On 2nd February 2014, the workshop was held to mark the World Wetlands Day “Tivat solila protected area management”.
The workshop was held under the cross-border cooperation project „ ORNIBA – Bird Species Protection in Balkans: Joint intervention by Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro“, implemented by Oxfam in BiH, in cooperation with local partners.
During the first part of the workshop, facilitated by one of the partners on the project, NGO “Novi val”, 39 pupils from 4 primary schools in Tivat had the opportunity to learn more about the birds life, importance of wetlands as their habitats and the problems that those protected areas face. Pupils were also able to express their concern and give the support to survival of wetlands as birds habitats through very creative drawings and poems they wrote during the workshop.
During the second part of the workshop the situation in the protected area “Tivatska solila” was presented, while the activities implemented within this area were praised as a good example of the cooperation of institutions in Montenegro on all levels.
But, in spite of the fact that Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro are signatories to the RAMSAR Convention, binding them both to protection of the wetlands within their territories, many of them are exposed to continued devastation caused by irregular management and neglect, unsanctioned poaching and unattended consequences of extreme weather conditions.
RAMSAR Convention is a result of the fight for protection of the wetlands, signed on 2. February 1971., by 116 countries in Ramsar, Iran. Since then, this date is marked as the World Wetlands Day.
