Ongoing initiatives and projects in Montenegro

The Disaster Risk Assessment of Montenegro (NRA) was established in accordance with the European Commission’s Risk Assessment and Mapping Guidelines for Disaster Management, with the support of DG ECHO to improve disaster risk reduction locally, have a positive effect on integration of risk reduction in policies, programs and plans, additionally strengthen and increase early warning capacities, and prevent new risks, creating a community that will be more resilient to the impact of future disasters.

The NRA includes the analysis of nine risk groups, for which 51 scenarios have been developed for most likely adverse events and for worst possible effects events, in line with the following: Geological risks; Climate change, Floods, Forest fires and open area, Infectious diseases in plants and infectious diseases in animals, technical-technological accidents, Radiation and nuclear accidents; Risks in economic and non-economic facilities and institutions. In addition, the NRA developed a detailed analysis of the interconnection between individual risks with the aim of determining the multi-risks and developing scenarios and risk maps (47 individual risk maps and 6 multi-risk maps) in digital format.

Implementation of the NRA will improve the situation in the field of disaster risk reduction in our state, have a positive effect on integration of risk reduction in policies, programs and plans, additionally strengthen and increase the early warning capacities, and prevent the emergence of new risks, creating a community that will be more resilient to the impact of disasters that are bound to occur in the future.

https://media.gov.me/media/gov/2021/mup/nacionalna-procjena-rizika-elektronska-publikacija.pdf

TO BE READY: The flOod and Big firE foREst, prediction, forecAst anD emergencY management is funded by the EU under the Interreg IPA CBC Italy-Albania-Montenegro Programme. The overall objective is to enhance conditions to increase the safety of the Italian, Albanian, and Montenegrin basin from disasters and implement cross-border initiatives to establish a bridge among participating regions and adopt common intervention strategies in case of fires and floods (https://tobeready.italy-albania-montenegro.eu/). Under this programme a Robotic System and Mobile Transport Center was procured: a specialized type of equipment for multiple purposes for the needs of the rescue and protection system, which can be used in case of technical and technological hazards as well as during natural disasters. The use of such systems significantly increases the safety of rescuers because it can be operated from a safe distance and replaces the sending of rescuers where the risk to life is very high.

JICA technical cooperation project: Project on Capacity Building for Disaster Risk Reduction through National Forest Fire Information System (NFFIS) and Eco-DRR started in 2021 with the arrival of the first JICA experts in the country. The main goal of the project is to strengthen the emergency management system in Montenegro by achieving two results: Development, testing and operationalization of the National Forest Fire Information System (NFFIS) and Implementation of Eco-DRR solutions to prevent natural disasters. The overall goal is to strengthen the rescue and protection system of Montenegro with developed capacity of government agencies for protection against forest fires and other natural disasters. The outputs are the following:  1. NFFIS is developed, tested, and operationalized to monitor forest fires and 2. Eco-DRR to prevent damage from natural disasters.  Implementing agency and related institutions are: Rescue and Protection Directorate (RPD) of the Ministry of the Interior, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management, Directorate for Forestry, Hunting and Wood Industry, Institute for Hydro-meteorology and Seismology, Forest Administration, Public Enterprise for National Parks, Ministry of Ecology, Spatial Planning and Urbanism, Directorate for Spatial Planning, Directorate for Climate Change and Mediterranean Affairs, other relevant organizations. The sites the project will cover: Podgorica, Candidate sites for coastal forests (Ulcinj region) and other Eco-DRR activity site (optional activity).