NATURAL RESOURCES MANAGEMENT IN THE ABSENCEOF THE RULE OF LAW: A CASE STUDY FROM BOSNIAAND HERZEGOVINA

摘要

During the civil war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, an estimated100,000 were killed, homes and businesses were destroyed, and the legal sys-tem was rendered obsolete. Since the war ended in 1995, a new legal systemhas been under construction. Sweeping changes were necessary to addressramifications of the war and to shift from a socialist to a capitalist society.The development of environmental laws has not been a priority. The newgovernmental structure sets competency over natural resources – not at thenational level, but at fragmented lower levels of government, frustrating effec-tive forest management. Half of the country is forested. Timber is its mostvaluable resource, providing its most significant exports. Initially, individualswith few alternatives harvested firewood. Subsistence harvesting evolved intolarge scale resource plunder. Organized crime is involved in illegal logging,reinforcing paths used for trafficking people, drugs and weapons. Pervasivecorruption in forestry management discourages international investment.The weak state of the law not only allows environmental degradation, itdestabilizes this fragile country and impedes post-war recovery.