EC Ma Ndryshe has published the monitoring reports of the environmental sectors of eight municipalities of Kosovo, namely Prizren, Prishtina, Ferizaj, South Mitrovica, Peja, Gjilan, Dragash and Malisheva.

The findings of these reports, which cover the period of 2022, reflect the real situation in the environmental sectors, along with the opportunities to raise and improve environmental issues in these municipalities. The lack of the environment sector in the municipality of Gjilan, Dragash and Malisheva, together with the insufficient human and financial resources that are presented in the monitored municipalities, is also reflected in the current environmental situation.

The same as last year, through this monitoring, current deficiencies in the environmental sectors of  these municipalities have been identified, shortcomings that require more attention from the responsible authorities.

The level of drafting and implementation of local policies for environmental planning and management remains problematic, due to the fact that there is no real organization in this aspect. The current process of drafting and implementing environmental planning and management documents, projects and measures for environmental protection in the eight municipalities currently makes it difficult to measure the efficiency of these actions in improving the environmental condition.

The level of inspection as well as the drafting of relevant reports related to the implementation of the legal framework of environmental protection and the implementation of environmental strategies remain unclear due to the non-disclosure of complete data in this regard, while it has been accepted by the municipalities that in certain indicators there is no monitoring either.

In most municipalities, there is still no environmental data management system, due to the lack of technical and human resources for the creation, collection and management of environmental data. But it is worth noting that some municipalities compile regular annual reports which are updated periodically.

Inter-institutional cooperation in the drafting of public policies is estimated to be insufficient, while cooperation with civil society in the drafting of local policies is mostly assessed as sufficient, while public participation is generally assessed as not good.

As for the environmental permits, the municipalities should increase their care for more efficient reporting of their issuance, since for some of them in this part and for the environmental licenses there is no answer.

At the end of the report, several recommendations are addressed, such as: examining the possibilities for increasing professional employees and organizing training for the employees of these sectors/directorates about the legal framework and about environmental issues; to improve the drafting and implementation of environmental planning and management documents; to update local level plans for environmental management together with their reporting and implementation, and to advance cooperation with the central level and civil society in many aspects of environmental issues.

The consideration of these recommendations would lead us to improvements and additions to the environmental planning and management processes, as well as to achieving more sustainable results in the environmental sectors and more efficient protection of natural resources.

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