Menadžment prirodnim resursima nacionalnih parkova Srbije

The National parks are the most valuable parts of nature, and being the pride of every nation, the increasing significance has been given to the preservation and protection of their natural values. The progressive demand for raw materials and energy sources, the increasing amount of waste materials, tourism and certain manufacturing processes cause the increased exploitation of natural resources in national parks, thus generating their degradation. In this way, national parks are being threatened not only by natural causes (earthquakes, extreme temperatures, winds, snowdrifts, erosion, atmospherics, pests, etc.), but also by anthropogenic impact. The most significant anthropogenic impacts on the quality of national parks are: space occupation, collecting, mining, tourism, transport, agriculture, hunting and fishing, energy facilities, etc. These causes have led or may lead to many changes in the national park, such as: the destruction and complete disappearance of extremely endangered species, reducing the number of individual species, overbreeding of certain species, reproduction of lower species, etc. The need to carry out a comprehensive assessment of the natural resources of national parks in Serbia emerged from these reasons. Therefore, the valorization of the natural values of national parks (geodiversity, hydrological and climatic characteristics, biodiversity and important natural sites), as well as manmade resources (economic facilities and infrastructure systems) has been performed. In addition to this, each park has been analyzed in terms of its population, the network of settlements and cultural and historic resources. After the review of natural and manmade resources, the analysis of population, the network of settlements and cultural and historical resources of national parks, the need emerged to undertake certain activities in the field of legislation, education and above all, the management of national parks. The management of national parks is the process of planning, organizing, leading and control with the aim to achieve economic and environmental goals of safety, improvement and sustainable development of national parks in an effective and efficient manner. The management of Serbian national parks should be a continuous process of business activities which include the implementation of planning documents and management tasks performed by a national park manager. The most important planning document for the national park is the General Management Plan, which is used to plan the measures and activities for protection and conservation of the national park. According to the definition of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, the general management plan is „an instrument which indicates how the area should be protected, used, developed and managed“. This document clearly defines the purpose of the national park and the activities to be implemented. In order for the national parks to function professionally and practically, general management plan should include the following elements: basic information about the national park and its manager, natural park values, risks and threats to natural and manmade resources of the national park, safety measures for natural resources, educational measures, security measures in the national park, emergency situations, funding of national parks and planning documents (Spatial Plan for National Park Special-Purpose Area, The National Park Management Plan, Plan of Forest Development in the National Park, Water Management Plan, etc.). Effectiveness of implementation of the General Management Plan in national parks is achieved by methodologies for assessing its effectiveness. Nowadays, there are many methodologies worldwide that allow the control of general management plan implementation in specific national parks. One of the most acceptable methodologies for evaluating effectiveness of the implementation of management in national parks is called METT method, which has been accepted by the World Bank and the Global Environment Facility (GEF) as mandatory for the projects to be implemented in the protected areas, which are financed from the funds of these institutions. On one hand, the results of this research provide the scientific, professional and general public with an overview to this very important issue, and on the other hand, they could be implemented in public companies of national parks in Serbia („Fruška Gora“, „Kopaonik“, „Тара“, „Đerdap“ i „Šar-planina“), Institute for Nature Conservation of Serbia, the Agency for Environmental Protection and the Secretariat of Environmental Protection. At the same time, the findings that were obtained in this research could be used in the procedures of declaring new protected areas, due to the fact that 2.6 % of the territory of the Republic of Serbia is in the process of conservation, as well as due to the "needs" defined in the law on Spatial Plan of the Republic of Serbia to put 20 % of the territory will be put under some level of protection to the year 2020