There is a group of people in Sarajevo. Some have been friends for many years, while others met only recently, but today they are united by the same idea and the same sense of responsibility. Since February 2024, every Tuesday evening, they gather by the Eternal Flame, a symbol of antifascism and resistance in the very heart of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s capital, to read aloud the names of Gaza’s murdered children.
Croatia began clearing 1,174 square kilometers of land in 1996, and since 1998 has done so with the support of several donors, including the European Union. With the "Croatian Safe Steps CROSS II" project, co-financed by the EU under the Competitiveness and Cohesion Programme, it will be able to declare itself mine-free by 2026. Text by Nicole Corritore, photos by Silvia Maraone
At the end of 2024, the Standing Committee of the Bern Convention adopted a proposal from the European Union to downgrade the wolf’s conservation status from “strictly protected” to “protected”. The decision came into force in March 2025. According to the European Commission, there are too many wolves in Europe today, but experts claim that the decision is “scientifically unfounded”. Attacks on pastures, as Croatian biologist Josip Kusak explains, are often the result of bad habits, such as letting livestock roam unsupervised. “We have to learn to coexist with wolves again”, the biologist continues, because “the role of this large carnivore in the ecosystem is irreplaceable”. Photo and text G. Vale
From Habsburg hotels to exotic animals, the landscape of Veliki Brijuni tells the unusual story of the island. From a malarial swamp, Paul Kupelwieser transformed Brijuni into a luxury tourist resort at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. The archipelago was an elite destination until World War II, then became the summer residence of Josip Broz Tito during the socialist Yugoslavia. In this national park, one of the most beautiful in Croatia, today you can meet deer and zebras, ostriches and parrots, and even an elephant. Some visitors come to play golf, others relax on the islands without cars. Photos and text: Giovanni Vale
Six countries of the Adriatic-Ionian space have joined forces to protect the mountain ecosystem and regenerate biodiversity. The "Promont" cooperation project seeks to empower the local communities to promote positive change through regenerative actions in these areas.
Romania's 250 kilometers of Black Sea coastline are rapidly changing. Coastal erosion is rampant along much of the coastline: it is greatest in the north, where the effects of the scarcity of sediment retained by dams and rising sea levels compound natural processes. However, it is a major economic issue on the beaches of central and southern Romania, frequented by millions of tourists each year and home to industrial ports like Constanta. A colossal coastal defense project, funded by European Cohesion funds, is drastically transforming the coastal landscape, making it increasingly artificial.
With its labyrinth of canals, inland lakes, lagoons, remote islands, and windswept coastlines, the Danube Delta seems unchanging. Its precious habitats - a haven for Europe's main migratory bird species and the most iconic of fish, the sturgeon - and its lands where populations of diverse ethnicities, languages, and religions have found refuge, are exposed to accelerated environmental and social changes. Climate change and the disruption of upstream waterways are leading to erosion and silting of canals, while poaching, pollution, and a warming climate are threatening biodiversity.
On the 30th anniversary of the massacre of over 8,000 Muslims by Bosnian Serb troops in Srebrenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the city and authorities from around the world remember the victims at the Potočari memorial. The commemoration began in the old battery factory that, from 1994 to 1995, served as the base for Dutchbat, the Dutch UN peacekeeping battalion that was supposed to protect the Muslim enclave during the Bosnian War.
On Sunday, 18 May, an annual festival dedicated to the 18th century ethnic Armenian troubadour and poet, Sayat Nova, real name Harutyun Sayatyan, was again held in Tbilisi’s Maiden in the city’s historic Old Town.
As midnight arrived in Tbilisi, Easter awoke in a glow of candles and prayer. This year, for a change, Georgian Orthodox and Armenian Apostolic Easter occurred on the same day, April 20, just as it did elsewhere in the world. Text and Photographs by Onnik James Krikorian
