Looking back at 2024

Posted on 24 December 2024

Let’s make 2025 even more fruitful!

This year, we removed the first river barriers in Croatia! Among the activities we carried out in 2024, this milestone, achieved in collaboration with Plitvice Lakes National Park, stands out as our greatest regional success.

Overall, it was a successful year for nature conservation. After two years of advocacy, campaigns, and anti-campaigns, the Nature Restoration Law finally came into effect. This was a major victory for our network and partner environmental organizations, with a pivotal role played by one of WWF’s offices—our neighbours in Austria. However, the real work is ahead of us, as Member States must, within two years, develop, adopt, and implement Nature Restoration Plans, ensuring the restoration of at least 20% of marine and terrestrial habitats and species. Furthermore, 10% of areas must be placed under strict protection.

We want to believe this will happen, even though the conclusions of the UN COP16 and COP29 conferences offer little optimism. The much-needed global biodiversity protection budget wasn’t agreed upon, and the outcomes of the climate summit weren’t any more encouraging. Can we still hope to meet the habitat and species restoration goals within the set timeframe? It’s the end of the year, a festive season—so let’s spice it all up with positivity and say: yes.

Here in the region, we have been supporting fishers, fostering excellent collaboration to aid the recovery of the Adriatic Sea. We participated in creating a Pre-Financing Fund for Sustainable Fisheries and provided technical assistance to access its resources. This enabled fishers to secure over €100,000 in funding this year, with at least the same amount planned for 2025. These funds allowed 30 vessels to initiate technical modifications for renewable energy systems, a program set to continue next year.

We also continued our successful partnership with the hotel group Valamar in Croatia. After analyzing their portfolio of fishery products, we recommended removing several rare and protected species from their menus, ensuring swordfish and shark are no longer served in their restaurants. Importantly, we supported fishers too: this year, part of Valamar’s hake supply was sourced locally from the fishing cooperative on the island of Vis, with plans to increase this share depending on cooperative capacities.

Advocacy for environmental policy changes remains a significant part of our work. We achieved a key amendment to the Regulation on the Protection of Fish and Other Marine Organisms, requiring fishers to immediately return female shrimp carrying external eggs to the sea when caught in their traps. This allows fishers themselves to contribute to the recovery of this vital species.

We dream of a sea free from ghost gear that threatens marine creatures. In the central Adriatic, we located and marked numerous pieces of abandoned fishing tools, removing several ghost nets from the seabed that were killing sharks, rays, turtles, and dolphins. Together with our partner, the Zagreb Underwater Sports Society, and in collaboration with NAUI (National Association of Underwater Instructors), we developed a specialized diver training course for removing such gear. This year, we also focused on disposing of worn-out fishing tools on land, creating the first fashion collection made from fishing nets! The “Krie Design” fashion house and the fishing trade "Provir" crafted a true wardrobe marvel.

Shifting from the sea to land, we launched several new projects. The Restoriver project, implemented with partners from seven Central European countries, focuses locally on restoring Maksimir Creek in Zagreb’s green park and dredging the Dondo backwater in Gornje Podunavlje Special Reserve in Serbia. With the Bauhaus Bites project, carried out with the City of Zagreb, we’re transforming the food system by engaging local communities in creating healthy, resilient urban gardens and promoting food sustainability and nature-based solutions. Leading cities—Zagreb, Birmingham, and Fundão—are sharing their expertise with learning cities, including Murska Sobota, Sarajevo, Ostend, and Palermo. Meanwhile, the ForestConnect project, running in seven Central and Eastern European countries, aims to conserve biodiversity in ecological corridors of transnational significance within the Danube basin. Our focus includes data collection and mapping safe corridors for large carnivores in Serbia’s Stara Planina region.

Our youth-focused project on a just energy transition, PlayJet, was nominated among the top ten in the Climate Protection category at the Innovation in Politics Awards 2024.

Through a project aimed at improving coexistence between people and large carnivores, we installed five protective fences in Tara National Park and Uvac Nature Park to help farmers and beekeepers defend against unwanted wildlife attacks. Similar efforts are planned in Kosovo and North Macedonia next spring, weather permitting. Additionally, we published the Manual for Monitoring Large Carnivores in the Dinaric-Balkan-Pindos Region, providing practical guidelines for organizations involved in conservation and management of large carnivores.

Returning to rivers, which remain at the heart of our work, we continue our efforts to preserve the Amazon of Europe. Even as the year ends, we are planning restoration projects in Kopački Rit to expand channels and improve the Danube’s flow, reducing flood risks. Simultaneously, with partners in the Gornje Podunavlje Special Reserve, we’re planting a new forest in this freshwater ecosystem. Replacing invasive poplar species with native floodplain species across 36 hectares is another step in our work to protect the Mura-Drava-Danube Transboundary Biosphere Reserve, a UNESCO-designated area since 2021.

There’s much more to highlight! We’re proud of marking Earth Hour in Zagreb and participating in the Festival of Lights, with a stunning video projection on the State Archives building that reached over 10,000 viewers onsite and countless more online. We planted six food forests in Croatia and Serbia, including the largest edible landscape in in Croatia, in Koprivnica, featuring over 1,000 fruit trees, aromatic plants, and vegetables. Finally, public events like the Serbian Environmental Policy Forum, soon to have its second edition, were among our standout achievements, alongside the launch of the Living Planet Report in Zagreb and Belgrade, which resonated strongly with the media and attendees.

Populations of wild species have declined by an average of 73% since 1970. This alarming figure must never be forgotten and serves as a rallying cry for all of us to protect nature. Thank you to our partners, collaborators, donors, supporters, and everyone who changes their daily habits because of such critical information!

Bijela Rijeka

Looking back at 2024

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