This is what civic activist Rašit Marković from Plav wrote on his Facebook profile, reacting to the filing of criminal charges against four public officials for causing damage to the state of Montenegro of over five million euros through inaction.
The Police Directorate announced yesterday that officers of the Regional Security Center "North", Plav Security Department, as part of the continuous fight against all forms of environmental crime, with a special emphasis on identifying illegal activities in areas of special ecological importance - protected areas of national parks of Montenegro, have filed criminal charges against four public officials with the competent Basic State Prosecutor's Office in Plav.
"Due to suspicion that he committed the criminal offense of failure to take environmental protection measures, in conjunction with the criminal offense of environmental damage, a criminal charge has been filed against Milan Gazdić, Director of the Environmental Protection Agency. Also, due to suspicion that, during the management of the Public Enterprise National Parks, they committed the criminal offense of environmental damage in conjunction with the criminal offense of transmitting infectious diseases to animals and plants, a criminal charge has been filed against Marinela Đuretić - Director of the Public Enterprise National Parks of Montenegro, as well as against two former directors of the Public Enterprise National Parks, Vladmir Martinović, who managed from November 2022 to September 2024, and Aleksandar Bulatović, who managed from November 2021 to October 2022. The reported persons are suspected of having committed the aforementioned criminal offenses by failing to take mandatory measures and actions within their jurisdiction, enabling the uncontrolled spread of a harmful insect - the bark beetle in the NP zone." "Prokletije, which led to the mass destruction of more than 120,000 spruce, fir and the protected species of Molika on an area of more than 300 hectares. This caused material damage in excess of five million euros, while at the same time causing permanent and irreversible environmental damage on a wider scale and scale," the statement said.
As explained in the criminal investigation, evidence was collected indicating that the complainants, although they were continuously aware of the occurrence of the harmful bark beetle insect and the extent of the damage caused, knowingly failed to take mandatory sanitary felling measures, contrary to their obligations prescribed by law, the National Park Management Plan and Programs, and the decision of the forestry, hunting and plant protection inspector.
In this way, they enabled the mass appearance and uncontrolled spread of bark beetles in the Prokletije NP zone, causing long-term and difficult-to-repair damage to the environment, which led to the destruction of coniferous forests in a large number of locations, covering an area of about 300 hectares.
As it is emphasized, the failure to take prescribed measures has led to multiple ecological consequences and caused significant damage to the environment, including the loss of biodiversity and habitats of protected species of plants and animals that directly depend on healthy coniferous forests.
"The risk of soil erosion, landslides, reduced air quality and flash floods has increased, as well as the risk of fires due to the large concentration of dry trees in the forest, which poses a direct threat to the entire forest ecosystem," the Police Directorate announced.
The damage caused by the bark beetle invasion in the forests of the Prokletije National Park, as well as in state and private forests in the municipality of Plav, was initially estimated by an expert at over three million euros, as reported to the RTCG Portal by the Basic State Prosecutor's Office in Plav this fall.
The prosecution is still investigating a criminal complaint filed by forestry inspector Hakija Jasavić against the former management of the National Parks of Montenegro, who failed to comply with the April 2022 order to carry out sanitary logging.
Although the presence of bark beetles had been evident previously on a smaller scale, the story took on a more serious tone with the filing of this criminal report.
Due to this negligence, Jasavić believes, the bark beetle disease has progressed exponentially and caused millions in damage to the state of Montenegro. Jasavić then explained that he submitted a decision on the need for sanitary felling in April 2022 in accordance with Article 45 of the Forest Law.
When he conducted an inspection at that time, he found that about five to six thousand cubic meters of pine forest was diseased. In August, during a new inspection, he found that not only had sanitary felling not been carried out and the legal obligation fulfilled, but the disease had spread and affected 10 to 15 thousand cubic meters of forest in the Prokletije National Park.
Due to negligence and inaction, 50 to 60 thousand cubic meters of forest in the Prokletije National Park became infected in October and November, and the last inspection before the summer of the following year found that the disease had affected 100 thousand cubic meters of forest in the National Park.
In the last inspection in late autumn, before the snow, all hope of saving the forests was lost. Engineers say that 151,000 spruce and legally protected pine trees were infected, which is perhaps over 300,000 cubic meters of top-quality wood.
The Basic State Prosecutor's Office forwarded the criminal report of this inspector to the Special State Prosecutor's Office, but the SDT returned it to the Plav Special Prosecutor's Office for processing.
Instead of taking action, the former management of the National Parks of Montenegro demanded that Inspector Hakija Jasavić be excluded from the jurisdiction of the Proklerije National Park. And they were granted permission. This inspector privately stated at the time that he stood behind everything he said and the criminal charges he filed.
While some institutions attempted to minimize the damage, and some workers of the Prokletije National Park labeled Inspector Jasavić an "enemy of the state" and a "forest mafia", the Basic State Prosecutor's Office requested an expert opinion from economic and environmental experts.
That expert assessment was conducted at the end of July and in August last year, and the RTCG Portal already learned at that time that the damage was estimated at several million and that the disease had affected 170 thousand trees.
Due to the slowness of institutions and the progressive spread of the infection in forests, the Plav Wood Processors Association appealed to the competent authorities and institutions in the middle of last year to carry out sanitary logging within the shortest legal deadline and to declare a state of emergency in forests managed by the Prokletije National Park, the Forest Administration, as well as in private forests infected with the bark beetle.
In a letter sent to about twenty of the most relevant addresses, they stated that the bark beetle had caused ecocide in Prokletije, and that due to the bark beetle infestation and the failure to take appropriate measures in previous years to suppress the spread and reproduction of this insect that attacks trees, the situation in the Plav forests is alarming.
They sent an appeal for the introduction of a state of emergency in Plav due to forest diseases caused by bark beetles, among others, to the Prime Minister, the President of the Parliament of Montenegro, the Minister of Agriculture, the Minister of Ecology, the Minister of Mining, the Minister of Labor and Social Welfare, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Forestry Administration, the State Secretary at the Ministry of Agriculture, the Mayor of Plav, the President of the Plav Municipal Assembly, MP Armen Šehović, the Deputy Prime Minister Milun Zogović, the management of the NPCG and the Board of Directors of the NPCG.
After the experts submitted a finding to the Basic State Prosecutor's Office confirming that the damage to the forests in the "Prokletije" National Park and in the territory of the Plav municipality amounted to several million, the epilogue occurred yesterday when the Police Directorate filed charges against four public officials.
Respecting the presumption of inevitability, for now, all that can be said is what civic activists in Plav are saying - someone must be held responsible for someone's failure to comply with the sanitary logging order from April 2022, which would have kept the damage to a minimum.
They compared this situation to "killing Plav without a single shot being fired," because, as they say, "no occupier could do what someone did by inaction."
"The view of Prokletije from Plav is now idyllic. Snow, bark beetles are dormant at low temperatures, hidden from view. Now, due to political turmoil, we do not see any other problems in the country. In such political chaos, pests called the "human factor" can still hide and have protection for some time. The ecocide in Prokletije National Park is of such a scale that the day will certainly come when the competent state institutions will not be able to protect anyone. The winter idyll, spruce trees under snow and Santa Claus with a sled and a sack full of promises will pass. Some fairy tales have an ugly ending," wrote civic activists from Plav a year ago.
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