The promotion of the publication “Biodiversity of Buna, Bunica, Bregava and Trebižat” and the results of biodiversity research in the catchment area of these rivers was held yesterday at the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics in Banja Luka. The publication is the result of the project “Steps to protect the Neretva tributaries: Buna, Bunica, Bregava and Trebižat” funded by the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF), which the Center for Environment is implementing with a partner organization from Mostar, May Flower.
The project aims to achieve long-term protection and sustainable use of these tributaries of the Neretva through a combination of scientific research and advocacy activities. The project engaged experts who in 2020 conducted research on several groups of organisms in this area (flora and vegetation, birds, bryophytes, amphibians and reptiles, butterflies, aquatic macroinvertebrates, mammals).
The research gathered in this publication will be used for future advocacy and promotional activities, and will be available to relevant institutions, the general public, the professional and scientific community in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the media, local communities and other relevant actors. Researchers Dejan Radošević, Goran Topić and Slaven Filipović spoke about the results of the research. During the promotion, a short video about the research and specifics of these rivers was shown.
The Neretva River, with its tributaries, and the entire catchment area, are recognized as one of the most important centers of biodiversity in BiH and beyond. The Herzegovinian rivers Buna, Bunica, Bregava and Trebižat are tributaries of the lower Neretva. Given the phenomenon of sub-Mediterranean karst through which they flow, forming fertile terraced plateaus and fields, these rivers are crucial for human life in Herzegovina. Permanent human settlements have developed around them, and in addition to drinking water, which is the most valuable in these waterless areas, rivers provide man with freshness during the summer heat, irrigation of fields, watering livestock, fishing, tourism and other recreational activities. Therefore, the importance of these rivers for human life in this area can neither be measured nor sufficiently expressed: rivers in Herzegovina are the basis of life and the greatest gift. In addition, these rivers and research areas are habitats of numerous plant and animal species, and because of all this there is a need to protect a wider area of the studied flows.
This is exactly what our research and the mentioned publication, which you can find at this link, will contribute to.
