As Fences are Erected, the Cost to Animals and Nature on Croatia’s Borders

Away from the refugee focus, Europe’s new wire fences are having other effects.

Neighbouring countries have erected wire fences along large stetches of their borders in Croatia in recent weeks and months, in an attempt to stem the tide of refugees entering their country. Hungary was the first to do so, and it has been followed by Slovenia, which has erected wire barriers along parts of the border. And while the main news focus is on the migrant flow, as these pictures from Tine Lindic on December 6, 2015 show, there is another cost to the decision to put a barrier up between the two countries.

We first reported on the suffering of wild animals ensnared in the barbed wire of Hungary a few weeks ago.  Animals used to roaming freeling through the trees across a border they had no concept of were suddenly becoming entangled in the newly erected wire, and a video by Romulic and Stojcic in the link above gives a great contrast of the previously free migration of herds of animals.

No more. And while many of us may struggle at the complexities of the migrant crisis, this is how it looks through the eyes of animals. A human problem changing their way of life. 

And it is not just animals. Here along the Kolpa river, which is the border to Croatia in parts, the area is one of outstanding natural beauty and a nature park. But now there is a new arrival, a wire construction which is totally at odds with the pristine nature around.  

Open territory, where humans and animals were free to roam until the decision to build fences was put into action. How long the fences will stay is open to debate, but the longer they remain, the bigger the detriment to local wildlife.  

 

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