First published on 12/16/2020, and last updated on 06/11/2022
In snowy and sub-zero conditions from October to December, a protest camp by local community members prevented NATO from entering the area.
Press Release by Save Sinjajevina Campaign (Association Save Sinjajevina, Land Rights Now, International Land Coalition,
Oxfam, Rights and Resources Initiative, ICCA Consortium and Common Lands Network)
- The Minister of Defense of the incoming government, Olivera Injac, called off the military training and assured protesters that she will reassess plans to militarise the area. Now, herders and activists demand secure land rights and an open negotiation to create a community protected area.
- Sinjajevina is the Balkan’s biggest mountain grassland, a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, and a vital ecosystem for Europe with over 22,000 people living in the area
- To support community demands, NGOs and scientists have launched a European campaign and petition (#MissionPOSSIBLE).
For 51 days, community members and activists braved snowy and sub-zero weather in a protest camp at the foot of Margita mountain, the epicenter of an area designated for military training by the outgoing Montenegrin government. Camping within the site earmarked for the army, they successfully prevented the military from accessing their pastures.
Their aim was to maintain a blockade until a new government, more sympathetic to Sinjajevina’s plight, was installed. An unexpected delay in the transition triggered a game of cat and mouse between herders and the military and made headlines in Montenegro and abroad.
A few days ago, on December 5, 2020, the new Minister of Defense, Olivera Injac, announced that there would be no military training and invited protesters to go home. She committed to examining all documentation related to Sinjajevina and to talk to the local residents as soon as the opportunity arises.
But locals and activists of the Save Sinjajevina association are only temporarily relieved. Their original demands remain valid: 1) to scrap the decree establishing the military training ground, and 2) to create a protected area that is co-designed and co-governed by local communities.
Through their association “Save Sinjajevina”, they are inviting the Prime Minister, the Minister of the Defense, and the Minister of Sustainable Development and Tourism, to sit and negotiate with them.
THE FIGHT TO SAVE SINJAJEVINA
Margita protest camp in late November. Photo: Save Sinjajevina Association
The struggle to “Save Sinjajevina” started in September 2019, when the then government, supported by NATO allies, established a military training ground in the very heart of these community lands and Biosphere Reserve, without any social, economic and environmental impact assessment or consultation of the affected pastoral communities. Midway through the process of declaring a protected area as a Regional Natural Park, the government inaugurated an artillery polygon in the area and began military training and weapons testing with NATO-allied forces from the USA, Italy, Austria, Slovenia, and North Macedonia.
Despite losing the August 2020 election, the outgoing government held fast to the planned military exercise to take place during the transition period. The army visited local residents, warning them to leave the area with their cattle as military operations were scheduled for October 19-23.
Cattle breeder Zeljko Radonjic and his family have been going out to a Katun, a mountain settlement for summer grazing, a few kilometers away from the location designated for the military ground. “It is foolish to do something like that and destroy the pasture, perhaps the largest in Europe. All reasonable people are against it. We are ready to defend the mountain with our lives, ” said Željko.
In addition to the loss of access to traditional pasturelands, local community members fear that the militarization of the area will lead to human casualties or injuries, air, water, and pasture pollution, wildlife and agrobiodiversity loss, reduced ecological connectivity, and crop and animal damage and loss of economic value of their production.
Local and international environmental and rights groups have urged the Montenegro government and the European Union to scrap the project to militarize the area, which threatens unique ecosystems and local communities in the Balkans’ biggest mountain grassland.
The Sinjajevina-Durmitor mountain range is part of a natural park and bordered by two UNESCO World Heritage sites. Home to more than 22,000 people, it is used and managed communally by eight different Montenegrin tribes. The area represents a genuine example of sustainable development and cultural resilience for Europe and the world as a whole. Saving Sinjajevina is symbolic of a much wider struggle for land, life, and common ways of organizing
The military pressure on Sinjajevina is just one example of the many threats rural commons are facing today. Traditional systems and customary laws are not recognized by nation-states, who consider such land to be state property despite the fact that the local communities who are currently using them and managing them have done so for centuries, often even since before the states themselves were created.
“The pastoralist tribes of Sinjajevina should always have the last word in what happens in their territories”, said Sabine Pallas of International Land Coalition, one of the co-conveners of the Land Rights Now campaign, “local communities have created, managed and conserved this uniquely valuable landscape that is increasingly rare in Europe and deserve to be at the center of the conservation and governance efforts of their territory.”
NOTE TO MEDIA OUTLETS
Experts and local community leaders are available for an interview. Please contact Samra Martinovic: samricamala@gmail.com +38267386418. Images are also available on request.
Link to the petition (in English, French, and Spanish): https://www.landrightsnow.org/get-involved/save-sinjajevina-now/
Further information available at www.kukumiku.com/proyectos/save-sinjajevina/ and www.sinjajevina.org
MEDIA CONTACTS
For Montenegro media enquiries in English or Serbian:
Milan SEKULOVIC, Secretary General of the Save Sinjajevina Association: milan.sekulovic.bp@gmail.com +382 69 831 903
For European and global media enquiries in English:
Fionuala Cregan, campaigns coordinator, Land Rights Now, Fionuala.Cregan@oxfamnovib.nl, +31638729854
For European and global media enquiries in German or English:
Sabine PALLAS, International Land Coalition, s.pallas@landcoalition.org, co-convener of the Land Rights Now campaign, +393389424414
For European and global media or scientific enquiries in French and Spanish:
Pablo DOMINGUEZ, Environmental Anthropology Senior Researcher at CNRS (France), Laboratoire Géographie de l’Environnement (GEODE), CNRS / Université de Toulouse 2, email: eco.anthropologies3@gmail.com +33781037747 & +34653910230
Margita protest camp in late November. Photo: Save Sinjajevina Association)
