Over 15 environmental and nature conservation organisations, as well as primary forest experts from seven countries, have signed an open letter urging the Montenegrin authorities to immediately abstain from all planned logging activities in the Prokletije National Park. Such activities would endanger one of Europe’s last remaining old-growth forest ecosystems and undermine Montenegro’s international conservation commitments.
Primary forest expert Dr Martin Mikoláš, CZIP forest expert Bojan Zeković, and EuroNatur's Siegmund Missall are observing the state of the spruce dieback and rejuvenation in Montenegro's Prokletije National Park in 19 June 2026, and are talking about the damage that planned wood extraction would cause to it.
© Solutions4You
The full cycle of life can only be observed in its entirety in near-natural forests; here, a young spruce is growing on a spruce stump.
© Cornelia MährOn 26 June, the Montenegrin government took a significant step towards conserving the country's natural environment when it approved a draft plan for a nationwide Natura 2000 network. However, such commitments are worthless if Montenegro does not follow through in practice. Plans to log national parks, particularly in their core zones, would completely contradict the commitments made on 26 June. Prokletije National Park is one of the most ecologically valuable and least disturbed mountain regions in Europe. As part of the Dinaric biodiversity hotspot, the park protects irreplaceable forest habitats, wildlife, water resources, and natural climate buffers. Dead wood, which is often targeted by sanitary and salvage logging, is an essential ecological structure that supports fungi, insects, birds and mammals. While these practices aim to prevent the spread of bark beetles or utilise the wood, removing dead wood greatly disrupts forest dynamics.
Logging for sanitation and salvage purposes inside the core zones of national parks risks violating IUCN standards for national parks, and contradicts Montenegro’s obligations under the Convention on Biological Diversity and European conservation frameworks. In an open letter, the signatory organisations—including EuroNatur and numerous partner organisations—are therefore calling for an immediate halt to all planned sanitary and salvage logging operations within Prokletije National Park, particularly in its core zones and the surrounding forests.
“The bark beetle outbreak in Prokletije National Park is a natural part of the cycle of life, death and rejuvenation in forests. We should observe it in awe instead of intervening! Logging under the guise of sanitary and salvage measures is equivalent to robbing the forest of the biomass it needs for deadwood accumulation, one of the most important factors for biodiversity in natural forests,” says Siegmund Missall, EuroNatur’s Head of Forest Conservation Programme.