Sharing waters Protection of Priority Wetlands for Bird Migration in the Dinaric Arc Region through Integrated Site and River Basin Management
	The project is funded by WWF Mediterranean Programme and started in 2007 with the main aim to enhance biodiversity protection and nature conservation by improving water management in the Neretva and Trebisnjica rivers basin. There are two water management issues that the project deals with: introducing environmental friendly practice to dam operators and public participation in decision making processes. Due to limited capacities and in order to produce tangible result the project needed to focus activities rather then to work on territory of the whole basin. Nature Park "Hutovo blato" is selected for the conservation target of the highest priority. In water management terms, the Nature Park "Hutovo blato" summarises all upstream influences and it is a heart where waters from rivers of Neretva and Trebisnjica meet. In nature conservation terms, it is a Ramsar site, important for bird migration, there are endemic fish species and generally rich in biodiversity that is heavily jeopardised by hydro-energy projects on Trebisnjica and Neretva. The project established a team of respectful experts with task to analyse the water needs (quantity, quality and timing) of the key species (birds, fish and vegetation) of the Nature Park "Hutovo blato". Beside biodiversity research, hydrology and hydrogeology study  has been developed in order to understand complex water regime of Hutovo blato, which is situated in karstic area with vast number of underground connection that the nature use to bring water in and out. The natural water regime is heavily disrupted by hydro-technical infrastructure in upper parts of the basin. The Sharing waters project will produce concrete measures that provide quality, quantity, and timing of water i.e. environmental flows that satisfy biodiversity needs. These measures will be introduced to dam operators and the special request for corresponding water releases will be sent to the relevant authorities.In order to support the request, in this particular case but as well in order to support public participation in decision making in general, the project established a network of environmental non-governmental organisations from the Neretva and Trebisnjica rivers basin. The project builds capacities of the network conducting trainings on advocacy, lobbying, comprehensive option assessments, monitoring etc. There are 16 NGOs in the network and they signed agreement for cooperation on nature conservation in the basin. The official name of the network is "Protect River - protect life". Contact:Zoran Mateljak Email: zoran.mateljak@tel.net.ba Tel/fax: 036/327-331