POLICY FRAMEWORK ON LAND DEGRADATION FROM A POST CONFLICT PERSPECTIVE OF
BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA
Abstract
Bosnia and Herzegovina (BIH) is developing country facing extensive land
degradation. As a post-conflict society with underlying poor
socio-economic conditions, the value of land and its degradation status
are not perceived to be an important problem neither a priority to
address. BIH currently exists as a decentralized state, where land and
land resources are under exclusive jurisdiction of two entities and one
district, rather than state-level legislation. Complex land related
administration between entities functioning independently from each
other, and thus not sinchronized, leads to frequent political conflicts
about land property, and limited data exchange which may exacerbate
current land degradation. This paper investigates (i) the institutional
setting and policy framework related to land, discussing the
effectiveness and limitations of the current policies in this
post-conflict society; (ii) stakeholders’ perception of land degradation
under such complex institutional and policy structures; and (iii) the
current state of land degradation, with a focus on soil erosion as one
of the most important indicators in BIH. Communication and cooperation
are major challenges for sustainable land management in post conflict
societies. The existence of a policy framework is important, but not
sufficient if implementation is weak and the perception of decision
makers differs. Limited data on the impact of 1992 War on soil and land
status represents an additional challenge to combat land degradation.
Reliable national data on land degradation are crucial for assessment
and development of strategic and policy frameworks devoted to those
issues and to raise awareness on how to foster their implementation.