Metal Detecting Laws in Bosnia and Herzegovina

A countrywide right to keep archaeological finds, treasure, or ordinary lost property could not be confirmed.

• The Federation’s 2013 property-law text treats lost things and treasure separately; that text does not establish a rule for the whole country.
• Coverage includes the national framework, Republika Srpska, Brčko District, the Federation and all ten cantons. This is incomplete legal-currentness coverage: ordinary detecting and several special regimes remain unresolved. Regional statements apply only to the territory named.
• In the Federation, Real Rights Law 120–125 distinguishes lost objects, later possession and treasure. The captured own-law cantons separately allocate heritage finds: Tuzla generally to the local unit subject to a court ownership claim, Sarajevo and Herzegovina-Neretva to the canton, Zenica-Doboj to canton/museums with delivery into nearest-museum ownership, and West Herzegovina to the canton for presumed heritage recovered from earth/water. HNK’s Article 1 exception for specified national-monument/UNESCO aspects remains separate. These are territorial rules, not a nationwide finder-title rule.
• Within the Federation only, Zakon o zaštiti prirode (Nature Protection Law), 66/13, as amended by Zakon o izmjenama i dopunama Zakona o zaštiti prirode (Law Amending and Supplementing the Nature Protection Law), 10/25, separates natural finds from ordinary lost objects and archaeological finds. Amended Article 125 declares minerals, tufa (sedra), fossils and cave formations (sigovine) state-owned; this is the amended wording, not the former statement of Federation ownership. The Article 8 mineral definition excludes mineral raw materials. Article 125 prohibits destruction of these natural objects and damage to their deposits. Its exception requires Federal Ministry permission for active conservation and/or revitalization without which essential area characteristics would change and/or flooding or another natural disaster could occur, or where the Federation’s interest or a clearly expressed public interest applies, with a technical study adopted by the ministry.
• For those natural objects, Articles 126–128 distinguish protected values and sites, in-place preservation and protective custody from ownership. Taking protected objects or objects at a protected deposit is prohibited, except that the Federal Ministry may permit taking for scientific or professional research, education or exhibitions. Protective custody is not finder ownership. Amended Article 131 separately requires a Federal Ministry permit for taking or exploiting these objects from nature for placing on the market, based on an expert study during preliminary environmental-impact assessment and before urban-planning consent/location information; the ministry must find that taking will not significantly endanger geodiversity in view of distribution and quantity. The permit specifies protection conditions, type and quantity, lasts at most one year, is handed to the buyer on sale, and requires trading records to be supplied to the ministry. This is not a general hobby-detecting permission. Later completeness and implementing procedures remain unverified.

Countrywide find-reporting recipients and deadlines could not be confirmed.

