Schedule 9th International Degrowth Conference

Gajna is a naturally flooded grassland located in the eastern continental part of Croatia, on the
Sava River, which forms the border with Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is pre-WW2 common
land which, although having State owned land status, managed to escape the intense State
control and continued to exercise their common rights de facto.
Gajna is an area protected on local level, de facto governed by members of local community
from 19th century, co-managed by local grass root CSO Brod Ecological Society-BED from
1989, co-managed by the County Institution for Management of Protected Natural Values
from 2007. By initiative of BED it has been protected as significant landscape and is also a
part of Natura 2000 network (EU ecological network).
On relatively small territory (cca 300 ha) in midst of agriculturally intensive area, Gajna is a
pocket of abundance in biological diversity harboring dozens of mammal, bird, amphibian
and reptile, fish and plant species in the strictly protected and protected species category.
Members of the cooperative are small family farms which extensively graze, stopping
overgrowth of pastures with invasive species and enabling biodiversity preservation. This is
also a sort of an “arc” of old traditional breeds of cattle, some critically endangered.
In an area facing large depopulation for years Gajna case shows possible ways of preserving
the biodiversity and cultural values by keeping the low intensity and sustainable livestock
production. It is done with empowering local community from within and investing a lot of
energy in communication, forcing practically non existent cross sectoral cooperation.
It will also show many challenges and pressures from outside (unstable legal framework
concerning land use, overlapping authorities (conservation, agriculture, water) with poor
coordination, low production pushing young people away, disappearance of the last
generation of this type of cattle breeders, population decrease and isolation in the rural areas ,
social stigma and climate change, as well as unsuitable policies, all down to legal and
physical pressures. Rural commons in EU, especially common pastures are currently

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marginalized, politically isolated and without human capacity to influence policies that affect
them.

Info

Day: 2023-09-01
Start time: 10:30
Duration: 01:00
Room: ZV-KC-1
Type: Non-academic Session
Theme: Transformational climate politics (METAR)

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