3.2 Land degradation and soil erosion
Many reports which were a result of projects funded by international
donors, revealed land degradation drivers in BIH, and described the
situation in which land related data was widely unavailable (Kapović
Solomun, 2018; Čustović and Ljuša, 2018). The main conclusion from these
reports was that BIH does not have available soil data or soil
monitoring systems at any level. As a result, the state of soil
resources is based on qualitative assessment instead of quantitative
measurements. According with UNEP (2017), the main land degradation
drivers in BIH are soil erosion, floods, abandoned agricultural land,
drought and forest fires. Other drivers are overexploitation of forests
due to illegal logging, unsustainable agriculture practices and
uncontrolled urbanization (UNEP, 2017). Many of these drivers were
partially a result of the post conflict environment in BIH, where weak
socioeconomic conditions and instituions make environmental issues of
secondary importance (Kapović Solomun et al., 2018). Soil erosion is one
of the most important land degradation drivers all over BIH. During the
civil War, significant amounts of soil data were destroyed, including
for example, the most complete overview of soil erosion provided by the
Soil Erosion Map of the Socialistic Republic of BIH, developed during
between 1979 and 1985 (Lazarević, 1986). This early map of soil erosion
indicated an increased intensity of erosion from the central part of the
country (Dinaric Mountains) to northern part of BIH (Posavina), the main
agricultural production area before the War, and decreased towards the
south of the country for the observed period (1979-1985), before the
War. The soil erosion map for the entire BIH territory has not been
updated, but in 2012 the erosion map was reconstructed for the RS (Tošić
et al., 2012). Thus, soil erosion in RS area was analyzed before and
after the Civil War, and soil erosion intensity was estimated. Comparing
soil erosion maps in 1985 and in 2012 for the entire RS, it is observed
that the extent of affected area remained the same (21.851,04
km2, covering 86,96% of the RS), but the intensity of
soil erosion decreased over this time period (Table 3 ).
Although the dominant erosion intensity was very low and remained
constanct in both years (76.8% of the RS), part of the territory under
medium (III) to excessive (I) erosion category in 1985 was converted
into low (IV) erosion category in 2012, associated with incrase of the
later from 9.2% to 17.1%, respectively. The updated map showed that
the general trend in erosion decreased throughout the RS territory over
the 27-year time period (Figure 2 ).