The otter (Lutra lutra) is a "strictly protected" species in Macedonia - that's the legal status. On the ground, the numbers are dropping. The Macedonian Ecological Society (MED) says the population is declining due to destroyed habitats, polluted water, small hydropower plants and illegal hunting.

Where are the otters? Most often on the large rivers, lakes and along the shores of Prespa. They feed on fish (primarily), but also take small mammals, birds, amphibians, crayfish, snails, snakes, insects. It's a networked predator - when the otter loses the ecosystem, whole stretches of the biosystem suffer at once.

Protection is officially "strict." In practice - a small hydropower plant gets built, fish stocks shrink, water gets polluted. How do you hold the living world accountable for the state of patchwork law? MED responds with continuous monitoring under the project "Green and Blue Prespa Initiative", with EU funding and a partnership between Macedonian, Greek and Albanian ecological organisations.

But monitoring isn't protection. It's documentation. And while otter cubs lose their homes, here in the Balkans we carry on with the same strategy - we write reports, host conferences, sign declarations. The otter has no political clout. That's its verdict too.