Save Sinjajevina’s Nature and Local Communities!
Target: EU Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement; and the Ministry of the Defense of Montenegro
• Ensuring the removal of the military training ground in Sinjajevina in a legally binding manner.
• Creating a protected area in Sinjajevina co-designed and co-governed by local communities.
Sinjajevina is the Balkans’ biggest mountain grassland and a place of outstanding beauty. It is used by more than 250 families of farmers and nearly 2,000 people. Many of its pastures are governed communally by eight different Montenegrin tribes, and the Sinjajevina plateau is part of the Tara Canyon Biosphere Reserve at the same time as it is bordered by two UNESCO World Heritage sites.
Nature and local communities in danger
Now the environment and the livelihoods of those traditional communities are in imminent danger: the Montenegrin government, supported by important NATO allies, established a military training ground in the very heart of these community lands. The government also halted a planned regional park for the protection and promotion of nature and culture, severely threatening its unique ecosystems and local communities.
European Union must stand with Sinjajevina
Montenegro wants to be part of the European Union, and EU Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement, is leading those conversations.
Saving Sinjajevina is a #MissionPossible
The local people have put their bodies in the way and prevented military exercises on their land -- an amazing victory! The movement was awarded the War Abolisher of 2021 Award. But they need our help to make their success permanent and end all efforts to build a NATO military base or training area in Montenegro. Please sign the petition!
To: EU Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement; and the Ministry of the Defense of Montenegro
From: [Your Name]
Stand with the local communities of Sinjajevina and the ecosystems they preserve and:
• Ensure the removal of the military training ground in Sinjajevina in a legally binding manner.
• Create a protected area in Sinjajevina co-designed and co-governed by local communities
1.- Please promote THE PETITION where you will be able to grasp in just a few lines and a 50 seconds video THE problem we are facing.
Please sign the petition if you support it, and circulate it around among as many people as possible in order to gather all the signatures possible from around the globe.
2.- Please promote THE CROWDFUNDING that we have put up to support this very small association, but that has achieved soooo much up to now (e.g. WBW 2021 Award to Save Sinjajevina) and that needs all help possible. In the crowdfunding page you can see what they are in need of most urgently. But they probably need twice or thrice that amount to organize all they will be in need of for the next year, as 2022 is going to be the critical year in which the decision of putting the military ground off or not should be taken. And for the moment they have only received 15 small donations and not even 10% of their initial goal...
3.- Next 16th October 2021 they are going to celebrate on the Sinjajevina pasturelands the anniversary of the resistance camp that provided them the first victory and first halt of the military training after 51 days under snow and freezing conditions. Most probably they are going to live stream it, so please be attentive to a possible future email with a link to connect the 16th of october at around 2am Central European Time if you are interested in seeing the real place and people.
4.- Attached a summary in less than 5.000 words of all the publications that we have been able to identify in English and that is the most up to date document about the conflict. We still need to work on it, but it is useful if anybody wants to go more in depth.
Please note that the main problem is that almost nobody is writing about the case out of Montenegro and the nearby countries, while the pressure must be done mainly in the EU (Brussels) and the USA (Washington), and eventually the individual countries member of NATO and especially those that participated in the military exercises (USA, Italy, Austria, Slovenia and North Macedonia) that dropped over half tone of explosives in the area on 27/09/2020, while the shepherds were still around with their animals!!!!
5.- Also please, do share our blog with as many people as possible.
6.- At the same time, please find attached the pdf exhibition about the case. Feel free to print it, showcase it, upload it on any webpage you wish or distribute it and share it with whomever you consider worthy and deserving enough to spread its more than decent message! It has marvelous photos that might capture people's attention more effectively, as well as a beautiful and very simple but very didactic text that can help everybody understand in an easy language what is going on here.
7.- Finally, just to let you know, an international resistance camp is trying to be organized next Spring-Summer 2022 in Sinjajevina, maybe making it match with the beautiful tradition of Petrovdan (Saint Peter's day) that has just recently been recuperated by local communities and the Save Sinjajevina association to reclaim their identity and traditions linked to this territory of life and their customary rights over it. So even if the details of this international camp call will be provided as we get closer to the key dates next year, please bear in mind this idea and start spreading it around so we can have as many people as possible predisposed to participate and sharing it already for when the definitive call is launched next Spring!