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Identification of most outstanding freshwater/river ecosystems in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Montenegro. Technical report for WWF European Policy Programme – Branch Office, Dinaric Arc Sustainable Hydropower Initiative (DASHI) project

This report is meant to present technical details of data collection and methodology used to identify the most outstanding freshwater ecosystems of the Dinaric Arc countries, namely Albania (AL), Bosnia and Herzegovina (BA), Croatia (HR) and Montenegro (ME) in the framework of the Dinaric Arc Sustainable Hydropower Initiative (DASHI) project. Methodology used is based on ecoregional conservation and representation of all distinct biodiversity features as a key goal of ecoregion conservation. Main units of the analysis, Evaluated River Reaches (ERR), were identified after all river types were distinguished. River types are river sections belonging to the same ecoregion/subecoregion with similar characteristics of size of their sub-basin, altitudinal range, geology and hydrology. Special procedure described in this report was developed for river typology using GIS analysis. ERRs are contiguous sections of a river belonging to one river type chosen so that they are approximately homogenous according to the five components of river condition. Thus, if there was no change in condition (no dams, no major tributaries, no change in channel morphology) ERR was the same as one river type on the specific river. Major change in condition indicated where should river be split into different ERR. Condition is a measure of the degree of river reach intactness. River reach intactness was assessed using the combination of five criteria: 1) hydrology ; 2) channel morphology ; 3) riparian vegetation ; 4) water quality and 5) land use in sub-basin. This report gives short description of data collected and procedure used to assess all five criteria of ERR condition. Final condition of ERR was scored (max. 50) by summing score for five criteria (each criteria had max. 10 points). Data on distribution of freshwater fish species and Protected Areas were used to assess biological importance-BI (high, medium, low) of every ERR. In this way, prioritization was based on the same set of biodiversity data that were available for all four countries. First, complete list of European IUCN Red Listed threatened fish species (CR, EN, VU), list of rare, i.e. Natura 2000 (Annex II, Habitat Directive) and endemic fish species was compiled for every ERR. Importance of ERR for protection of fish diversity was assessed by calculating total score (procedure described in this report) and then by ranking all ERRs in specific subecoregion. Ranking position together with presence and type of protected area within which ERR is located enabled assessment of the high, medium or low level of biological importance of every ERR. Using integration matrix, total biological importance index (TBI) was determined as the combination of condition and biological importance (BI) with maximum possible value of 50 points. Final score for every ERR was obtained by summing ERR final condition (max. 50) and total biological importance index. Thus, final score of ERR had maximum of 100 points. All ERRs that had scored 80-100 points for final score became candidate priority river reaches of very high and high priority. For all other ERRs representation analysis was conducted to assure that all major river and habitat types are represented among candidate priority river reaches of very high and high priority. Additional priority river reaches were selected based on their final score, i.e. only top ranked ERRs were included to assure representation principle. Candidate priority river reaches identified after representation analysis are the result of this assessment. They have been identified and mapped as the most outstanding evaluated river reaches with the highest conservation/ecological value whose protection could ensure long term persistence of the most important components of freshwater biodiversity in the region. These river reaches should be protected from any form of anthropogenic disturbance including hydropower development.

ecoregional conservation ; freshwater ecosystems ; hydropower ; dams ; Croatia, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro

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