The inspiring panel discussion “Meet the female guardians of nature” held at the Goethe Institute in Belgrade was an opportunity for the Women’s Network for Environmental Protection to present its members and their work.

We opened the event with a joint viewing of the documentary “Nature to the Rescue” about the Women’s Network and its development and role in the environmental movement. The documentary film, filmed at the 6th meeting of the Network held in Homolje, in addition to portraying its spirit and the stories of our activists, confronts the current situation of devastation and pollution due to research by the Canadian mining company Dandee in Eastern Serbia.

Members of the Network hold annual meetings in places important for the environmental struggle, and their first gathering was on Stara planina, inspired by the protection of rivers. In the past period, they were on Fruška Gora, Gružanje Jezera, Zlatar and Homolje, and dealt with the topics of forests and their management, the impact of climate change on women and agriculture, the position of women in the movement, gender-responsive budgeting and, at the last meeting, extractivism.

After the premiere of the film, the director of the Goethe Institute Belgrade warmly greeted the participants with the words that the women’s network and nature conservation are a logical link and that the reason why we gathered is an important topic at the global level, but he notes that it is particularly important and present in Serbia. The participants were also addressed by Zorica Milisavljević, coordinator of the ecological program, thanks to whom the cooperation between the Women’s Network and the Goethe Institute Belgrade came about.

After the opening address of the moderator Nataša Jančić from Polekol, there followed a panel on which spoke Dragana Arsić from the movement Odbranimo šume Fruška Gora, Marija Simić Savić from the Ekomar association, Ana Džakić from the White Heron organization, Sandra Jovanović – environmentalist and bird defender and Ana Karanović – founder of the company Ukusi Kopaonika. These brave women talked about what motivated them to deal with the topic of nature and the environment and what challenges and prejudices they faced, what experience they have from the field, and what activist struggles look like.

Dragana Arsić reflected on the beginning of the Let’s Protect the Forests of Fruška Gora movement, on all the challenges and difficult moments that activists went through during the ecological struggle to preserve this forest oasis. Its driver is the fight for the public interest, which is a condition for people’s survival. She pointed out that we need a society with strong institutions and the rule of law, and that forests have no arms to defend themselves and no legs to run away, but they have us to defend them.

Marija Simić Savić is the founder of the organization Ekomar from Kragujevac, and their field of activity is primarily water protection. In the beginning, they were engaged in educating children about environmental protection, and later, as the organization expanded, they began to deal with the topics of local pollution. They managed to interest the PUK Šumadija Kragujevac in the topic of threatened water sources, who supported them in their work and in their desire to find a common language with the decision-makers for initiating and changing the law.

Ana Džakić spoke about the Reva pond, which is located on the left bank of the Danube, and the White Heron organization, which was founded in 2018 with the idea of ​​creating a Danube park for recreational activities in nature in this area. In 2020, when the city authorities started dumping construction waste in the area of ​​the Reve lake, they naturally stood in its protection. It started with a protest, followed by a blockade of trucks, and then a camp that lasted for 24 days. Thanks to the support of citizens and other associations, they were able to defend Reva, and now they are working on it and wish that this important wet habitat gets the status of a protected area.

Sandra Jovanović, an environmentalist and bird defender, has been dealing with the topic of illegal catching of birds for ten years, the so-called. poaching, working in the Society for the Protection and Study of Birds of Serbia. She explained what the nocturnal terrain looks like in search of decoys, which poachers use to hunt quail. She is one of the few girls who engaged in this kind of activism, says that now the women’s team is growing, and that Serbia is making small steps forward in this fight.

Ana Karanović, from the village of Rudnica on Kopaonik, after studying biology in Kragujevac, returned to her birthplace and started producing healthy food, without pesticides. He says that Kopaonik has a lot to offer in addition to ski tourism, but also has many environmental problems that they face. Since the local self-government is not on the side of the natives, some struggles await them.

In the second part of the conversation, the panelists reflected on the work and growth of the Network from its foundation until today, recalled the most touching moments from joint activities and highlighted what membership and networking brought to them in their personal and professional lives. The beauty of the network is that it brings together women who deal with environmental protection in different ways, whether it is an organization, an informal group, or a single activist – we are all connected by love for nature. The first members of the network were proven fighters, and as this is a high-risk activism, the women needed a break and an informal meeting in order to empower each other, support each other and be able to continue the fight. Network meetings are always constructive and productive, and women leave richer with new information and more aware of the problems that exist in our country and local communities.

The network is a community that embraces you with open arms and hearts, that knows how to lift you up, gives you the energy to move and do the right thing, where you can hear advice, praise, constructive criticism, where someone will always tell you: You can do it!

At the end of the meeting, the panelists stated that the network is made up of strong and courageous women who go beyond their strength and who do it out of the purest love.

You can watch a recording of the entire conversation here

The activities are part of the “Union of Women” project supported through the ECO-SYSTEM program to support reforms in the environment, implemented by the Young Researchers of Serbia (MIS), and supported by Sweden.