10 June 2025
The Kosovo Institute for Nature Protection - IKNM, operating within the Kosovo Environmental Protection Agency under the Ministry of Environment, Spatial Planning, and Infrastructure, organized a workshop on the Monitoring and Assessment of the Condition of Natural Biomonuments. This workshop was held with the support of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization – FAO.
Representatives from the Ministry of Environment, Spatial Planning, and Infrastructure (MMPHI), the University of Pristina, specifically the Department of Biology, as well as local-level representatives, participated in this workshop.
The main goal of the workshop was to identify the needs for monitoring and assessing natural biomonuments, particularly trees, as part of the natural heritage, and to build capacity for rehabilitative measures that contribute to their preservation and longevity.
Fadil Bajraktari, director of the Kosovo Institute for Nature Protection, thanked FAO for supporting the implementation of this workshop and welcomed the international expert Shiroma Sathyapala, an expert in forest health at the FAO Headquarters in Rome. The Institute for Nature Protection has the monitoring of biomonuments in its work plan, and organizing this workshop will impact the quality of the monitoring. Additionally, we will gain new experiences for their conservation. I thank FAO and hope for further cooperation on projects related to biodiversity protection,” said Bajraktari.
On the other hand, Naser Krasniqi, FAO's local leader in Kosovo, emphasized the importance of cooperation with local institutions and FAO's support for this initiative, adding that “the environmental aspect is extremely important for the care of these identified monuments, but certainly the social and cultural aspect is also very important, and for this reason, there must be adequate institutional maintenance of these sites.”
International expert Shiroma Sathyapala presented best practices for the preservation of biomonuments and emphasized the importance of the professional capacity of the staff of the relevant institutions to properly manage these monuments and to increase their longevity, so that they can be passed down from generation to generation.
It is good that we see technicians, professors, and students here. This is an excellent activity by the institutions, and I greatly appreciate the work you are doing here, said the international expert Shiroma Sathyapala, who has extensive experience in countries such as New Zealand, Budapest, and Rome, as well as previous engagements in Kosovo.