Environmental Activism in Serbia: Challenges to Cooperation Between Professional and Grassroots Organisations

The paper explores recent trends in environmental activism in Serbia. Until recently, the Western Balkan region was described as lacking genuine grassroots mobilisation, its civil society dominated by professional organisations. Professional organisations have been under fire as donor-driven, artificial and lacking the constituency and capacity for significant socio-environmental change. A recent upsurge of civic protests against air pollution, investor-led urbanism and mini-hydropower plants suggests, however, that grassroots environmental activism may be strengthening in Serbia. In this paper, we scrutinise relationships between professional and grassroots environmental organisations, exploring whether they tend to reinforce or ignore one another, or even undermine one another’s efforts. The analysis is based on semi-structured interviews (N=50) with representatives of both types of environmental organisations. The findings demonstrate an asymmetrical development of professional and grassroots organisations in favour of the former, which are strongly influenced by donor policies. Although there are many opportunities for cooperation (grassroots organisations need support in the field, while professional organisations are encouraged by donors to network), the findings indicate a significant lack of mutual trust and a reluctance to cooperate substantially. All of these dynamics impede the consolidation of an environmental movement in Serbia.