Abstract
In the rapidly changing scenarios of the South-Eastern Europe, control on territories has always been playing a relevant geo-political role. In particular, the recent and relatively rapid modification of the regional geography – within which the break apart of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was the most significant event – resulted in the creation of a high number of ‘new’ borders, with the direct consequence of multiplying the trans-boundary initiatives. In many cases, unsolved border issues are still pending, keeping a high conflict potential. Under these conditions, the role of the international initiatives – and in particular, the activities carried out within various multilateral agreements – prove to be powerful tools to reconcile part of these tensions. A specific example is represented by the UNESCO designated sites, namely, the World Heritage Sites and the Biosphere Reserves. In both cases, their international visibility and respective governance mechanisms guarantee to foster the multilateral cooperation. The various existing sites in SEE and, most of all, the ones to be designated next, represent very important opportunities to ‘ground’ the trans-boundary cooperation and to potentially catalyze the broad range of current ‘green diplomacy’ activities in the region, fostering the overall environment security.
The opinions expressed in this paper do not reflect the official UNESCO position, but exclusively the authors’ point of view.
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Notes
- 1.
The United Nations Development Programme ( www.undp.org ).
- 2.
Budva, Montenegro, November 19, 2009.
- 3.
- 4.
- 5.
‘UNESCO Biosphere Reserves: model regions with a global reputation’, titles the issue 2/2007 of ‘UNESCO today’, the Journal of the German Commission for UNESCO.
- 6.
Jones 1994, p 316.
- 7.
Cornelius Castoriadis, Crossroad in the Labyrith, Brighton: Harvester Press, 1984, pp-ix–x.
- 8.
For a complete overview on the origin and evolution of the term ‘Balkan’, see Maria Todorova, ‘Imaging the Balkans’.
- 9.
For a detailed description of the recent Balkans history, see Hösch 2004, Geschichte des Balkans.
- 10.
The proclamation of independence of Kosovo (February 2008) has not been recognized by the United Nations and many of its Members, creating a pending status definition in relation with the Republic of Serbia.
- 11.
This issue emerged on the occasion of the organization of the UNESCO workshop on the ‘Danube-Drava-Mura Transboundary Biosphere Reserve: scenario of integrated river management’, held in Belgrade and Novi Sad, July 23–25, 2009; Croatian authorities claimed that the border between the two protected areas of ‘Copački Rit’ (in Croatia) and ‘Gornje Podunavlje’ (in Serbia) has not been clarified yet, impeding any possible transboundary cooperation in that part of the country.
- 12.
- 13.
This is a famous slogan created by IUCN to foster transboundary cooperation along the European Green Belt (for more details, see http://europeangreenbelt.org/).
- 14.
An interesting example is given by the Dinaric Arc Ecoregion, as defined by WWF (for details, see: http://www.panda.org/).
- 15.
The concept of outstanding universal value is defined in Par. 49 of the Operational Guidelines for the implementation of the World Heritage Convention as following: “Outstanding universal value means cultural and/or natural significance which is so exceptional as to transcend national boundaries and to be of common importance for present and future generations of all humanity. As such, the permanent protection of this heritage is of the highest importance to the international community as a whole”.
- 16.
For further details, see the dedicated web site: http://whc.unesco.org/en/convention.
- 17.
- 18.
- 19.
The Advisory bodies are IUCN, for the natural sites and ICOMOS and ICCROM for the cultural sites.
- 20.
- 21.
As recently reiterated by Mr. F.Bandarin, World Heritage Centre Director, om the occasion of the meeting of the Italian World Heritage cities (Florence, 2008).
- 22.
- 23.
The operation of the Network is supported by regional and/or thematic networks such as, AfriMAB, ArabMAB, CYTED, EABRN, EuroMAB, IberoMAB, PacMAB, REDBIOS, eaBRnet and SACAM, working mostly with the UNESCO Regional Offices.
- 24.
Core, buffer and transition, are the three major component of the BR zoning, according to a decreasing degree on protection.
- 25.
See: www.unesco.org/mab.
- 26.
Namely, the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD 1992); the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES 1973); the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS or Bonn Convention 1979); the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance (Ramsar 1971).
- 27.
The Prespa Lake is shared by Albania, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Greece.
- 28.
The Tara River Basin is the official name of a Biosphere Reserves that encompasses large part of the Northern Montenegro territories, at the border with Bosnia and Herzegovina.
- 29.
The Danube-Drava-Mura river corridor is the tentative name given to a transnational initiative – involving five countries (Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Hungary and Serbia) – leading to the establishment of a Trans-boundary Biosphere Reserve.
- 30.
- 31.
The workshop was held in Serbia, on July 24–26, 2009.
- 32.
For the detailed report, see: www.panda.org.
- 33.
The DAI activities started with a first meeting held at WWF Med PO in Rome, in December 2004.
- 34.
Currently, DAI members are: UNESCO Venice Office, UNDP (country offices of Croatia, BiH, Montenegro and Albania), UNEP, FAO, Council of Europe, IUCN, WWF, ECNC, REC, Euronatur, SNV and ECNC.
- 35.
On the occasion of the workshop ‘International Regulation Implementation for Environmental Security in South-Eastern Europe’, held at S. Servolo Island, Venice, December 3–5, 2009.
- 36.
Cowie and Wimbledon (1994), p 72.
- 37.
Dutt (1999) refers to the convention as one of the few “vital UNESCO instruments”.
- 38.
Who wrote that “in order “to have a fair appreciation of the local impact of World Heritage, it is better to consider the sites themselves rather than the number of listings” (Musitelli 2003; p 335).
- 39.
Pocock (1997), p 268.
- 40.
This was the ‘definition’ of the Biosphere Reserves given by Bridgewater – former Director of the UNESCO Division of Earth and Ecological Science – on the occasion of the World Conference on Biosphere Reserve, held in Madrid, February 2008.
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Andrian, G., Gaudry, KH. (2011). The Role of UNESCO Designated Sites in Fostering International Cooperation and Environmental Security in SEE. In: Montini, M., Bogdanovic, S. (eds) Environmental Security in South-Eastern Europe. NATO Science for Peace and Security Series C: Environmental Security. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0228-8_3
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