Vladimir’s project provisionally entitled Ecocide covers the impact of various industries on Serbia’s environment, specifically those that contribute to air pollution.
Zlatko Kokanović does not want to sell his forest, which he keeps from Rio Tinto, because he inherited it from his grandfather. There is also an archeological site in the forest area. Rio Tinto Group, an international Anglo-Australian mining conglomerate, is set to develop the Jadar project near Loznica within which it intends to open an underground mine to exploit jadarite, from which lithium, a mineral used to produce batteries, will be extracted. Lithium is crucial for the transition to renewables, but mining it is environmentally costly, experts warn.Parts of the forest are marked or fenced off because the excavation of the archeological site is already happening, October 14, 2021.
“I started my career as a volunteer in 2015 in the daily newspaper, focused on the news, social and humanitarian issues in the Balkans”. – Vladimir Zivojinović, winner 2022 VID Grant.
Serbia is a country that politically juggles between East and West – it’s nominally on EU path but lately has started to court a number of Chinese investors who are interested in outsourcing dirty industries from the Asian giant.
Police officers try to stop groups of environmental demonstrators on November 27, 2021 from blocking the main highway in Belgrade, and several cities in Serbia. They are protesting against a project by the Anglo-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto which wants to exploit lithium in this Balkan country. Significant deposits of lithium, essential for the manufacture of batteries for electric cars, are in eastern Serbia, around the town of Loznica, where the company has started buying land, but is still waiting for the green light from the state to open the mines.
Serbia is a convenient partner because its proximity to the EU gives easy access to the European market, but also due to the country’s willingness to make deals labelled as state secret, where the investors don’t have to disclose any details on the deal. Most of those investments have stirred fears for potential environmental impact, because in recent years Chinese investors have taken over Serbia’s steelworks, a number of copper and other mines and started building a tire mega factory.
Beekeeper Vladan Jakovljevic, 60, from Stupinica, 2km from the mining zone, whose 400 hives produced three tonnes of acacia honey last year, said the area where his bees feed would be left “desolate.” Ratko Ristic, a forestry professor has lobbied with others from the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts against the Jadar mine, claiming “the possible benefits for the state of Serbia is between €7m to €30m a year, the possible income from advanced agricultural activity in the same area would be more than €80m a year without pollution or relocation.” A petition against the mine has mustered up more than 130,000 signatures, 2% of the Serbian population. The company has already had to pay small sums in damages due to leakage in fields where it has carried out its research.In July, Rio Tinto announced that it would invest $2.4bn in a project in the Jadar valley, in western Serbia, overlooked by the Cer and Gučevo mountains, building what it says will be Europe’s biggest lithium mine, and one of the world’s largest on a greenfield site. The mine will involve the relocation of 81 households, voluntary or otherwise, and the purchase of fields of 293 landowners. A brochure circulated among those affected stated that expropriation of homes and land would be a “last resort”. The company has already bought up about 80% of the land and property, for what are said to be “unheard of” sums, according to Petkovik, amounting to hundreds of thousands of euros in some cases, based on payouts of €470 (£397) per m2 of the property. Rio Tinto is offering 5% bonuses to those who complete the selling within four months of an offer.Workers working on the excavation of the archeological site in the village of Gornje Nedeljice in October 14, 2021.
Air pollution in the Balkans causes large number of premature deaths, and the consequences include shorter life expectancy and public health deterioration.
According to European Environment Agency, poor air quality in the region causes more than 30,000 premature deaths, and the EU’s Joint Research Center said that air pollution on average contributes to the reduction of life expectancy between 0.4 and 1.3 years in the countries of the Western Balkans. Coal-fired power plants, which are a dominant source of energy in the region, account for economic damage ranging between €1.2 billion and €3.4 billion per year for healthcare costs, studies have shown. Serbian cities have steadily been in the top ten most polluted cities in Europe, according to IqAir. Vladimir’s work captures the impact heavy industry and pollution have on everyday people’s lives.
Dragana Djordjevic of the Institute of Chemistry, Technology and Metallurgy told the BBC. Locals and environmental activists warn that the mine would endanger the Mlava and Peka basins, and thus all rivers in eastern Serbia, and potentially the Danube, where Mlava and Pek pour out. The Dundee company for the BBC states that “the concern about the use of cyanide in the processing of gold ore is understandable”, but that it is a “safe technology” and that currently “only the possibility of its use is being investigated”. “The project is based on the highest standards of the mining industry, care for the local community, protection of the environment and providing long-term benefits for Zagubica and Serbia,” they say in a written response.Will the “gold rush” make eastern Serbia sick? “This hill, the next one and several wreaths in a row,” says Ivan Dunić, a lawyer from Žagubica, a town of about 2,000 inhabitants, at the foot of the Homolje Mountains. “It would all be excavated, it would all be a mine, miles in that direction,” he added, pointing to the mountain. Dunić is one of the inhabitants of Žagubica, Laznica and the surrounding villages, who oppose the announcement of the construction of a gold mine in the Homolje mountains, known for honey, cheese, rich flora and fauna. It is about the mine “Potaj Čuka – Tisnica”, the Canadian company Dundee precious metals, in which the use of cyanide was announced for the extraction of gold from the ore. “Cyanides are extremely toxic compounds,” Village Zagubica, December 2021, Serbia.
“I love themes about environment, history, and climate, human and social rights. I also started in February a new project, related to history”. – Vladimir Zivojinović, winner 2022 VID Grant.
Rio Tinto Group is developing the Jadar project near Loznica within which it intends to open an underground mine to exploit jadarite, from which lithium, a mineral used to produce batteries, will be extracted. Lithium is crucial for the transition to renewables, but mining it is environmentally costly, experts warn.Jadar River in western Serbia. The proposed site for the Europe’s biggest lithium mine is on the bank of the Korenita River, a tributary of the Jadar.
In July, Rio Tinto announced that it would invest $2.4bn in a project in the Jadar valley, in western Serbia, overlooked by the Cer and Gučevo mountains, building what it says will be Europe’s biggest lithium mine, and one of the world’s largest on a greenfield site.
The team had been looking for borates, used in fertiliser and building materials, but found something unexpected: borates and lithium in one mineral, a combination that would later be given the name jadarite, after the valley.
The project is gathering momentum. But anxious and angry campaigners, including the thousands of protesters who have taken to the streets of the Serbian cities of Loznica and Belgrade over recent months, say they are witnessing an unfolding disaster in the country’s “breadbasket”, responsible for around a fifth of total agricultural production, raising questions about the strange bedfellows being made in the maelstrom of the green revolution, and whether lessons have been learned about consumption and production that has made the transition to a decarbonised world so urgent
Vladimir has strong work that reflects on ecology and pollution caused by murky political deals by the Serbia government. It is a highly politically charged and sensitive issue in Serbia and more broadly in the Balkans. The work is coherent and personal.
Vladimir Zivojinović – Photo by Armin Graca
“I am a documentary photographer based in Belgrade, Serbia. The VID Grant will be big opportunity for me to learn how to develop and make a process of project. Where I live in Serbia we don’t have opportunity here to learn how to develop a project, how to make a completed process of work. I believe this opportunity will be very helpful especially the chance to work and to learn from my mentor”. – Vladimir Zivojinović, winner 2022 VID Grant.
