The official opinion regarding research on strictly protected and protected wild species of plants, animals and fungi

In accordance with the Law on Nature Conservation, the permitted activities regarding strictly protected and protected wild species of plants, animals and fungi for the purpose of research and education, repopulation, reintroduction, and cultivation in in-situ and ex-situ conditions, etc., which are not considered to be harmful to the survival of their populations, shall be approved by the competent Ministry of Environmental Protection upon the obtained official expert opinion of the Institute for Nature Conservation of Serbia. In accordance with the procedure, scientific-research organizations and institutions shall submit a request for obtaining a permit to collect wild species for scientific-research and educational purposes to the Ministry, which forwards to the Institute all documentation accompanied by the request needed for obtaining the Institute’s opinion. Upon receipt of the opinion, the Ministry issues a permit in the form of a Decision.

In the request for obtaining the Institute’s opinion, it is necessary to state the following:

• The reasons and purpose of collecting from nature, or type of planned activities with the name of the project according to which the research is carried out.
• The names of associates to collect wild species of plants, animals and fungi.
• The scientific names of wild species and the number of specimens to be collected.
• The place (s) at which the required activities will be conducted.
• The period (time) of carrying out the said activities.
• Research methods (capture, collection, marking, sampling, etc.) to be applied.

The official opinion of the Institute relates only to the stated activities in the submitted request and is valid for the current year. In order to keep records on the distribution, manner and extent of the use of strictly protected and protected wild species of plants, animals and fungi, the applicant is obliged to submit a report to the Institute for Nature Conservation of Serbia on a license issued by the Ministry. Without the submission of the previous year's report, the Institute will not issue an opinion on the new request submitted in the coming year.