KATUN

rin mountain resources, by combining the traditional agriculture with boosting tourism activities and protecting the cultural heritage of katuns – the uniqueness of Montenegro. KATUN is an innovative research project proposed by interdisciplinary team, offering a new approach to economic development of the Montenegrin mountain resources. For the purpose of this project, two distinct areas with recognizable type of katuns were chosen: Kuči Mountains and wider Durmitor area. These two areas are characterized by their social aspect (richness in cultural-historical heritage, architecture, etc.) and resources available for agricultural production and certain positive trends in development of agriculture (sheep and cattle rearing and production of specific dairy products).The KATUN consortium brings on interdisciplinary research team:

University of Montenegro:
- Faculty of Biotechnology as the leading partner; http://www.btf.ucg.ac.me
- Historical Institute of Montenegro, http://www.iicg.ucg.ac.me/ and
- Faculty of Tourism and Hotel management http://fthkotor.me/;
International RTD entities:
- University of Ljubljana, Biotechnical Faculty (Slovenia) www.bf.uni-lj.si
- Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (Sweden), Department of Forest Mycology and Plant Pathology htpp.//www. slu.se/mycopat.se
- Istituto per le technologie aplicate ai beni culturali, Consiglio nazionale delle richerche (Italy) http://www.itabc.cnr.it
- University of Basilicata (Italy) http://portale.unibas.it
National commercial entities - SMEs
- HM Durmitor, Žabljak http://www.hmdurmitor.com/
- The Old House, Podgorica http://www.starakuca.me/

Objectives of KATUN project are:
- transfer knowledge and innovations to the agriculture and agro-tourism contributing to the development of a knowledge-based society;
- generate entrepreneurship in the specific multifunctional sector of Montenegrin agriculture (mountainous livestock production);
- achieve the new level of sustainable cultural heritage protection and its incorporation in modern agricultural and tourism tendencies;
- demonstrate interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary research approach by intensive collaborations of BTF, HIM and FTHM; and
- penetrate the ERA further in a sustainable manner, by longer-term collaboration with existing and new international RTD partners

The project activities will be focused on:
- Analyzing of current status of all aspects of the production activities at katuns, with identification of all weaknesses and opportunities;
- Knowledge transfer through different type of educations of producers (farmers and companies) with aim to improve production practices and technologies on the farms and to increase current production capacities;
- Investigation of quality parameters (chemical and hygiene quality) of traditional dairy products (Kučki cheese, Durmitor skorup, and law-fat cheese Prljo) for the purpose of protection their designation of origin (PDO);
- Implementation of new technologies of livestock rearing (suckling cows) and creation of new dairy products (different types of cheese);
- Education and support producers (companies and farmers) to establish producers associations, as well as for diversification of economic activities at katuns (agro-tourism, collection of non-wood forest products etc);
- Study of forest and biodiversty, medical herbs and fungi; Valorization of the main non-wood forest products - primarily wild edible mushroom, berries, medical and aromatic herbs including arising of rural society awareness and knowledge about them.
- Inventory of the all live and abandoned katuns on the Mountains of Kuči, their classification, characterization and cadastre; analysis of their origin, historical-social background, as well as the estimation of their cultural-historical value;
- Development of different tourism activities at the katuns; active holiday through participation tourist in all the farm activities and active sports – mountaineering, climbing, mountain biking and caving. An idea behind this project is not, nor can it be, to “turn back time”, bringing the katuns to the very centre of contemporary life of people living at its foothills. Starting from their richness in biodiversity and tourism potentials, as well as the importance of its historical and cultural heritage, this is a perfect case study for integrative approach to sustainable development of Montenegrin mountain areas.