Croatia, Fearless project: demining completed

Croatia's strategic goal is to clear the country of landmines by 2026, as foreseen in the National Demining Programme. A third of the remaining contaminated territory will be reclaimed thanks to European cohesion funds

On April 26 the closing conference  of the “Fearless Velebit ” project was held in Gospić, led by "Hrvatske šume d.o.o." (public enterprise for the management of forests and forest land in the Republic of Croatia) which provided for demining the forested areas of the Ličko-senjska and Zadarska counties.

The demining of 1,645 hectares of forest was completed, with the clearing of 2,177 mines and explosive remnants of war, in the area of the Velebit Natural Park and the Paklenica National Park. The project has also allowed the reclamation of a series of trekking routes in the southern area of Velebit.

The project, worth 35 million Euros, of which just over 29 million insured by EU funds, is part of the “Razvoj okvira za upravljanje ekološkom mrežom Natura 2000” programme (Development of the framework for the management of the Natura 2000 ecological network) launched by the Croatian government in 2017 with EU co-funding under the cohesion policy 2014-2020.

The conference was attended by the Minister of Regional Development and European Funds, Šime Erlić, the secretary of state at the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development, Mario Šiljeg, the president of the board of directors of Hrvatske šume, Nediljko Duić, the director of the Fund for Environmental Protection and Energy Efficiency, Luka Balen, among others.

Minister Šime Erlić stressed that the continuation of demining activities is ensured in the new financial envelope of EU funds with 120 million Euros which will allow the demining of another 9,000 hectares of land. He also announced that one of the first tenders of the new programming period 2021-2027 will concern demining.

Croatia's strategic objective is in fact to free the country from mines by 2026, as set out in the National Demining Programme, voted  by the Croatian parliament on 22 February.

As we wrote in February, demining operations in Croatia since 1996 have cost more than 7 billion kuna (929 million Euros) up to 2021 and to complete them by 2026, according to data made public in September 2022 by the Croatian parliament, another 224 million Euros are needed.

According to the data published by the Landmine & Cluster Munition Monitor at the end of 2020, there were 279.55 km² of territory still contaminated in Croatia, of which 196.89 km² of definitely mined areas and 82.66 km² of suspect/risk areas. Almost all of these areas (98.6%) is represented by forest areas, a third of which (89.8 km²) Croatia plans to reclaim thanks to European cohesion policy funds.

The issue of demining was also the focus of the government meeting on 5 May. The Minister of the Interior and Deputy Prime Minister, Davor Božinović, presented the draft reform of the demining law and the report  on the reclamation operations carried out in 2022.

According to the report, 55.2 km² of land were reclaimed for a total expenditure of 385,235,235 kuna (51,129,502 Euros). Minister Božinović underlined that Croatia maintains a positive trend in the ability to obtain European funds, which in 2022 covered 30% of the total financial resources spent.

At the end of 2022, according to the data presented in the report, 149.7 km² of land involving 28 municipalities in six counties remain to be demined.