The publication of the Spelaeobiologica Bosniæ et Hercegovinæ Monograph Series is a contribution to the realization of one of the parallel objectives of the "Proteus Project"; namely, to generally inform and educate all sectors of civic society in Bosnia & Hercegovina and within the "international community" about the strange, rare and endangered lifeforms occupying the karst underground of Eastern Hercegovina. As such, this is the first in a proposed Series of Monographs, each of which is to be dedicated to the description and evaluation of a specific Proteus anguinus Habitat Location or a specific karst conduit-aquifer ecosystem containing Proteus anguinus, ocurring only within the range of the "Proteus Project's" geographical area in BiH Eastern Hercegovina, which, for its greater part, may be delineated by the present coincident surface catchment and drainage areas of the River Trebišnjica or its palaeo-catchment and drainage areas.

The publication of the Monographs was not intended to begin until well into the second ten-year phase (2011-2021) of the thirty-year Project. However, local developments in Trebinje during 2009 depicted that the proposed publishing programme should be brought forward with the urgent production of Monograph No. 1.
It must be said that, if given the choice, we would never have chosen the location which we have selected to be the subject of the first Monograph, to be the subject of any published Monograph. The decision was made for us by the occurrence of unfortunate local circumstances, external to the Project. It must also be said that funding was not in place at this time to support a full print-run of any Monograph and that, in the present economic climate, the publication dates of future Monographs in this proposed Series is currently uncertain.

To publish an equivalent to the "Proteus Project's" Primary Document 7.2. "The Proteus anguinus anguinus Habitat Locations in Eastern Hercegovina ...", which currently provides site-specific details in an unpublished and incomplete tome of about 337 pages in A4 format, is not only impractical but for reasons of species-protection is also unwise. So, whilst it is not intended to produce an individual Monograph for all known Proteus anguinus Habitat Locations or for their associated karst conduit-aquifer ecosystems in Eastern Hercegovina, a case has been made for a selection of the less vulnerable locations to be included and individually detailed in the Monograph Series.
The "Proteus Project" operates within both political entities in Eastern Hercegovina and it is to the appropriate Government representatives in Sarajevo and Banja Luka, that copies of this first Monograph will be personally handed, thus achieving a further objective of the "Proteus Project", whereby we attempt to raise our concerns about the endangered endemic hypogean species direct to those at the highest level of Government who have the power to rectify the situation; whether they have the responsibility and will-power to do so, remains to be seen.

The Monographs will contain information which has already been archived in the "Proteus Project's" unpublished internal-use "Blue Files" series of sub-Project Reports, which provide a more holistic approach in the multidisciplinary description of each Proteus anguinus Habitat Location than does the aforementioned Primary Document 7.2. The standard generic presentational layout and informational format of the "Blue Files" has also been transferred to the Monographs. Each Monograph will be a "stand-alone" document in the Series and where appropriate, will be accompanied by one or more CD-Rs or DVD-Rs to provide subsidiary digital information such as photographs and videographs in support of the printed document. In the case of the present Monograph No. 1., it was originally planned to have an accompanying DVD insert, but it has now been decided to produce and sell this separately as an Annex.
The extensive speleobiological content is derived from observations and recordings made by the "Proteus Project's" Hungarian cave diving & technical support group, "Caudata Hungarian Cave Research", who are based in Budapest.

It has been suggested that the "Proteus Project's" results could have been published in existing scientific journals. This approach has been rejected by us for two reasons; firstly, by doing this, we would lose editorial control and secondly, the "Proteus Project" itself would be deprived of a potential and much needed source of income to support further essential research and fieldwork.
Therefore, in regard to the latter point, the Monographs must be produced on a commercial basis and sold at a reasonable profit to generate useful levels of research funds. Indeed, unlike the "Proteus Project" promotional products such as posters and postcards currently being produced and sold to raise funds only part of which will be re-directed back into the Project, all income derived from the sale of the Monographs will be re-directed back into the "Proteus Project".
For the reasons stated above, the first Monograph in the proposed Series has higher production costs than we would have liked, due to the relatively small print-run. These costs are, of course, reflected in the retail selling price but have been somewhat meliorated by the reduction of our profit margin. As a consequence, Monograph No. 1. will be a retail experiment, whilst the production of future publications will be based on our experience of the first in the Series. At present, the Monographs currently
carry no commercial advertisements.

To match significant future developments in the ongoing field research programme, the production of published Annexes to further accompany each published Monograph, is now being considered as a viable option.

Return to "Proteus Project" Webpage 1.