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Good practice Imported

Strengthening Montenegro's Protected-Area System and the Creation of Prokletije National Park

Montenegro · Plav · See the Montenegro profile

Evidence: Descriptive / self-reported Top 69% 40/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

A $950k GEF grant plus $5.44M co-financing (2009–2017) helped Montenegro's environment ministry expand its protected-area system toward a 165,000 ha target and establish Prokletije, its fifth national park; EU-funded projects have continued the work since.

950,000 USD
GEF grant (2009-2017)
5.44 USD million
Co-financing (2009-2017)
108,866 to 165,000 ha
Protected-area expansion target (2009-2017)
7 projects
Follow-on EU-co-funded conservation projects (2025) (2025)
~1 EUR million
Follow-on EU-co-funded project value (2025) (2025)
Strengthening Montenegro's Protected-Area System and the Creation of Prokletije National Park

Details

Maturity
Scaling
Promoter
Ministry of Tourism and Environmental Protection of Montenegro / Public Enterprise for National Parks of Montenegro (UNDP-GEF)
Period
2009-2017
Keywords
biodiversity conservation, protected-area management, ecotourism

Context

From 2009 to 2017, Montenegro's Ministry of Tourism and Environmental Protection, with UNDP as implementing agency, ran the Global Environment Facility (GEF)-funded 'Strengthening the Sustainability of the Protected Areas System of the Republic of Montenegro' programme (GEF Project ID 3688). It combined a $950,000 GEF-4 grant with $5.44 million in co-financing to expand and professionalise the national protected-area network.

Objectives

The programme's objective was to enhance the coverage and management effectiveness of Montenegro's protected areas by building institutional capacity to design, plan and manage a more representative system.

Activities

Programme documents set a target of growing the protected-area estate from 108,866 to 165,000 hectares, and the programme supported the creation of Prokletije National Park, Montenegro's fifth and newest national park, in the Accursed Mountains bordering Albania and Kosovo.

Results

Public financing for the network has continued since: as of 2025, Montenegro's national parks agency was running seven EU-co-funded conservation projects worth close to EUR1 million, including LASPEH 2.0 (Southern Adriatic priority habitats) and ForestConnect (large-carnivore landscape connectivity), extending the original programme's institutional model.

Conclusions

Fine-grained, independently verified biodiversity outcomes from the 2009-2017 programme itself were not located in public sources, so the evidence scores credit documented funding, institutional design and continuity rather than unverified ecological results.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Medium (€50k–€500k) — $950,000 GEF-4 grant combined with $5.44 million in co-financing; follow-on EU-co-funded projects worth close to EUR1 million as of 2025.
Time to results
Long (> 3 years) — Ran 2009-2017; institutional model extended by seven EU-co-funded projects active as of 2025.
Staffing & skills
Implemented by Montenegro's Ministry of Tourism and Environmental Protection and the Public Enterprise for National Parks of Montenegro, with UNDP as implementing agency

Conditions for success

  • Sustained public financing over 15+ years, from the original 2009-2017 GEF/UNDP programme through seven EU-co-funded projects active in 2025

Common failure modes

  • Fine-grained, independently verified biodiversity outcomes from the 2009-2017 programme itself were not located in public sources

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Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

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