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 ).