• The Federation’s 2013 property-law text includes separate provisions on returning lost things and reporting treasure; a nationwide reporting procedure has not been established.
• Coverage includes the national framework, Republika Srpska, Brčko District, the Federation and all ten cantons. This is incomplete legal-currentness coverage: ordinary detecting and several special regimes remain unresolved. Regional statements apply only to the territory named.
• Federation property rules require prompt return or authority delivery of ordinary lost objects, with a negligible-value exception only to authority delivery, and prompt treasure notice. Special heritage duties differ: Tuzla has a 24-hour finder report; Sarajevo’s amended handover recipient is the Museum of Sarajevo; Zenica-Doboj’s five-day amendment concerns agency onward notice, while found heritage goes to the nearest museum. Other regional procedures and unresolved special-law gaps are stated in the territorial rows.
• Within the Federation only, Nature Protection Law 66/13, read with amendment 10/25, also governs specified natural discoveries. Under amended Article 129(1), the finder of minerals, tufa or fossils that could constitute a protected natural value under Article 126 must report to the Federal Ministry within eight days of discovery and take necessary measures against destruction, damage or theft. Unless the ministry determines otherwise, the finder must not conduct activities at the findspot that could destroy or damage the find, apart from protection measures. The ministry decides on deposit research within 30 days of the report after obtaining the Federal Institute’s opinion; its research decision includes protection measures. Landowners and persons carrying out the activity in which the find arose must allow research under the ministry’s decision; research is carried out by an authorized person under a Federal Ministry permit. The eight-day wording names minerals, tufa and fossils; it is not stated here as a deadline for every ordinary object or cave formation.
• Discovery of any speleological feature or part must be reported to both the Federal Ministry and the cantonal ministry within fifteen days under Article 44(6). The notice must include its location and description under new Article 44a(2). Amended 44(7) requires a Federal Ministry decision within ninety days of the discovery report, with safeguarding measures and protection conditions, based on the opinion of the Federal Institute, a cantonal nature-protection institute or an expert commission formed by the competent ministry, with a recommendation for further action. Article 44(8) provides that if the ministries issue no decision within that period, research and protection are deemed unnecessary and the person may continue works or interventions under special legislation. That provision is separate from the following works-discovery procedure; it is not treated as an ordinary detector permission.
• If a speleological feature is discovered during construction or other works on or below the ground, on land, in water or at sea, new Article 44a requires the person doing the work to stop at the discovery location and notify the competent ministry and the local-government unit without delay in writing, including location and description. The competent ministry appoints a commission for urgent research and an expert finding within twenty days of receiving that notice, at the investor’s expense. Within ten days after that finding it either permits continuation with safeguarding/protection measures or temporarily stops the works. Following a temporary stop, a commission performs detailed research and an expert finding within thirty days of that decision, at the investor’s expense; within fifteen days after this finding the ministry permits continuation by lifting the temporary stop or permanently stops the works. These are natural-feature procedures, distinct from lost-property and archaeological reporting. No assumption is made that a deadline overrides this decision process; complete later amendments and implementation remain unverified.

Bosnian-Podrinje Canton: national-monument detecting and recovery need specific confirmation.

• Scope: Bosnian-Podrinje Canton only.
• Federation national-monument protection is governed by individual Commission decisions and the implementation framework. Uredba o obavljanju prethodnih radova istražnog karaktera na nacionalnim spomenicima (National Monuments Preliminary Investigative Works Regulation), 36/08 with 20/26, applies to monuments within the Federation; it is a research/conservation workflow, not general hobby permission.
• Article 3 requires prior Federal Spatial Planning Ministry consent for covered investigative works. The 2026 amendment replaces Article 4(3)’s ownership-or-consent document with a land-register extract no older than 30 days. Staff, plan, heritage opinion, funding, supervision and start-notification duties remain separate.
• The Commission’s individual decision, exact protected boundary and proposed recovery method require confirmation. Cantonal heritage approval does not by itself settle the federal monument requirements.

Bosnian-Podrinje Canton: recreational shore detecting and recovery remain unresolved.

• Scope: Bosnian-Podrinje Canton only.
• This row covers inland shores and bathing areas in this canton; no marine-coast rule is assigned to it.
• Zakon o vodama (Water Law), 70/06, and the official cantonal water-law index distinguish water administration and use from other legal controls. Public enjoyment or bathing access does not settle detecting, digging, heritage approval or ownership. Complete current water/shore instruments and recovery permissions were not captured.

Bosnian-Podrinje Canton: forest access and target recovery need current territorial confirmation.

• Scope: Bosnian-Podrinje Canton only.
• The federal ministry’s 2023 forest report with 2024 plans describes the former federal forest law ceasing in 2009 and nine cantons adopting forestry rules. That historical report and the current ministry index are source-map evidence, not a current visitor code or proof that forests lack restrictions.
• The complete current forest law, management restrictions and detector/recovery permissions for this scope were not obtained. Recreational entry, where available, does not itself authorize soil disturbance or retention of a find. Heritage, protected-area, land-right and closure controls must be checked separately.

Bosnian-Podrinje Canton: protected-area detecting requires the applicable designation and management rules.

