Publication Name

Water

Water sector legislation is quite similar in all of the

Western Balkan countries, with the exception of

Croatia due to its direct implementation of the key

EU directive. The water sector is regulated at the

state level in all countries, except in BiH where the

entity governments are responsible for adoption of

legislation, planning and development of the sector.

There are no direct references within policies which

link climate change in general, or climate change in

mountain regions specifically, to water management.

However, water legislation deals with water-related

natural disasters such as flooding, which can be

associated with climate change in certain cases.

BiH, Croatia, Serbia and Slovenia are Parties to the

FrameworkAgreement on the SavaRiver Basin (FASRB).

The purpose of this agreement includes the establishment

of sustainable water management and the undertaking

Sectoral Strategies

of measures to prevent or limit hazards on the Sava

River, which was the biggest national river in former

Yugoslavia. One of the projects implemented under this

Framework Agreement was the pilot project on climate

change, entitled “Building the link between flood risk

management planning and climate change assessment in

the Sava River Basin”, which was implemented between

March 2011 and December 2013. Through expanded

and strengthened collaboration among the countries in

the Sava River Basin, the project’s goal was to address

transboundary management of floods while taking into

account the impacts of climate change under different

scenarios and the perspective adaptation measures. The

project outcomes included several reports and studies,

including the Report on climate change adaptation

measures for flood protection in the Sava River Basin

(2014) which recommended a series of measures

including the implementation of flood early warning

systems and the renovation or construction of new

flood protection measures (Brilly

et al.

, 2014).

Albania, BiH, Croatia, and Montenegro are

contracting Parties to the Barcelona Convention

against Pollution in the Mediterranean Sea,

regional convention meant to prevent and abate

pollution from ships, aircraft and land-based

sources in the Mediterranean Sea. This Convention

has seven protocols addressing specificities of

Mediterranean environmental conservation, one of

which is the Integrated Coastal Zone Management

(ICZM) protocol for the Mediterranean.

The

ICZM Protocol has six goals, including the

prevention and reduction of natural disasters and

climate change (European Union, 2011). The Action

Plan for the implementation of the ICZM Protocol

2012–2019 was adopted in 2012. It has identified

the need for climate change to be fully integrated

into the ICZM process, and has defined specific

objectives that include mainstreaming of climate

change responses in the delivery of the Protocol by

promoting the development of methodologies and

No data

WATER

Albania

Croatia

FYR

Macedonia

Montenegro

Serbia*

Kosovo**

Regional

(Joint responses)

Bosnia

and Herzegovina

**This designation is without prejudice to positions on status, and is in line with UNSCR 1244/99 and the ICJ Opinion on the Kosovo declaration of independence.

*No water policy available for Serbia.

Policy Evaluation Matrix

Mainstreaming

of adaptation

goals and targets

Adaptation

targets

Availability of

implementation

tools

Mountain

adaptation

considerations

Regional/transboundary

adaptation considerations

Monitoring

and Evaluation

Participation

1- low or not considered at all

2- low or mentioned at least

3- somewhat integrated/present

4- high or fully integrated