Belgrade, May 27, 2022 - The internet portal dim.rs was presented today at the United Nations office in Belgrade. The portal will be used for detection and monitoring of fires on agricultural land around Serbia.  These fires are usually the result of human activities, such as stubble burning.  

The aim of dim.rs portal is raising public awareness, especially among farmers, concerning the danger and negative effects caused by uncontrolled burning of harvest residue.  Citizens will be able to use this portal to report on fires, thus contributing to environment protection.  The solution was designed by the team of Biosense Institute from Novi Sad.  

“Citizens can now use their mobile phones to send pictures of fires and their locations. Data on fires are available on an interactive map on the portal with an additional function of monitoring air quality in Serbia. Also, statistics on fires from 2015 onwards can be downloaded from the portal free of charge”, explained Gordan Mimić, research associate at the Biosense Institute.  

The data collected on the portal will provide easier access to information on the number and frequency of fires on agricultural land and a good basis for further analysis and understanding of these occurrences.  The portal will allow detection of agricultural areas with a higher frequency of fires, thus facilitating prevention and focus on municipalities most exposed to wildfires. Prevention of stubble burning will contribute to reducing pollution and improving air quality in Serbia.   

“The dim.rs portal was conceived by scientists at Biosense Institute, which has an exceptional cooperation with the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management. It will provide an excellent foundation and a concrete step towards curbing stubble burning and will be another link in the chain of activities already implemented towards training farmers. Nonetheless, in addition to these activities, it will be necessary to involve all the relevant institutions in order to solve this particular problem and implement more effectively the penal policy prescribed by law”, said Aleksandar Bogićević, assistant to the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management.  

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) supported the launch of dim.rs portal as one of 14 most innovative ideas for reducing pollution and improving air quality in Serbia, submitted for the “Clean Air Innovation Challenge” in March last year.  

“The work of dim.rs portal continues the work done during the Do Not Burn the Stubble campaign on negative consequences of stubble burning implemented by UNDP together with the Ministry of Environmental Protection and the Hunting Association of Serbia, with the support of the Global Environment Facility (GEF).  We are proud of the fact that dim.rs is the result of cooperation between international organisations and scientific community and we believe it will serve as inspiration to other scientific institutions, public and private companies and individuals to present their own ideas for environmental protection in Serbia”, said Žarko Petrović, Team Leader for Resilient Development at UNDP Serbia.   

“Every time you burn stubble, it has an impact on the environment.  I want to remind you of 2018 when a wildfire spread from agricultural land to the Special Nature Reserve “Stari Begej-Carska Bara” and threatened to destroy both the flora and the fauna of this protected area. We hope that education, concrete solutions such as the dim.rs portal and more efficient sanctions against perpetrators will help reduce this harmful activity to a minimum”, said Marina Jovanović, advisor to the Minister of Environmental Protection.   

Stubble burning is extremely harmful to the whole agriculture sector. High temperatures generated by fire destroy useful micro-organisms in top layer of the soil, reduce humus content and remove nitrogen from the soil, thus permanently reducing the soil fertility. Fires have a tendency to spread and can easily become wildfires destroying entire ecosystems, devastating protected areas and represent a risk to people’s lives, their health and property. Furthermore, stubble burning pollutes the air and emits carbon dioxide, one of the main reasons behind global warming and climate change.