of FBiH” in order to increase the number of protected natural areas.
The grant for this project was provided by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) of the World Bank.
The project, in the FBiH ,is focused on protected areas of National Park Una, and newly protected areas, unique zone Prenj – Čvrsnica – Čabulja – Vras (with Nature Park Blidinje), Igman – Bjelašnica – Treskavica – Visočica.
Part of the project is the campaign to raise the public awareness about the values and positive effects of protected forest and mountain areas in FBiH, under the slogan ”Be included, be responsible”
Campaign wants to informed the public about the protected areas, their significance for life and future; their possibilities of using the potentials of protected areas in accordance with principles of sustainable development, ways in which every person in FBiH can contribute to the protection of nature and preservation of biodiversity.
Mascot of this campaign is BUBO, an endangered owl species in BiH that needs to be protected.
FBiH Assistant Minister of Tourism and Enviornment Muris Hadžić said that the Ministry is trying to expand the scope of protected areas, but spatial – planning documentation presents a problem.
Despite this, he believes that the FBiH will soon have new protected areas.
“We try to protect all of these areas as much as we can on the basis of the old regional plans, but all these areas should be declared protected. Damages due to this situation is primarily related to tourism, as it has been proven that the number of tourists increases with the number of protected natural parks,” warned Hadžić.
