AIDA was approached by students from AgroParisTech (Department of Comparative Agriculture) to realize an Agrarian diagnostic in the Balkans. Our NGO, despite it’s limited own reserves, decided to respond favorably to this request and, drawing on various connections with Montenegro, supported an agrarian diagnostic of the remarkable Sinjajevina pastoral massif.

This massif is a vast limestone plateau of approximately 600 km², carved by deep valleys. It presents itself as a vast expanse of grass and rocks, offering both an extraordinary landscape and abundant grazing resources for ruminant livestock. In 2025, Laetitia Dubois and Daphnée Séailles (agronomist engineers from AgroParisTech) conducted an agrarian diagnostic of the massif. This study, the result of five months of fieldwork, is beautifully illustrated and highlights the emblematic landscapes of this mountainous region, its contemporary history, and local agro-pastoral dynamics. This work was supervised by François Lerin and Orianne Crouteix (AIDA association), Pablo Dominguez (anthropologist at DivEC – Cultural Diversity and Evolution), and Milan Marković (Faculty of Biotechnology at the University of Montenegro). It was made possible with the support of Vuk Miletić, particularly for translation during fieldwork. The project also received support from the French Embassy in Podgorica (for translation activities during field surveys).

This study (available below) aims to understand the agricultural activity that partly shapes this remarkable landscape. The agriculture practiced in the region is family-based, combining crop farming and livestock, with a focus on mountain pastoralism. However, the pastures of Sinjajevina are currently underutilized. Although herder families are still present in the valleys, only about a hundred now migrate to the plateau for summer grazing, and this number continues to decline.

The study also revealed that:

1. Production systems are extremely resource-efficient pastoral livestock systems;
2. A significant portion of farm products are self-consumed, accounting for 20% to 70% of the family agricultural income;
3. While motorization increases physical labor productivity, it is insufficient to address the labor shortage and challenging environmental conditions;
4. Farms in Sinjajevina are beginning to specialize (e.g., stopping sheep milking, abandoning sheep farming in favor of dairy cattle, selling calves at increasingly younger ages), leading to notable differences in their economic outcomes;
5. Despite promising economic results, the social and material conditions of this agricultural activity are currently insufficient to sustain it in the long term. Yet, the unique landscape of the Sinjajevina massif cannot be conceived without the pastoral livestock farming that shapes it.

Photo (banner): The northern part of the Sinjajevina plateau, with Durmitor National Park in the background (Montenegro), May 2025 / François Lerin

From territorial diagnosis to strategic intent. Knowledge brokerage and co-construction. Fieldwork Insights from Karst Landscapes – the poljes of Canton 10 (Bosnia and Herzegovina)

Orianne Crouteix and François Lerin (from the AIDA association) and Jérémy Vendé (from AgroParisTech) have published an article in VertigO journal summarizing the territorial and environmental diagnosis work carried out in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in the Livno region.

The poljes of Canton 10 in Bosnia and Herzegovina are little known whereas they are remarkable landscapes. In this article, we present an environmental diagnosis of this territory for local stakeholders. By placing fieldwork and data collection at the heart of our work, our goal is to break out of the environmental “silos” (biodiversity, wetlands, energy, waste, etc.) that often limit development or protection projects. Our ambition is to develop a truly cross-cutting approach. Therefore, we combine strategic analysis of environmental management, landscape analysis, and agricultural assessment in an innovative approach. This inductive and comprehensive work enables us to propose a territorial diagnosis illustrated by several original maps. We observe the importance, rarity, and complexity of the hydro-geographical system of this karstic area. We also highlight three contemporary dynamics that impact the environment and landscapes: (1) the development of “green” energies, (2) the evolution of livestock farming systems with the emergence of pastoral beef farming, (3) the transformation of housing and villages according to demographic and “ethnic” dynamics.

We would like to thank the entire class of the Specialized Master Forest Nature Society – International Management for 2022-2023, as well as Emmanuel Artus and Anouk Fraisse (Agronomic engineer from French Institute Agro of Montpellier) for their fieldwork and the many discussions they had with the authors. We would also like to thank the translators from the University of Sarajevo who accompanied us during all the interviews: Nina Brnić, Anela Dervic, Selma Genjac, Amra Huntic and Amila Slijepčević.

Photo (banner) : Poljés (Bosnia & Herzégovina), 2025 / François Lerin.

Duration: April-September 2024.

After being part of the AgroParisTech collective training course in 2023 on the four main karst poljes of Canton 10 in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Livanjsko, Glamočko Kupreško, Duvanjsko), AIDA is back on this site!

The support will be methodological and analytical inside the Gingko research project financed by the (French) National Agency for Research (ANR) “Geographical indications as common knowledge. Reassessment of current models of regulation and collective action in the context of agroecological transitions ». Claire Bernard-Mongin (CIRAD) has chosen this Bosnian case for the project on our initiative, territory which houses a dynamic GI made visible by the work of the APT internship: the Livanjski Sir.

Aida, via Orianne Crouteix and François Lerin, offers to be a facilitator and to participate in the supervision of the 6-months internship for a pair of students from Institut Agro Montpellier (see the Master internship offer below), which will be associate a Bosnian student; to provide the Enquiry and landscape analysis data in its possession; to participate in the restitution of this survey to local and national Bosnian actors; as well as a reflection on the potential mechanisms for protecting these remarkable landscapes & morpho-pedological structures – and also the livestock breeding pastoral activities which in part, shape them.

The internship offer: