From Conflict to Sustainable Development From Conflict to ...

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Assessment and Clean-up in Serbia and Montenegro
The sites visited were selected after systematic
review of information from a
wide range of sources, including the findings
of a preliminary field assessment
conducted in June 1999. In essence, the
sites selected were considered by UNEP
as being the locations most likely to have
suffered environmental impacts as a consequence
of the conflict. However, it is
important to underline that it was not feasible
for UNEP to undertake a comprehensive
field assessment of every targeted
location and this was never the intention.
Summary of 1999 UNEP/UNCHS (Habitat) expert missions
• UNEP’s first expert field mission visited mainly industrial sites in the following
areas: Pancevo, Novi Sad, Kragujevac, Bor, Pristina, Nis, Novi Beograd,
Obrenovac, Kraljevo and Prahovo. Soil, air and groundwater samples were taken
and analysed either on-the-spot, using mobile laboratory facilities, or sent to laboratories
in Denmark and Germany.
• A second mission to examine environmental impacts along the Danube River
was organized in close cooperation with the International Commission for the
Protection of the Danube River (ICPDR). The principal sites visited were Novi
Sad, Pancevo, the ‘Iron Gate’ Reservoir and the Lepenica and Morava rivers,
tributaries of the Danube close to Kragujevac. The scientific work focused mainly
on sampling river water, bank and bottom sediments, and freshwater mussels
and other invertebrate fauna. For comparison, samples were taken both upstream
and downstream of industrial sites damaged during the conflict.
• A third UNEP team investigated the consequences of the conflict for
biodiversity, especially in protected areas, and visited Fruska Gora National
Park, Kopaonik National Park, Zlatibor in Serbia and Lake Skadar in Montenegro.
• The UNCHS expert team, working in Kosovo, conducted studies of municipal
administration, regularization of housing and property rights and development of
a cadastral information system. An analysis of the environmental policy and
institutional framework for the Province of Kosovo was also completed.
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UNEP’S WORK IN SERBIA AND MONTENEGRO