Montenegro

CAMP Montenegro (2011-2014) 

Preparatory activities

Following a request presented by the Government of Montenegro, the Contracting Parties to the Barcelona Convention approved the decision to implement the CAMP for Montenegro at their 14th Ordinary Meeting held in Portorož, Slovenia, in November 2005. The decision to start with the initiation of the CAMP Montenegro was adopted in December 2006. The Feasibility Study (FS) was prepared in the period December 2007 – May 2008. In February 2010, a draft CAMP Project Agreement was prepared. The CAMP Agreement was signed in May 2011.

Project area

The CAMP Montenegro project area is the entire coastal zone comprising six coastal municipalities – Herceg Novi, Kotor, Tivat, Budva, Bar and Ulcinj – with the total surface of 1,591 km2 and internal waters and territorial sea with the surface of around 2,500 km2. According to the relevant spatial plans, the total length of the mainland seashore is 288,2 km (out of which 105,5 km in the Bay of Boka Kotorska). The islands’ shores are 25,6 km long, while the length of the shore along the river Bojana is 22,8 km. Only 20% of the coastal sea, next to the low sandy beaches and accessible rocky shores, is relatively shallow with a sandy and pebble bottom suitable for bathing. The project area is shown in the Figure below.

Project objectives and activities

The main objectives of the CAMP Montenegro are: a) to create necessary mechanisms that can help achieve sustainable development of the coastal area; b) to support implementation of national policies and of the ICZM Protocol; c) to promote an integrated and participatory planning and management in the coastal area; d) to build national and local capacities for ICZM and raise awareness of the importance of the coastal area, complexity and fragility of its ecosystems and of the need for integrated approaches in managing them; and e) to facilitate the transfer of knowledge of ICZM tools and approaches.

In order to achieve these objectives, the CAMP Montenegro will be tailored around two main lines of activities: horizontal activities that include: project co-ordination, integration and dissemination of results; training and capacity building; and awareness raising; and individual activities that include: support for the Coastal Area Spatial Plan (CASP) and ICZM framework set up, implications of the ICZM Protocol for spatial planning; preparation of CASP baseline studies, the ICZM Plan and SEA, and harmonization of the CASP with the ICZM Plan.

Outputs and key findings

Many activities have been successfully implemented within the CAMP Montenegro, including: the Study on attractiveness assessment of the agriculture; the proposal for the setback determination; the proposal for the extension of  this setback zone in order to include most valuable parts of the sea shore for the adaptation to climate change and open spaces; preparation of the CAMP-based studies; a progress made towards the development of the National Strategy for ICZM; in-depth interviews with target groups (participatory process).

The key findings of CAMP Montenegro have been derived in a way as to find their full application in the Special Purpose Spatial Plan (SPSP) for the Coastal Zone of Montenegro, primarily through the definition of the main land uses (forest and agricultural areas), determination of zones with a limited construction (through the setback application and identification of wider zones that should be preserved from the future development) and establishment of conditions for bringing planned land uses to their purpose.