Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.21861/HGG.2024.86.02.02
Transboundary nature protection as a means of preserving peace in Kosovo and neighboring regions
Arsim Ejupi
orcid.org/0000-0002-6749-2244
; University of Prishtina, Faculty of Mathematical and Natural Sciences, Department of Geography, Prishtina, Kosovo
Zoran Stiperski
; University of Zagreb, Faculty of Science, Department of Geography, Zagreb, Croatia
Valbon Bytyqi
orcid.org/0000-0002-8625-1470
; University of Prishtina, Faculty of Mathematical and Natural Sciences, Department of Geography, Prishtina, Kosovo
*
* Corresponding author.
Abstract
This article contains insights into the creation of transboundary protected areas, their features, the relationship between nature protection and achieving and maintaining peace in a global and regional context. Using various cases, the goals, benefits, and advantages of transboundary cooperation are elaborated, with a particular emphasis on the areas of nature protection and peace. Regardless of the causes that lead to disputes and conflicts between states, many of them occur in transboundary areas. Conflicts over disputed border lines are becoming more frequent, and some of them pose a serious threat to important biodiversity and geodiversity sites around the world. Therefore, the concept of peace parks offers an alternative to tensions in crisis and conflict hotspots via joint management of natural heritage and the environment, involving multiple stakeholders, with local communities playing an important role as the first and immediate beneficiaries of such cooperation. Despite the numerous benefits offered by transboundary nature protection, there are only a few examples in the Balkans, mostly in the initial stages. Despite its relatively small territory, Kosovo has very heterogeneous natural conditions, with various morphological units. Some of them extend beyond its borders, thus offering numerous opportunities for transboundary cooperation for the protection of natural heritage and the environment, which would transcend its narrower goal and serve as a means of establishing and preserving peace.
Keywords
cross-border cooperation; border conflicts; nature conservation; peace park; Kosovo
Hrčak ID:
324759
URI
Publication date:
21.12.2024.
Visits: 183 *