Biodiversity Risks of Natural Disasters and Extreme Climatic Events in Serbia

In search of a strategic approach to protect biodiversity of negative impacts of weather event, current paper shows the existing gap in the field and gives a brief review of the issues present in Serbia using social science methodology. It makes a desktop study for the period 2000-2012 embracing all kind of reliable and available data in analyses of documents, historical approach and comparative analyses. Literatures from different disciplines that inform about environmental security and emergency management are reviewed: environmental protection, especially biodiversity protection, disaster management, and risk reduction measures presented in numerous reports. Historical approach shows the development of biodiversity protection and ecological risk management principles during the last decade. Comparative method is used to make a conclusion of current state in of existing documents about that important issue and response of competent service in those events in Serbia. The main question put in the study is: Is the threat of extreme event on Serbian biodiversity recognized among policy makers, and how to be better prepared for it? The first part is devoted to presentation of key issues on natural disasters and extreme event risks and biodiversity protection while the second discusses state-of art and problems in the field. The goals of this paper are connected to the aim of initiating public discussion on extreme climatic events as a serious risk to biodiversity; engaging stakeholders to include the risk of extreme climatic event in future biodiversity protection strategies and creating specific education programs and training for biodiversity protection in emergencies. The sources for research are found in various documents; official and non-governmental, from electronic databases, books, scientific journals and positive practice from international communities. Conclusion remarks review actions that should be implemented in Serbia in order to strengthen the stakeholder's ability to prevent, prepare, respond to, and mitigate long term consequences to biodiversity in emergencies caused with extreme climatic events. These remarks could be helpful for all interested parties in their future efforts to provide necessary conditions in improving the response to extreme events in the Republic of Serbia, and enhance future actions related to sustainable biodiversity conversation