• Scope: Bosnian-Podrinje Canton only.
• Zakon o zaštiti prirode (Nature Protection Law), 66/13, is read with Zakon o izmjenama i dopunama Zakona o zaštiti prirode (Law Amending and Supplementing the Nature Protection Law), 10/25. Under Article 159, interventions and activities must not damage the protected value or alter the characteristics for which it is protected. As amended by Article 51 of 10/25, the Federal Ministry issues permits for categories Ia, Ib and II; the cantonal ministry issues permits for categories III–VI and may issue procedural guidelines. Permits are issued by decision, contain nature-protection conditions and are subject to appeal to the competent ministry. Activities under forestry, hunting, fishing, water-management and mining plans must both comply with protected-area goals, protection measures and management plans and have competent-ministry consent.
• Article 144, as amended by Article 38 of 10/25, retains federal parliamentary designation by law for categories I and II. Categories III–VI may be designated by cantonal assembly law or cantonal-government decision; those spanning two or more cantons require federal law with the cantonal assemblies’ consent. A city or municipal council may designate those categories within one city or municipality with competent-ministry consent. Under amended Article 145, a separate federal-government or cantonal-assembly decision may establish an outside buffer zone and protection measures on the relevant ministry’s proposal. Designation and buffer instruments therefore matter as well as the area boundary.
• Under Article 151, as amended by Article 43 of 10/25, the federal government establishes public enterprises for category I–II management, while cantonal assemblies establish public institutions for other protected areas and values; forming new enterprises or institutions still requires the prior decision of the Federal Parliament or cantonal assembly stated in Article 151. This public-manager regime excludes protected wild species/subspecies, native species/subspecies, minerals, tufa, fossils and cave formations. Management of categories IIIa, IIIb, IV, V and VI may also be entrusted to public institutions or enterprises founded by a city or municipal council. Amended Articles 154–156 distinguish spatial plans, ten-year management plans and annual programs. Article 155 adds municipal heads or city mayors to the management-plan adoption authorities and local nature-protection administrative services to the proposing authorities; a new plan is due at least 30 days before the existing plan expires. Legal and natural persons conducting activities must comply with the plan. The manager’s competent body adopts its annual program with federal-ministry consent, or cantonal-ministry consent where it concerns the canton.
• Article 49 of 10/25 deletes the former Article 158(1)–(2) provisions about internal-order rules; they are not presented here as an unchanged current requirement. The remaining Article 158 supervision provisions and new Articles 158a–158c concern nature-protection supervisors. Deletion alone does not establish that every existing local rule has ceased to apply. Article 241 still provides for temporary management guidelines before a management plan, with federal and competent cantonal ministries’ consent and without public inspection, but new 241(2) bars further temporary guidelines after ten years of implementation of the management plan referred to in 241(1). Article 247 retains older 33/03 implementing rules only insofar as consistent and pending replacement; repeal of the old statute does not create a visitor exemption.
• Article 160 allows visits only in ways that do not endanger protected values or protection, under equal conditions consistent with the law and its implementing rules; visits may be restricted or prohibited where conservation would be endangered. Visiting access is not a detector or recovery permit. The captured 10/25 amendment was published February 12, 2025 and states eighth-day commencement. Complete later amendments, individual-area instruments, current management plans and cantonal/local implementation were not established by this evidence set.

Bosnian-Podrinje Canton: landowner agreement alone does not establish detecting permission.

• Scope: Bosnian-Podrinje Canton only.
• Arrange lawful entry with the rights-holder; private ownership does not remove applicable heritage, monument, forest or nature controls. The Federation property law makes ownership subject to legal limits. An agreement about access does not itself award title to finds.
• The historical residual-law lead is Zakon o zaštiti i korištenju kulturno-historijskog i prirodnog naslijeđa (Cultural, Historical and Natural Heritage Protection and Use Law), 20/85 with later amendments/takeover instruments. Constitutional continuity is conditional, and the 2026 federal ministry process map does not resolve this canton’s complete present law. The attempted cantonal environment-plan retrieval failed with an HTTP 2 stream error; no legal conclusion is drawn from that missing body. No neighboring canton’s permit, ownership or reporting rule is imported here.
• The complete rule for non-archaeological modern-loss detecting and target recovery on private land remains unresolved.

