There are more and more formal and informal groups in BiH dealing with environmental protection.
Some pick up garbage, some plant trees, others protest a little louder and protect rivers from mini hydropower plant construction. There are still many different groups of active citizens who are aware of the need to protect the environment.
Some are very successful in their actions and stop the destruction of rivers and forests. This gives wind to the back, to all the others in order to persevere in their struggle.
What is striking is that these groups are poorly connected to each other and this is used by the governing structures. Often a group has already managed to protect a river in their municipality, but when a similar problem arises at the other end of BiH, that other group of citizens starts from the beginning. They do not learn from the mistakes or successes of those who have had a similar problem before. And the government always uses the same methods and steps. Far from the public eye, various buildings and environmental permits are distributed, and vulnerable citizens find out about them only when excavators appear to dig the foundations.
Therefore, it is completely clear that we need coordination of work at the level of BiH, for a large number of active groups of citizens. And I think it starts to happen naturally. Coalitions are formed, experiences and advice are shared. Still insufficient and slow, but everything shows that we have realized that only with solidarity at the level of BiH can we really take steps to preserve the environment.
Freedom to the Rivers
There are various ways to fight for nature conservation and each carries with it a dose of risk. Activists are always exposed to police harassment, apprehension at the station, public threats to which no one responds, even when they have to do it officially. This is followed by financial pressures in the form of fines for obstructing public order and peace (BAM 500 per person on average), as well as court proceedings with enormous damages for “obstructing communal officers to do their job”.
At the moment, one of my friends is accused of personally blocking the employment of 7,500 people who would allegedly work on mini hydropower plants. They want her to stop talking about how small hydropower plants make a big mess.
The municipality is suing another friend for damages in the amount of approximately BAM 700,000 because the waste management companies could not take out the garbage, while the blockade of the entrance to the landfill lasted, which has been working without any permit since December 2019. The federal inspector refuses to close it, although he should do so by law. And the city was equally littered with garbage before and after the blockades.
The lesson from these stories could be: If you seek law enforcement, you are a traitor to your people.
It is also the most common way to put pressure on activists, as to declare them “traitors of their people” by the state apparatus. This proclaims free hunting for them by various levels of government and those close to the authorities. One often asks, “What do I need all this for?” But once you realize that without clean earth, water and air, there is no life for us on this tiny piece of planet earth, you don’t have much choice.
Balkan rivers are most in danger. The governments of all Balkan countries share permits for both large and mini-hydropower plants as if it were a permit for a kiosk to sell fast food. Believe me, more people work in fast food kiosks than will ever be employed at mini hydropower plants.
Regardless of the pandemic, the fourth or who knows which wave, a larger group of activists from the Balkans, working to protect rivers, air and land, gathered in Belgrade recently.
For two days we talked to each other about the problems and pressures, we face in our efforts to protect nature: forests, rivers, water, air… We learned from each other how to motivate people to join us in this fight.
Apart from nature, people in the Balkans are connected by something else. We have very similarly corrupt politicians in power.
In order to be able to deal with corruption and other problems, we need to be coordinated at the Balkan level. That way we will help and protect each other. Because it is only under public pressure that the corrupt government begins to solve the problem.
Solidarity at the Balkan level would help everyone cope better with the challenges ahead. Europe does not quite understand us or even not at all. We, the Balkan people, understand each other very well.
Somewhere during the breaks of the Conference of Engaged Democracy, the need for political action of environmental activists began to be talked about shyly. And then we started talking about it during the official part of the conference.
It is clear that a lot can be achieved through protests, street blockades and other street actions. In most cases, it can certainly be achieved when the whole public is aware of a particular problem and its causes. But the path to a solution, i.e. revoking a building or environmental permit is long and difficult. Street actions do not help here.
Well, You’re Already in Politics
The only real solution to save the environment is a systemic solution, by deleting mini hydropower plants from spatial plans, declaring a certain territory a protected zone, thus protecting it from illegal construction and destruction.
Systemic solutions are provided by various levels of government. These current, corrupt ones, favour various lobbies. Yes, in order to start getting better systemic solutions, which will protect nature and consider the needs of people living in a certain area, those who really care about it should enter the system.
So you can be on the street for 100 years and protest. Systematically, you will be able to solve nothing or very little. But if you gather like-minded people around you and enter the “system” together, then you are one step closer to a systemic solution.
Why ask one of the parliamentarians to put a law in the parliamentary procedure when you can be that parliamentarian?!
And don’t be discouraged by saying you are politicizing a particular environmental issue. Well, you are already in politics, because you are dealing with issues of public interest! You just don’t have the political power to really and permanently change something.
I believe that it is high time for brave people to gather in BiH, who has been fighting for the preservation of the environment for years, and bravely step into new victories.
We tried to clear the land in one day. Did we succeed? Of course not. Well, we didn’t ruin it in a single day either.
No change is made overnight. Change requires continuous work, patience and not giving up when an obstacle is reached. Environmental activists know this very well.
