Environmental protection and economic development in Kosovo

Environmental protection is one of the most important legacies of the modern society, closely connected to socio-economic development, the quality of life, and the prosperity of future generations. An increase in population and industrial growth has caused an endangered position of the surrounding nature, which is why the need for environmental protection has become a phenomenon, seeking a global answer. Therefore, public policies focusing on environmental protection are becoming more complex, and the number of institutions implementing them or monitoring the enforcement of relevant regulations is increasing to the extent which requires significant resources often beyond the state budgets, especially in developing countries. Environmental protection also affects the economy, primarily in the field of application of complex regulations, which certainly is a burden for business operations of small and medium-sized enterprises, and especially for the newly-established ones. On the other hand, the implementation of public policies in the field of environmental protection also opens up the possibility of economic valorisation in terms of private sector development and job creation. Starting from the fact that among entrepreneurs, local self-governments and even among citizens there is a lot of misunderstanding of the regulations in the field of environmental protection, especially in the north of Kosovo, where knowledge of Kosovo's legislation is poor, the Institute for Territorial Economic Development (InTER) has launched the project “Policy Dialogue for Environmental Protection and Development Action” in order to encourage discussion and raise the importance of this issue in the society.