Bosnian-Podrinje Canton: finding an object does not establish unrestricted ownership.

• Scope: Bosnian-Podrinje Canton only.
• Zakon o stvarnim pravima (Real Rights Law), 66/13 with 100/13, Articles 120–125 distinguishes ordinary lost objects from long-hidden treasure. Losing an object does not abandon ownership. Under 124, one year after the public notice an unclaimed/unproven or refused find can pass to the finder’s immediate possession; this is not immediate ownership, and a later rightful claimant can require its return subject to costs and reward.
• Treasure under 125 means valuables hidden so long that the owner cannot be identified. If genuinely ownerless it belongs to the local government unit; prompt notice and protection are required. Finder and landowner rewards/costs, concealment disqualification, the building-right holder’s analogous position, and the authority’s option to relinquish it into joint independent possession are separate from unconditional finder title. Special heritage allocation remains separate.
• The captured 2013 amendment changes timing language in 370–372, not 120–125. The 2026 government item reports a further proposal, not a verified enactment. Complete subsequent court-decision/amendment effects and every category of find remain unresolved.
• The historical residual-law lead is Zakon o zaštiti i korištenju kulturno-historijskog i prirodnog naslijeđa (Cultural, Historical and Natural Heritage Protection and Use Law), 20/85 with later amendments/takeover instruments. Constitutional continuity is conditional, and the 2026 federal ministry process map does not resolve this canton’s complete present law. The attempted cantonal environment-plan retrieval failed with an HTTP 2 stream error; no legal conclusion is drawn from that missing body. No neighboring canton’s permit, ownership or reporting rule is imported here.
• Within the Federation only, Zakon o zaštiti prirode (Nature Protection Law), 66/13, as amended by Zakon o izmjenama i dopunama Zakona o zaštiti prirode (Law Amending and Supplementing the Nature Protection Law), 10/25, separates natural finds from ordinary lost objects and archaeological finds. Amended Article 125 declares minerals, tufa (sedra), fossils and cave formations (sigovine) state-owned; this is the amended wording, not the former statement of Federation ownership. The Article 8 mineral definition excludes mineral raw materials. Article 125 prohibits destruction of these natural objects and damage to their deposits. Its exception requires Federal Ministry permission for active conservation and/or revitalization without which essential area characteristics would change and/or flooding or another natural disaster could occur, or where the Federation’s interest or a clearly expressed public interest applies, with a technical study adopted by the ministry.
• For those natural objects, Articles 126–128 distinguish protected values and sites, in-place preservation and protective custody from ownership. Taking protected objects or objects at a protected deposit is prohibited, except that the Federal Ministry may permit taking for scientific or professional research, education or exhibitions. Protective custody is not finder ownership. Amended Article 131 separately requires a Federal Ministry permit for taking or exploiting these objects from nature for placing on the market, based on an expert study during preliminary environmental-impact assessment and before urban-planning consent/location information; the ministry must find that taking will not significantly endanger geodiversity in view of distribution and quantity. The permit specifies protection conditions, type and quantity, lasts at most one year, is handed to the buyer on sale, and requires trading records to be supplied to the ministry. This is not a general hobby-detecting permission. Later completeness and implementing procedures remain unverified.

Bosnian-Podrinje Canton: promptly return or surrender ordinary lost property and report treasure.

