Outlook on Climate Change Adaptation in the Western Balkan Mountains

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Sectoral Strategies

Water Water sector legislation is quite similar in all of the Western Balkan countries, with the exception of Croatia due to its direct implementation of the key EU directive. The water sector is regulated at the state level in all countries, except in BiH where the entity governments are responsible for adoption of legislation, planning and development of the sector. There are no direct references within policies which link climate change in general, or climate change in mountain regions specifically, to water management. However, water legislation deals with water-related natural disasters such as flooding, which can be associated with climate change in certain cases. BiH, Croatia, Serbia and Slovenia are Parties to the FrameworkAgreement on the SavaRiver Basin (FASRB). 10 The purpose of this agreement includes the establishment of sustainable water management and the undertaking

of measures to prevent or limit hazards on the Sava River, which was the biggest national river in former Yugoslavia. One of the projects implemented under this Framework Agreement was the pilot project on climate change, entitled “Building the link between flood risk management planning and climate change assessment in the Sava River Basin”, which was implemented between March 2011 and December 2013. Through expanded and strengthened collaboration among the countries in the Sava River Basin, the project’s goal was to address transboundary management of floods while taking into account the impacts of climate change under different scenarios and the perspective adaptation measures. The project outcomes included several reports and studies, including the Report on climate change adaptation measures for flood protection in the Sava River Basin (2014) which recommended a series of measures including the implementation of flood early warning systems and the renovation or construction of new flood protection measures (Brilly et al. , 2014).

Albania, BiH, Croatia, and Montenegro are contracting Parties to the Barcelona Convention against Pollution in the Mediterranean Sea, 11 a regional convention meant to prevent and abate pollution from ships, aircraft and land-based sources in the Mediterranean Sea. This Convention has seven protocols addressing specificities of Mediterranean environmental conservation, one of which is the Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) protocol for the Mediterranean. 12 The ICZM Protocol has six goals, including the prevention and reduction of natural disasters and climate change (European Union, 2011). The Action Plan for the implementation of the ICZM Protocol 2012–2019 was adopted in 2012. It has identified the need for climate change to be fully integrated into the ICZM process, and has defined specific objectives that include mainstreaming of climate change responses in the delivery of the Protocol by promoting the development of methodologies and

Policy Evaluation Matrix

Mainstreaming of adaptation goals and targets

WATER

1- low or not considered at all

2- low or mentioned at least

3- somewhat integrated/present

4- high or fully integrated

Adaptation targets

Participation

Bosnia and Herzegovina

FYR Macedonia

Regional (Joint responses)

Albania

Croatia

Serbia*

Kosovo**

Montenegro

Availability of implementation tools

Monitoring and Evaluation

No data

Regional/transboundary adaptation considerations

Mountain adaptation considerations

**This designation is without prejudice to positions on status, and is in line with UNSCR 1244/99 and the ICJ Opinion on the Kosovo declaration of independence. *No water policy available for Serbia.

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