Conservation and Compliance: A Case Study in Kosovo’s Bjeshkët e Nemuna National Park A thesis presented to the faculty of the Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Affairs of Ohio University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Science Meghan Nora Little May 2019 © 2019 Meghan Nora Little. All Rights Reserved. 2 This thesis titled Conservation and Compliance: A Case Study in Kosovo’s Bjeshkët e Nemuna National Park by MEGHAN NORA LITTLE has been approved for the Program of Environmental Studies and the Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Affairs by Geoffrey Buckley Professor of Geography Mark Weinberg Dean, Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Affairs 3 ABSTRACT LITTLE, MEGHAN NORA, M.S., May 2019, Environmental Studies Conservation and Compliance: A Case Study in Kosovo’s Bjeshkët e Nemuna National Park Director of Thesis: Geoffrey Buckley Global estimates indicate an average of thirteen million hectares of forest loss each year. In response to the ever-increasing threats to terrestrial biodiversity, protected areas such as national parks have become the main tool for nature conservation across the globe. However, a closer look at protected areas shows that compliance with regulations is a significant challenge, compromising the ability of conservation efforts to fulfill their goals and protect the ecosystems as intended. If protected areas are to remain a central conservation tool, more empirical research is needed to identify and understand drivers of noncompliance. This thesis takes an in-depth look at Bjeshkët e Nemuna National Park in Kosovo. Home to over 255 endemic species, the park was established in 2012 to protect the country’s most biodiverse region. I use qualitative methodology to understand why noncompliant logging remains a prevalent issue in the park. I have found that citizens’ perceptions of the government as corrupt and ineffective strongly influence their willingness to abide by the laws. These perceptions are a result, in part, of the transition process from communism to capitalism and from war to peace. 4 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS My sincerest thanks to my thesis committee: Dr. Geoff Buckley, Dr. Risa Whitson, and Dr. Geoff Dabelko for your consistent encouragement, feedback, and support. It has truly been a pleasure to work with each of you. Special thanks to Ellen and Fatos from the Environmentally Responsible Action Group for guiding me to my research question, connecting with many of my interviewees, and for supporting me through the process while in Kosovo. To my interpreter Era Hyseni for her enthusiasm and skill, my host-mother Lendita for sharing her home and delicious food, and Dr. Danny Twilley and Todd Walters for their support with travel and local connections. To Alex Sargent and Linsey Edmunds for laying the groundwork that made this thesis a reality. Finally, I would like to thank my interviewees who took the time and the risk to speak with me about this challenging topic. 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Abstract ...........................................................................................................................3 Acknowledgments ...........................................................................................................4 List of Tables...................................................................................................................7 List of Figures .................................................................................................................8 Introduction .................................................................................................................9 Chapter 1: Literature Review ......................................................................................... 12 The National Park Idea .............................................................................................. 12 An International Expansion........................................................................................ 14 Challenges within Park Boundaries ............................................................................ 15 Noncompliance in Protected Areas ............................................................................ 17 Compliance Theory ................................................................................................... 19 Combatting Noncompliance ....................................................................................... 20 Chapter 2: The Kosovo Context ..................................................................................... 23 History of Kosovo ..................................................................................................... 23 Current Context ......................................................................................................... 28 Natural Resources ...................................................................................................... 29 Chapter 3: Research Methodology ................................................................................. 36 Methodological Background ...................................................................................... 36 Methodological Process ............................................................................................. 38 Analysis ..................................................................................................................... 45 Chapter 4: Results.......................................................................................................... 47 Legitimacy and Trustworthiness of Management Authority ....................................... 48 Effectiveness and Justice of Governance .................................................................... 52 Socially Normative Noncompliance ........................................................................... 54 Transition from Communism to Capitalism ............................................................... 57 Weakening Law Enforcement ................................................................................ 58 Corruption ............................................................................................................. 60 Local Perceptions of National Park ............................................................................ 71 6 From Foresters to Rangers ......................................................................................... 75 Chapter 5: Conclusions .................................................................................................. 79 Solutions.................................................................................................................... 82 Future Research ......................................................................................................... 86 References ..................................................................................................................... 89 Appendix A: Local Community Interview Protocol ....................................................... 98 Appendix B: Management Interview Protocol ............................................................... 99 Appendix C: NGO/External Parties Interview Protocol ................................................ 100 Appendix D: English Consent Form ............................................................................ 101 Appendix E: Albanian Consent Form .......................................................................... 103 7 LIST OF TABLES Page Table 1: Descriptions of Interviewees ............................................................................ 40 8 LIST OF FIGURES Page Figure 1: Political map of Kosovo …… ………………………………………………... 24 Figure 2: 1996 map of Yugoslavia…………………………………………………........ 24 Figure 3: Map of localities of endemic species in Kosovo …… ……………………….. 30 Figure 4: Bjeshkët e Nemuna draft zoning map ……… ………………………...…….. 32 Figure 5: View of the park ………………………………...…… ………………….….. 42 Figure 6: Illegally built cabin inside the park ………… …..……………………….….. 42 Figure 7: Truck used for driving through the bumpy park road … …..…………….….. 43 Figure 8: Logged trees inside Bjeshkët e Nemuna National … …..…………….……... 66 9 Introduction In the twenty-first century, wild spaces where plants and animals can exist unimpeded by human activities are on the decline. With the continuous expansion of urban areas and human development, protected areas have become one of the cornerstones of environmental conservation. According to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, a protected area is “a clearly defined geographical space, recognized, dedicated and managed, through legal or other effective means, to achieve the long-term conservation of nature with associated ecosystem services and cultural values” (Deguignet et al., 2014, 9). In the last twenty years, the number of recognized protected areas has doubled each decade, and in 2014 the global community boasted 209,000 protected areas spanning 193 countries (Deguignet et al., 2014). While the expansion of protected areas has made significant contributions to nature conservation, the success of these areas is reliant on people’s compliance with the regulations. Unfortunately, recent research indicates that noncompliance is “often the rule rather than the exception” (Arias, 2015, 134). Noncompliance refers to the lack of adherence to resource use and conservation rules. Noncompliant resource use in protected areas is one of the most prevalent illegal activities in