• Scope: Bosnian-Podrinje Canton only.
• Real Rights Law 120(1) requires return without delay to the identifiable person who lost the thing or its owner. If not returned, 120(2) requires delivery without delay to the nearest police station or another competent authority, directly or through the person in whose premises or vehicle it was found. Only authority delivery has the generally negligible-value exception.
• Article 125(3) requires notice of treasure to the competent state authority without delay and necessary protection pending handover. These ordinary-property provisions do not authorize disturbing archaeological material or displace special heritage duties. No single Federation-wide hobby reporting form was verified.
• The complete present special archaeological/heritage reporting recipient, deadline and custody scheme was not established for this entire territorial scope. The historical 1985 text and conditional continuity are not presented as a complete current procedure.
• Basis: captured Federation 66/13 and 100/13 provisions; complete later court-decision/currentness record and special procedures are not certified.
• Within the Federation only, Nature Protection Law 66/13, read with amendment 10/25, also governs specified natural discoveries. Under amended Article 129(1), the finder of minerals, tufa or fossils that could constitute a protected natural value under Article 126 must report to the Federal Ministry within eight days of discovery and take necessary measures against destruction, damage or theft. Unless the ministry determines otherwise, the finder must not conduct activities at the findspot that could destroy or damage the find, apart from protection measures. The ministry decides on deposit research within 30 days of the report after obtaining the Federal Institute’s opinion; its research decision includes protection measures. Landowners and persons carrying out the activity in which the find arose must allow research under the ministry’s decision; research is carried out by an authorized person under a Federal Ministry permit. The eight-day wording names minerals, tufa and fossils; it is not stated here as a deadline for every ordinary object or cave formation.
• Discovery of any speleological feature or part must be reported to both the Federal Ministry and the cantonal ministry within fifteen days under Article 44(6). The notice must include its location and description under new Article 44a(2). Amended 44(7) requires a Federal Ministry decision within ninety days of the discovery report, with safeguarding measures and protection conditions, based on the opinion of the Federal Institute, a cantonal nature-protection institute or an expert commission formed by the competent ministry, with a recommendation for further action. Article 44(8) provides that if the ministries issue no decision within that period, research and protection are deemed unnecessary and the person may continue works or interventions under special legislation. That provision is separate from the following works-discovery procedure; it is not treated as an ordinary detector permission.
• If a speleological feature is discovered during construction or other works on or below the ground, on land, in water or at sea, new Article 44a requires the person doing the work to stop at the discovery location and notify the competent ministry and the local-government unit without delay in writing, including location and description. The competent ministry appoints a commission for urgent research and an expert finding within twenty days of receiving that notice, at the investor’s expense. Within ten days after that finding it either permits continuation with safeguarding/protection measures or temporarily stops the works. Following a temporary stop, a commission performs detailed research and an expert finding within thirty days of that decision, at the investor’s expense; within fifteen days after this finding the ministry permits continuation by lifting the temporary stop or permanently stops the works. These are natural-feature procedures, distinct from lost-property and archaeological reporting. No assumption is made that a deadline overrides this decision process; complete later amendments and implementation remain unverified.

Brčko District: national-monument detecting and recovery need specific authority confirmation.

• Scope: Brčko District only. Entity rules from Republika Srpska or the Federation are not substituted for an unverified district rule.
• Zakon o implementaciji odluke Komisije za zaštitu nacionalnih spomenika iz Aneksa 8 (Annex 8 National Monuments Commission Decision Implementation Law), 2/02 and 19/07, must be read with 3/21. The 2021 amendment replacesArticle 6: competent Government departments issue location conditions, approvals and permits under spatial-planning/construction law and this law. It deletes oldArticle 7; the older integral copy’s 30-day issue provision must not be treated as current.
• National-monument protection measures are set in the Commission’s individual decision. The 2021 amendment applies its rules to pending procedures and enters into force on the eighth day after publication. Neither rehabilitation approval nor public access is a hobby-detecting license.
• Criminal Code 315 protects monuments from damage; 316(1) addresses unapproved/prohibited archaeological work with its specified resulting-harm predicate. Complete site-specific detecting and recovery permission was not established.

Brčko District: shore and bathing-area detecting remains unresolved.

• Scope: Brčko District only. Entity rules from Republika Srpska or the Federation are not substituted for an unverified district rule.
• This row concerns shores and bathing areas within the district. No generally applicable recreational shore-detecting or target-recovery authorization was captured, and no marine-coast rule is invented.
• Public enjoyment of a place does not settle property rights, heritage controls or protected-area measures. The complete applicable water/shore and manager rules require confirmation.

Brčko District: recreational forest access does not establish recovery permission.

