On April 10, the Center for Environment, with support from the City of Livno, organized a workshop in Livno titled “The Future of Krug Mountain.” The workshop aimed to test a methodology for involving local stakeholders in the mountain’s protection process.
“We’ve witnessed how the protection of Livanjsko Polje has been delayed for years, partly due to insufficient local stakeholder engagement and ownership of the process. While our current focus is primarily on the polje, Krug Mountain has been a pressing issue for over a decade—and for Livno and its surroundings, its significance spans centuries.
Last December, we participated as guests at an event organized by the Livno Center for Civic Cooperation, which addressed Krug’s protection. Building on that, we wanted to advance this process with expert guidance, drawing lessons from our work in Livanjsko Polje,” said Igor Kalaba, project assistant on “Sustainable Future of Livanjsko Karst Polje in Bosnia and Herzegovina.”
The workshop was led by Croatian experts Marko Pećarević and Željka Rajković, specialists in nature conservation with over 40 years of combined experience across the Balkans and globally.
“Effective public participation facilitation is a science in itself—and it’s critical for both the successful designation and long-term sustainable management of protected areas. We deliberately chose experts from another country with diverse international experience because we often hear claims like, ‘Our country is too complicated,’ or ‘These issues are unique to us—elsewhere, everything runs smoothly. ’While Bosnia isn’t the most streamlined country, challenges in nature protection exist everywhere. Having people in the room who’ve tackled similar problems is invaluable. Sometimes, simply realizing our struggles aren’t new, unique, or unsolvable is enough,” added Nataša Crnković, Biodiversity and Protected Areas Program Coordinator at the Center for Environment.
The City of Livno also supported the workshop. Ivana Markov, Assistant Mayor of Livno, stated: “I’m thrilled that today’s workshop concluded with a consensus: Krug Mountain’s future lies in its protection, and we’ve defined the next steps. Aligning with these outcomes, the City of Livno will continue working to advance the protection process in accordance with the FBiH Nature Protection Law.”
The Center for Environment plans to maintain its presence in Livanjsko and surrounding karst poljes, continuing to collaborate with local actors—especially communities with concerns or fears about area protection. They emphasize that protection does not jequal prohibition, a key takeaway from the workshop, alongside the agreement on the importance of timely and tailored stakeholder involvement in such processes.
The “Future of Krug Mountain” workshop was organized under the project “Sustainable Future of the Freshwater Ecosystem in Livanjsko Polje, Bosnia and Herzegovina.” The Center for Environment implements this project in partnership with the Ornithological Society “Naše Ptice” and EuroNatur, supported by the DIMFE Foundation.