engleski

Balancing conservation of wetlands and sustainability of local livelihoods ; a case of Hutovo blato wetland, Bosnia and Herzegovina

This work looks into the conservation and management of Hutovo blato wetland in Bosnia and Herzegovina and explores the difficulties of integrating biodiversity conservation and local livelihoods. Having considerable ecological and socio-economic significance, Hutovo blato is one of the most important wetland complex for biodiversity in the Neretva River delta. Although representing a small hydrological area of the lower Neretva River, this wetland provides key habitat for a wide range of fish and birds. The fish fauna is highly diverse and comprised of 44 species, 29 of which are indigenous and 15 allochthonous. Covering an 75 km2, this area was proclaimed as Natural park in 1995 and listed in the Ramsar Convention in 2001. Historically, this area was a source of significant human use resource, mainly through fishery and hunting. The drastic reduction of wetland area through melioration and hydrological intervention by construction of storage reservoir lake led to shrinkage from 6000 ha prior to 1900s to less than 600 ha at present. These two remarkable changes significantly affected wetland biodiversity, both biologically and economically. Urbanization, growing tourisms, agricultural intensification and especially the planned hydrological operations in the upper drainage areas represents the potential threats to the preservation of the Park biodiversity. The last decade has seen a increase in ecotourism and fishing activities, as well as the use of illegal fishing and hunting practices, both having severe pressure on the wetland biodiversity. Proclamation of the Park have changed the circumstances under which local people use this area. The findings revealed that the designation of the protected area has had negative impacts and consequences on the local livelihoods due to restriction to access and user rights to land and conflicts over the management of natural resources within and around the area. The villagers are disenfranchised by only passively participation in the management and show misunderstanding on the conservation importance. Of particular concern has been the absence of legal tenure, weak governance and lack of enforcement of rules and regulations, which have led to widespread exploitation of the site. All mentioned demonstrates the difficulties in finding a balance between conservation and sustainability of local livelihoods and underscores the importance of sufficient level of participation of villagers for the success of protected area.

Hutovo blato wetland; biodiversity conservation; community participation; conflicts; livelihoods

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