Natura 2000 in Bosnia and Herzegovina: where are we at the moment?

Abstract

Paper deals with problems that Bosnia and Herzegovina is facing while trying to achieve the EU standards in the field of nature protection. We analyzed results of four up to date finished projects that dealt with the process of establishing the European ecological network Natura 2000 in B&H. Based on all relevant scientific and professional data, paper gives the retrospective revision of the reference lists of the species form Annex II of Habitats Directive and Annex I of Birds Directive (Table 1-2), as well as habitats reference list from the Annex I of the Habitats Directive (Table 3-4) that are important for the designation of the future Natura 2000 sites on the B&H territory. Plant species Himantoglossum adriaticum Baumann (Figure 4), which is of community importance, was introduced as new for B&H. Suggested revised reference list consists of 238 species, out of which 11 were not mention for B&H up untill now (Appendix 1), while some regarded taxa and habitat types were removed from the list (Appendix 2). At the end, paper points at some shortcomings of the suggested Natura 2000 network in B&H and gives main guidelines for the future work.