At the
Same Table

This is how Zineta Mujaković describes what has been missing from biodiversity conservation and natural resource management in Bosnia and Herzegovina. As Head of the Department for Biodiversity and Nature Protection at the Federal Ministry of Environment and Tourism, she has a permanent table in mind: a forum that keeps the legislative and executive branches of government, academia, the business community, youth and civil society in dialogue for the benefit of nature.

This forum now has a name, the Biodiversity Platform, and it is being designed so that scientific findings inform decisions on how biodiversity is conserved and managed. The country is developing it with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) through the BES Solution Fund, a catalytic seed fund through which BES-Net helps countries turn biodiversity knowledge into action. With this funding, a series of structured, multisectoral modules has been bringing these stakeholders together to shape the platform. The aim is a mechanism that outlasts any single project or funding cycle and remains a fixture of institutional dialogue for years to come.  

The modules led by UNDP in 2026 are intended to test and shape the platform. Each one is designed to take stakeholders out of their usual silos and bring them together to work on problems they cannot solve alone. The first module, held in Banja Luka in May 2026, put participants in front of three case studies drawn from the country’s own challenges: a protected area caught between logging and conservation, a valley city struggling with winter smog and a hillside basin threatened by flash floods. Working within the conceptual framework of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, participants traced each case to the same root causes: gaps in coordination between institutions and uneven implementation of existing environmental policies.  

The second module, held in Sarajevo in June 2026, brought together government, academia, business, youth and civil society stakeholders to move from identifying existing challenges to designing ways to resolve them. One session was dedicated to institutional design, with participants discussing what legal status the platform should have and how it could be coordinated across the different levels of Government in Bosnia and Herzegovina. A separate training session, also in June, addressed a need the earlier modules had revealed: coaching scientists to present their findings in clear language that can readily inform policy.

For Zineta Mujaković, the platform will only work if it is written into law: “It is necessary to establish [the Biodiversity Platform] on a legal basis. The necessary legal steps should be taken, including amendments to existing legislation or the introduction of provisions to existing laws to state the need to establish such a platform.” 

Željka Stojičić, Senior Expert Associate at the Ministry of Spatial Planning, Construction and Ecology of Republika Srpska, shares this conviction and links the platform to concrete goals in the environmental strategy up to 2032: “The strategic objectives include increasing the area under protection, establishing an ecological network and fostering closer cooperation between the scientific community and decision makers. The Biodiversity Platform is a very effective tool that can help achieve strategic objectives,” she says. “Setting up a protected area means engaging scientists, decision makers, local communities and civil society members in dialogue, which is exactly what the platform would be built to enable.” 

Prof. Mataruga addresses the challenges ahead: “The private sector, decision makers, politicians and representatives of non-governmental organizations all have interests that differ from those of conservation biologists. Aligning these interests is not always easy, and, in my view, that represents the greatest challenge. Yet reconciling them serves the broader goal of ensuring the long-term survival and sustainability of the natural resources of Bosnia and Herzegovina.” 

The youngest voice in this process may have the longest stake in it. Valentina Knežević is a fourth-year biology student at the Faculty of Natural Sciences of the University of Banja Luka and a member of the university’s student parliament. She speaks to the fact that engaging students early gives them ownership of the choices that will shape the country they inherit, and she sees practical benefits as well:

“The platform can help students in the preparation of their theses, as well as in scientific research, professional development, and finding specific topics and areas of specialization to explore and pursue in their future careers.” 

Her participation in the modules reflects the country’s efforts to bring youth to the centre of decision-making, a push made concrete in April 2026 by the launch of the Western Balkans chapter of the Global Youth Biodiversity Network in Bosnia and Herzegovina, with the support of UNDP and government partners.  

The Biodiversity Platform is still taking shape.

Its membership and legal standing are being worked out through a series of coordination meetings among decision makers, with the next round expected towards the end of 2026. Each step brings it closer to becoming a permanent forum. What already exists is the community that has formed around it: 96 stakeholders engaged across the three modules, more than half of them women, returning session after session from ministries, faculties and civil society organizations.