We express our indignation that the Municipality of Prishtina, namely the Directorate of Agriculture, has announced the open tender for the management of the hunting areas, without first arranging the necessary documentation that is legally required for the granting of hunting areas under management. The maps of the hunting areas are old (from 2008) and not compatible with the existing municipal spatial plans. The decision of 2011 on the designation of hunting areas, in its current form, does not refer to any prior consent of the MAFRD as required under current legislation. The selective implementation of the legislation does not show institutional seriousness.
The hunting areas will be managed for a period of 10 years until 2033, and therefore within this period there will be hunting with documentation that is not updated for many years, which is basically with great ambiguity on the maps of where hunting will be done.
The Municipality of Pristina, at the request of the Directorate of Agriculture in the Municipality, dated 06.02.2023, has established the ‘Committee for the drafting of criteria for granting hunting areas in joint management‘ (henceforth referred to as the Committee), in the Municipality of Pristina with decision no: 14-020/04-27230/23.
This Committee had the task of drafting up the criteria for granting the hunting areas in management, as required by the legislation in force. Our organization and Mr. Arian Mavriqi, were part of the Committee representing CSOs in relation to animal protection, at the invitation of the director of the Directorate of Agriculture, Mr. Plator Gërdovci.
Already in the first meetings, it was discussed about the legal basis and strategic documents related to the management of hunting areas according to the Law on Hunting. It was discussed to define real criteria and in accordance with the laws in force and it was observed that the legal framework for granting hunting areas in management is quite deficient, in addition to being old. On this issue, our organization will publish a more detailed paper.
Our organization has requested to know the exact number of wild animals as the only official data on the number of animals was that of the founding act of 2008 which is no longer in force (although the maps and data on hunting areas are used even today according to the invalid act of 2008). Moreover, our organisation has asked to analyze the official municipal decisions on the act of establishment of the hunting areas since the initial meetings of the Committee and we did not agree that the available documentation was complete. During the working meetings, the situation of wild animals on the ground was also discussed, where Mr. Arian Mavrriqi, a wildlife photographer and observer, has told about many problems that are encountered in the mountains of Kosovo regarding hunting that is not well controlled, where in most cases this hunting remains not well controlled even when the procedures are completely legal, not to mention the abuses/mistreatment that are done in cases where we are dealing with illegal hunting/poaching.
It is important to add that even in a ‘national strategy’, which was drawn up by the MAFRD in the framework of an EU project, five (5) years ago, for the management of wild animals and hunting (which has never been approved or implemented) it is stated clearly, the main problem of wild animal management is the number of animals and the lack of data from the MAFRD as required by the legislation. It is worth adding that the MAFRD does not have an effective or approved Development Plan for hunting management or animal protection as required by the Law on Hunting. The Law on Hunting requires that two years after the approval of the Law, the Development Plan be drawn up, and even now, after 18 years, this legal obligation has not been enforced.
In addition to the number of animals, our organization also complained about the official decision of 2011 (Decision on the assignment of common hunting grounds and their management, with number 01.nr.324-1147, dated 27.05.2011). This decision was approved based on the provisions of Article 19 and Article 27 of the Law on Hunting (Law no. 02/L-53) and the provisions of Article 5 point 5.2 of Decision no. 5109/3 of 09.11.2010 of the MAFRD, which are related to the designation of hunting areas. According to the findings of our organization, there is no prior consent from the MAFRD in this case, because the hunting areas in each municipality must be established by the Municipal Assembly, but the designation of the hunting areas also goes through the Municipal Assembly with the proposal of the Directorate of Agriculture. All hunting areas, before establishment, must have the prior consent of the MAFRD and this is explicitly required by the legislation in force.
Through several official correspondences, the Directorate of Forestry within MAFRD has asserted that a consent of MAFRD of 2009 is valid for the decision to assign hunting areas in 2011, but that in a joint meeting with the Directorate of Forestry, the latter had expressed dilemmas regarding the consent of 2009 and had said that the proper consent should be found for the decision of 2011 since the latter referred to a consent (no. 5109/3), issued by the MAFRD for another Municipality. After the requests to find the prior consent of the 2011 decision, the Municipality had sent to the Committee several consents issued by the MAFRD, which included the same consent from 2009 and another consent from 2012 for the three hunting areas.
