Halting biodiversity loss in serbia 2010 - 2020 tomar acción para la diversidad biológica el mundo está ahora en camino de edificar un futuro viviendo en armonía con la naturaleza. en octubre de 2010, en japón, los

Assessing national efforts towards the 2010 target

Towards halting the loss of biodiversity by 2010

National Assessment Report – Serbia1
Part 1. Advances in national nature conservation and sectorial integration apart from the 2010 target
1.1. Nature conservation in the context of national decision making

Territory of Southeast European country Serbia (88.361 square km) is divided intoparticularly differentiated situated regions in of landscape Southeastern Central areas complexes, Pannonian of including Plains and lowland areas (approximately 1/3 of the territory) Balkan flat-highland-

mountainous-valley

Carpathian-Balkans,

Rhodope, Sar-Pindus and Dinaric mountain systems.

1

Ms. Jelena Beronja (2005), International cooperation coordinator of the YoungResearchers of Serbia, Bulevar umetnosti 27, 11070 Novi Beograd, Serbia and Montenegro (www.mis.org.yu; yelenab@eunet.yu; please also use personal e-mail address for correspondence: yelenaberonya[AT]yahoo.com)

1.1.1. Brief history of nature conservation Ecosystem diversity of Serbia is determined by geological age, geomorphology and climatic conditions, and particularly by refugium characteristics ofBalkan and Pannonian regions (parts of European continent, refugia for many species during glacial periods), contributing to the phenomenon (typical for Serbia and whole Balkans) of relict communities, with numerous endemic-relict floral elements from previous geological ages. Degradation of natural habitats in Serbia intensified considerably, and in some remote
th

regions

only

begun,late in 19 social, urban development. However, in economic,

and at the and

beginning of 20th century, with industrial

the

territory

of

Serbia, there are still intact areas, such as canyons and gorges, which are habitats for numerous relict and endemic species. Institutional nature conservation in Serbia begun in 1948 with the establishment of Institute for Protection and ScientificResearch of the Natural Rarities of the Peoples Republic of Serbia (which changed its name in 1992, becoming the Institute for Nature Conservation of Serbia) and nomination of first protected areas. Other relevant institutions, such as Faculties of Biology (in Belgrade and Novi Sad), Institute for Biological Research “Sinisa Stankovic” and Belgrade’s Natural History Museum have also hadsignificant role in nature conservation of Serbia. Environmental Agency of Serbia was established in May 2004, its director becoming the National focal point for Convention on Biological Diversity.

1.2. State of play in national nature conservation
Biological diversity of Serbia, both of ecosystem and species, is extremely high. Vascular flora of Serbia belongs to almost a half of allfloristic/vegetation regions in the world, representing one of biodiversity centers of Europe. From six European main bioregions, five can be found in Serbia, with interlaced various floristic elements, and mosaic distribution of ecosystems. Vascular flora of Serbia includes 3662 taxa of species (among the largest in Europe). Also, 625 species of Macromiceta, 406 species of lichen, and 444 species of moss areregistered. Abundance and diversity of fauna is also high comparing to other parts of Europe, mainly due to high ecosystem diversity: 110 fish species, 20 amphibian species, at least 45 reptiles, about 260 nesting birds, 94 mammal species (10 insectivores, 25 bats, 19 carnivores, 7 hoofs, 32 rodents, 1 hare).

1.3. Main threats to biodiversity are:
Degradation of habitats (increase of agriculturallands, particularly in Pannonian plains, drainage of swamps and marshes); Fragmentation of habitats (transportation of infrastructure development, hydromelioration, construction of water accumulations in gorges which are refugium habitats of relict and endemic species and communities); Destruction of habitats (urbanization process, in the period after WWII, has led to enormous expansion of urban...