17 August 2021
17.08.2021 - As part of activities for the protection of nature, on the initiative of the Institute for Nature Protection, the Minister of MMPHI, Liburn Aliu, through separate decisions, has taken several native breeds of Kosovo pigeons under protection.
With the approval of these decisions, the native pigeon species: Peja Pigeon, Gjakova Racing Pigeon, Prizren Dove, Peja Pigeonhawk, Acrobat-Kosovo Dove, and Drenica Box Pigeon have been added to the Register of protected natural values maintained by the Kosovo Institute for Nature Protection.
The main purpose of issuing these decisions is the protection of these species according to the law and the determination of keeping conditions.
Also, through these decisions, it is aimed that these breeds are protected from the risk of genetic mixing with foreign breeds and from the risk of being taken abroad with the purpose of crossbreeding with other breeds.
The decisions also contain the professional justification for taking these breeds under protection as well as the description of their fundamental characteristics, which have been prepared by an inter-institutional working group led by the Institute for Nature Protection, with the participation of representatives from the Department of Environment and Water and the Legal Department of MMPHI, representatives from the Faculty of Natural Sciences of the University of Prishtina “Hasan Prishtina”, representatives from the Commission for the Standardization of Indigenous Pigeon Breeds of Kosovo, and representatives from the National Association of Small Animal Breeders.
The institutional protection of these native pigeon breeds is of particular importance also because these breeds will now be presented internationally as the native breeds of the Republic of Kosovo, local domesticated types, through which the wealth of the country's biodiversity values will also be showcased. For more information, see: Decisions and professional reasoning for the protection of Kosovo's native pigeons.