According to our organization and after the findings of the last analyzes, it results in the suspicion that there is no valid establishment decision for the hunting areas Prishtina I, II, III, after the valid consent of the MAFRD was given to the Municipality of Prishtina in 2012. We requested from the Municipality of Pristina and the Directorate of Agriculture to address this issue urgently since the 2011 decision does not refer to any valid consent but rather to an consent of the Municipality of Gjilan. One consent cannot be valid for two municipalities. This constitutes an administrative violation.
The consent of 2012 should be taken for granted since it describes three (3) hunting areas according to the decision of 2011 (01. no.324-1147) for the designation of hunting areas and not the one from 2009 which is outdated and even describes an additional hunting area (Prishtina IV) that no longer belongs to the Municipality of Pristina but to the Municipality of Graçanica.
As we have observed in the Municipality of Skenderaj, Gjilan, Peja, and South Mitrovica, all decisions are named for the establishment and not for the designation of hunting areas. The decision on the designation of hunting areas is regulated by Article 8 of the Administrative Instruction 10/2007 on the designation of criteria and procedures for the establishment of hunting areas. This Administrative Instruction is based on Article 19 of the Law on Hunting. That is, the Municipal Assembly determines the area (hunting areas), where it describes their name, maps, characteristics of villages, animals, and their species (everything that is required according to the legislation in force), which in our opinion is decision 01. no. 324-1147 dated 27.05.2011, and where then the MAFRD gives consent, which according to us is the consent with reference number 186/12 dated 20.04.2012. After these steps, the hunting areas can be established by the decision of the Municipal Assembly, which, according to the our organization’s findings, is missing for the Municipality of Pristina. We are in 2023 and it is necessary that the documentation for the designation of hunting areas is as clear and accurate as possible, and that the legislation is not just partially implemented.
We have asked the Directorate of Forestry to understand more about the 2012 consent issued by MAFRD, with reference number 186/12 (dated 20.04.2012, recorded on 23.04.2012 with number 610/2), which was given after the request of the Directorate for Economy and Development of the Municipality of Pristina at that time, with reference number 610 dated 05.03.2012. That is to say, in March 2012, the Municipality made a request to the MAFRD for getting their approval/consent, as it is legally required, and the latter gave its consent in April 2012 for the three hunting areas. This means, the 2012 consent of the MAFRD for the three hunting areas (Prishtina I, II, III) is being “ignored” and it is being claimed that the 2011 decision on the designation of the hunting areas (only the designation) is being considered as a founding decision for the hunting areas.
In addition, our organization has requested that the maps for the hunting areas “Prishtina I, II and III” be clearer and well defined, since they are not clearly visible in the document and are maps set in 2008. What is more important, it has also been requested to understand whether those maps of the 2011 decision (but with outdated maps from 2008) are in line with the current spatial plans in force since the maps and areas of the hunting areas must also be placed in the bidding material. According to Article 19.4. of the Hunting Law, the municipality must ensure that the establishment of the hunting areas is in accordance with the existing spatial plans. For this, it has been agreed to meet with the Directorate of Spatial Planning in the Municipality of Pristina to submit to us the maps of the hunting grounds of the founding act of 2008 and to confirm that they exist within the existing spatial plans. According to the Directorate of Spatial Planning, the maps of the hunting areas do not refer to any current spatial reference and that the definition of these areas is impossible to do based on the sketches that have been presented and that the sketches in question are without coordinates. In addition to the latter, the Directorate has also emphasized that another problem has been identified, which has to do with the change in the urban structure and demographics from the time when the three (3) areas were defined as in the map sketches. For example, parts of areas such as Matiçan, Zllatar, etc., are now urban areas and are habitable. This also proves that the re-establishment of hunting areas is more than necessary. The Directorate of Spatial Planning has proposed to form a professional commission, to continue the process of defining these areas, with all interested parties in this process. We liked this idea and supported it but the Directorate of Agriculture didn’t find it necessary to do.
We thank the Director of Agriculture, Mr. Gërdovci for having invited us to be part of the Committee to give our best inputs in the matter.
We continue to suggest to the Municipality and Director Mr. Gërdovci, to re-establish the hunting areas in Pristina, since the Municipality of Pristina, as the Capital City, should be an example for all other Municipalities and not implement the legislation partially and with incorrect and outdated documentation.
Wild animals and environmental protection deserve more attention and care.
The outdated maps of 2008:
