REAWG Soil management Project

Kick-off meeting

State of art in soil management - Montenegro

Mirko Knežević

University of Montenegro - Biotehnical Faculty

08 – 10 November 2021
Andrevlje, Serbia
Country description
• Montenegro is part of the Southeastern Europe and Western Balkan
• 43o 32‘(Mocevici, Pljevlja) and 41o 52’ (Ada, Ulcinj), North Latitude
• 18o 26’ (Sutorina, Herceg Novi) and 20o 21’ (Jablanica, Rozaje), East Longitude

• The length of the Adriatic Sea coast in the country amounts to 293 km

• The total surface of the state territory is 13.812 km2, while the surface of
the territorial sea is around 2.540 km2

• According to the census of 2003, Montenegro had 620.145 inhabitants,

which gives the population density of 44,9 inhabitants per km2
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 Administrative division
of Montenegro
Montenegrin territory is divided
into:

• 24 administrative-territorial
units - municipalities and
• One City District (Golubovci) -
part of the Capital Podgorica

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Digital elevation model of MNE

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Slope map of MNE (in %) Reclassified map of slopes

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 Land Use
Structure (2011) Surface area Surface area Structure (2019)
(ha) (ha)
Agricultural land 515 740 257 469,6 Total agricultural utilised land
Arable land and gardens 45 748 2 009,8 Utilised kitchen gardens and/or gardens
Orchards 12 007 7 204,6 Utilised arable land
Vineyards 4 399 2 880,0 Vineyards
Meadows 126 990 1 373,3 Orchards - plantations
Pastures 323 953 1 214,6 Orchards- extensive
Ponds, fishponds, swamps 2 643 69,8 Nurseries
242 717,5 Perennial meadows and pastures

The structure of agricultural land use (2011 and 2019) (Source: MONSTAT - Statistical Yearbook 2012 and 2020)

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Soil characteristic
Most of the soil represented in Montenegro has a shallow soil profile and low
contents of nutrients. Of the total area, not considering the infertile lands
(rocks, wetlands, lakes, rivers, roads and urban settlements) the soil of
Montenegro (Fustic and Djuretic, 2000) is classified in five categories of
effective fertility.

No: Categories fertility Bonity Surface area %

( ha)

1. High fertility I i II 20.000 1,5

2. Medium fertility III i IV 60.000 4,3
3. Limited fertility V i VI 350.000 25,3
4. Low fertility VII i VIII 640.000 46,2
5. Infertile without bonity (unclassified) 312.000 22,7

Total 1.382.000 100

Categories of effective fertility with an estimated area

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Soil data description
• In Montenegro, in the period of 1958-1988, a detailed soil
map with scale of 1:50 000 was made by Biotechnical
Faculty (former Agriculture Institute).
• Soil data describes mechanical-physical and chemical
properties of the soil obtained through various laboratory
methods.
• Moreover, every profile’s location was originally entered on
a series of maps, with a 1:50.000 scale.

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Paper form of soil data
Original soil map for soil types in Page from the original hand-written
Montenegro notebook

The digitalization of soil data is in progress

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Soils of Montenegro
Atlas of pedological maps 1:50.000 and monography „Soils of
Montenegro (Fuštić i Đuretić, 2000) give relevant data about presence
of soil types and their prevalence.
The most common soil types in Montenegro are:
calcomelanosol (47%), distric cambisol (28%), eutric cambisol (8%),
terra rosa (6%), fluvisols (2.4%) and rendzina (2.2%).

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Data volume
• The data from the book "Zemljišta Crne Gore“ (Soils of Montenegro)
was almost entirely georeferenced.
• In fact, the information about 1.800 profiles, which have about 4.000
layers that can currently be used.
• Montenegro = about 13.812 km2,
• it means to have one profile for each 7,7 km2, which can be
considered as a sufficient volume of data.

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Available data for 1.800 profiles
• the upper depth of the • hygroscopic moisture,
horizon • pH in H2O,
• the lower depth of the • pH in KCl
horizon
• a % of skeleton, % of • the content of CaCO3 (%)
coarse sand • content of organic matter
• % of fine sand (%)
• % of silt, % of clay • available P2O5 (mg/100 g
of soil)
• % of total sand • available K2O (mg/100 g of
• % of total clay soil)

Hydrolytic acidity, sum of base cations, the adsorption capacity of the adsorbed
cations, degree of saturation of base cations were not made at all profiles but
only at about 47% of the profile (around 850). 12/36
Experimental Results – Comparison pedlogic maps

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Map of soil samples

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≥15% of the topsoil is coarse material - stoiness

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Shallow rooting depth

Depth (cm) from soil

surface to coherent hard
rock or hard pan - ≤30cm

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Soil Acidity pH(H2O)<5

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Soil Data Access
• Biotechnical Faculty / Department of Soil and Amelioration was in
charge of research on the development of soil map.
• Data are available upon request to the relevant state institutions and
ministries, e.g the request for data of Biotechnical Faculty should be
addressed to the Dean of the Biotechnical Faculty.

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UNCCD and land degradation
LDN = Balancing challenges and opportunities

Challenges Opportunities
 Land degradation  Avoidance
 “Losses”  Minimisation
 Rehabilitation
 Restoration
 “Gains”
SETTING LDN BASELINE
Default tier 1 data provided by LDN TSP

Indicator (metric) Default tier 1 data source

Land cover
Land productivity
(net primary productivity)
Carbon stocks above and below
ground
(soil organic carbon)
European Space Agency’s Climate Change Initiative Land Cover dataset : spatial
resolution 300m; 3 epochs 2000, 2005 and 2010 (2015 available shortly)
Joint Research Centre’s Land Productivity Dynamics dataset:
15-year time series (1999 to 2013) of SPOT Vegetation NDVI; spatial resolution 1
km.
International Soil Reference and Information Centre’s SoilGrids250m (2016, in
prep.)

To be validated at national level using national/local data and information, qualitative information and
stakeholder perspectives, high resolution images)
Land use categories in Montenegro with map of land use changes

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Land use categories in Montenegro with land use changes

Area (2000) Area (2010) Net area change

Land Use/Cover Category (2000-2010)
km2 km2 km2
Forest 6901 6876 -25
Shrubs, grasslands and sparsely 8
vegetated areas 1589 1597
Croplands 4515 4532 17
Wetlands and water bodies 0
428 428
Artifical areas 221 221 0
Bare land and other areas 0
14 14
2
Total (km ) 13667 13667

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Land productivity dynamics in Montenegro obtained via
global datasets

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 Land productivity dynamics in Montenegro obtained via
global datasets
Net land productivity dynamics (NetLPD) (km2)
Land Use/Cover Early Stable but Stable not No
Category Declining signs of stressed stressed Increasing Data***
decline
Forest 4 21 164 878 5790 19
Shrubs, grasslands and
sparsely vegetated areas
39 15 62 378 1097 5
Croplands 45 61 278 770 3374 5
Wetlands and water
bodies
1 1 3 24 150 249
Artifical areas 12 4 30 56 115 4
Bare land and other areas
2 0 2 9 1 0
Percent of total land
area
1% 1% 4% 15% 77% 2%
2
Total (km ) 102 102 539 2116 10526 282
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Soil organic carbon stocks in
Montenegro obtained via global
datasets

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Map - values of HUMUS Depth (cm) from soil
surface to coherent hard
rock or hard pan - ≤30cm

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 Soil organic carbon stocks in Montenegro obtained via
global datasets
Net area change
(2000-2010) Soil organic carbon 0 - 30 cm (2000-2010)
Changing Land Use/Cover Category
2000 2010 2000-
2000 2010 total total 2010
sq km
ton/ha ton/ha (ton) (ton) loss
(ton)
Forest to Cropland 17,01 141,5 115,3 240633 196056 -44577
Forest to Shrubs, grasslands and
sparsely vegetated areas
7,56 136,8 136,8 103392 103392 0
Total 24,57 344025 299448 -44577
Percent loss total SOC stock (country)
-0,03%

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National map of
selected Hotspots

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 Montenegro LDN national and specific voluntary targets

Target number Achieving LDN to 2030

1 Avoiding, minimizing land degradation and redirecting land use changes
2 Increase of land productivity
3 Protection of natural ecosystems from wildfires
4 Improvement of soil monitoring system

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 Responsible
No Programs, actions and measures USD Target
Institution
Creation and adoption of the Law on Soil Protection (Law on Soil
1 20,000 1 MORT1
as natural resource)
2 Adoption of the Law on Agricultural Soil (in progress) 10,000 1 MPRR2
3 Soil monitoring program 350,000 1 MORT
4 Biodiversity research and monitoring program 700,000 1 MORT
Design of micro-accumulations in order to cope with fires and
5 1,500,000 2, 3 MPRR
water scarcity in cattle breeding and perennial plants
Production and use of biochar in sustainable land management MORT, MPRR,
6 1,200,000 2
and study of its effect on soil UCG-BTF3
Raising awareness about soil and land degradation and
MORT, MPRR,
7 promotion of sustainable land management through educational 450,000 2
UCG-BTF
programs
Support to the improvement of the livestock fund (small
8 7,500,000 3 MPRR
ruminants - sheep and goats)
Improvement of agro-forestry sector through raising new
9 orchards of hazel, pomegranate or other perennial species in the 1,200,000 3 MPRR
areas subjected to fires
Collection of all existing data related to soil organic carbon and
10 650,000 4 UCG-BTF
other parameters of soil fertility into one integrated database

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 Strengthening national capacities (human and technical MORT, MPRR,
11 450,000 4
resources) in remote sensing UCG-BTF
12 Registration of users of arable agricultural soil 300,000 4 MPRR
13 Support for development of olive growing 1,000,000 2, 3 MPRR
14 Support for growing medical and aromatic plants 650,000 2, 3 MPRR
15 Support to investments in water supply (wells, reservoirs) 2,000,000 3 MPRR
16 Preserving autochthonous genetic resources in agriculture 125,000 1 MPRR
17 Support to organic production 2,200,000 2 MPRR
18 Sustainable use of mountain pasture 1,375,000 1, 2, 3 MPRR
19 Support to manure management 650,000 2 MPRR
20 Education, investigations, development and analyses 550,000 4 MPRR
Afforestation, arrangement and protection of forests and seedling
21 4,100,000 1,2 MPRR
production
22 Raising economic forests on private land (land use change) 200,000 1,2 MPRR
23 Determination of Fire Weather index FWI 80,000 3 IHMS4, MORT
24 Raising perennial plantations 1,500,000 2 MPRR
25 Soil erosion map creation 150,000 4 UCG-BTF
28,910,000

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 NSDI in Montenegro and SDI legislation
Law on spatial data infrastructure adopted 14th June, 2017. This law
regulates the establishment and maintenance of the spatial data
infrastructure, as well as other issues of relevance to the spatial data
infrastructure.
The spatial data infrastructure consists of:
1) metadata;
2) network services and technologies used for the exchange of spatial
data;
3) the methodology for sharing, accessing and using spatial data;
4) conditions for using spatial data;
5) geoportal of spatial data infrastructure.

Geoportal is established and managed by the state administration body

responsible for environmental protection as a contact point Ministry of
Sustainable Development and Tourism.
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 HOW DO WE COPE WITH THE CHALENGES

• Digitalization of soil data

• New approaches in monitoring
• Networking in a regional and international platforms
• Investing in the development of young scientists

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Donji Crnci

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