The Balkan War On Waste

Q.1 The planet is facing two extremely serious problems, wars between communities and the amount of rubbish which people discard into the environment.

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Why?

Q.1 That has to be very welcome news in today's confrontational societies. Balkan countries, once divided by war, nationalism and religion, have been quietly uniting to confront a common foe - rubbish. Let's do it represents a joint effort by Albanian and Kosovar activists, once bitter enemies, to jointly clear their border area and the polluted Lake Vermica.

The initiative doesn't stop there. Slovenian and Romanian populations have also mobilised to clear illegal land-fills, under the banner Ecologists without Borders. The powerful message of these movements is that it bridges borders, and breaks national barriers. When Bosnia had a clean-up, Q.2 they had to talk to several regional administrations.

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Why?

Q.2 Permission was needed and forms had to be filled in. What was particularly surprising was the fact that the country had been a war zone just ten years ago. Bosnia is one of several Balkan countries that now has annual clean up actions.

In Albania, the issue has become so fashionable that events are now organised every six months. Sadly, Q.3 one of the few Balkan countries not well represented in the clean-up campaign is Serbia.

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Why?

Q.3 Serbia has the same clean-up problems the other countries have. The importance of civic movements is that they educate. When people really put their hands in the dirt, they realise what they are dealing with. School students made up most of the 55,000 volunteers who helped clear an estimated 37,000 tonnes of rubbish from forests, rivers, mountains and beaches in Croatia four months ago.

Q.4 Does that mean that all animosities are over? That's difficult to say.

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Why?

Q.4 There's no harm in hoping. Not all waste reduction activism, however, is so organised. In the village of Litoric on Croatia's forested border with Slovenia, Igor Barbara has just returned from his daily trip to scatter past-expiry date bananas, watermelon and apples for the brown bears and other animals which roam his territory.

Q.5 Barbara puts food out for the bears every day, and he has set up automatic feeders that dispense food every month. His team also does planting and seeding and secures the peace in this area from poachers.

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Why?

Q.5 The 2 m tonnes of food that he collects from local supermarkets are his weapons in the war against food waste. Annually they get around two tonnes of food for the bears, wild boars, red deer and roe deer to eat.

This is just a supplement to what these animals can find in the forest, but it prevents problems between villagers and bears. Wild boars have caused the biggest headache for local people but Q.6 two young male bears also sparked alarm this summer.

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Why?

Q.6 Scared villagers reacted by calling hunters, who shot one of the animals. A good way to prevent the bears from coming into the villages is to leave apples out for them in the forest. This harmony between the local people and the animals of the forest is the right way to improve the quality of life for all living things in the area, be it by cleaning up and collecting rubbish, or by feeding wildlife.

The Tribune