• Scope: Brčko District only. Entity rules from Republika Srpska or the Federation are not substituted for an unverified district rule.
• Zakon o šumama Brčko distrikta Bosne i Hercegovine (Brčko District Forest Law), 14/10, Article 18 allows recreational movement unless this or another law provides otherwise. Department or private-forest-owner approval is needed for listed activities and restricted areas, including gathering forest products and entering enclosed, logging or regeneration areas.
• Article 55(1)(d) identifies forest damage including digging, destruction or removal of humus, peat, sand, soil, gravel and stone; Article 55(3) requires compensation for forest damage. This is not an express authorization for detector recovery, and its application to every small recovery hole was not established.
• Amendment 26/16 changes the forest-function fee inArticle 30(1), not these quoted access provisions. Current management plans, closure directions and detector/recovery permissions were not obtained.

Brčko District: protected-area detecting needs the applicable designation and plan.

• Scope: Brčko District only. Entity rules from Republika Srpska or the Federation are not substituted for an unverified district rule.
• Zakon o zaštiti prirode (Nature Protection Law), 16/24 consolidated text, Articles 33–36 distinguishes designations, management plans and restrictions. Article 36 puts prohibitions and limits in the designation law; the Government may approve exceptions on the competent department’s proposal if management goals are not adversely affected.
• That exception power is not a standard recreational detecting permit or proof that all protected areas permit target recovery. Complete individual designations, visitor rules and plans were not captured. Heritage and private-property restrictions remain separate.

Brčko District: private-land agreement is not a complete detecting authorization.

• Scope: Brčko District only. Entity rules from Republika Srpska or the Federation are not substituted for an unverified district rule.
• Property Law 16 gives the owner use and disposal rights within legal limits; Articles 18–19 preserve statutory restrictions. Arrange lawful access with the rights-holder, but do not infer archaeological permission or find ownership from that agreement.
• The complete modern-loss and archaeological-search rules on private land were not established. Forest, protected-area and national-monument measures can remain relevant regardless of ownership.

Brčko District: abandoned property is distinct from lost property or treasure.

• Scope: Brčko District only. Entity rules from Republika Srpska or the Federation are not substituted for an unverified district rule.
• Zakon o vlasništvu i drugim stvarnim pravima (Ownership and Other Real Rights Law), 2024 consolidated text, Article 33 allows appropriation of a movable object abandoned by its owner unless another law provides otherwise. Article 50(2) requires the owner’s unambiguous, freely expressed intent to give up ownership; losing or burying an object is not proof of abandonment.
• The Criminal Code 284(5) penalizes unlawful retention of another person’s found or accidentally acquired movable property for gain. Article 284(6) permits relief from punishment in specified cases when returned before the offender learns of detection; this does not award title.
• The complete current allocation of treasure and archaeological finds and the later-acquisition procedure for unclaimed lost objects were not established. RS treasure and archaeological ownership rules are not applied to Brčko.

Brčko District: general find-reporting recipients and deadlines remain unresolved.

• Scope: Brčko District only. Entity rules from Republika Srpska or the Federation are not substituted for an unverified district rule.
• The property law distinguishes abandoned objects and protects the owner’s rights. Criminal Code 284(5) penalizes unlawful retention for gain of another person’s found property. Neither captured provision supplies a complete ordinary-find or archaeological-find notification deadline and recipient.
• The police legal index is discovery material, not a reporting instruction. No RS reporting duty or deadline is imported into the district.

Canton 10: national-monument detecting and recovery need specific confirmation.

• Scope: Canton 10 only.
• Federation national-monument protection is governed by individual Commission decisions and the implementation framework. Uredba o obavljanju prethodnih radova istražnog karaktera na nacionalnim spomenicima (National Monuments Preliminary Investigative Works Regulation), 36/08 with 20/26, applies to monuments within the Federation; it is a research/conservation workflow, not general hobby permission.
• Article 3 requires prior Federal Spatial Planning Ministry consent for covered investigative works. The 2026 amendment replaces Article 4(3)’s ownership-or-consent document with a land-register extract no older than 30 days. Staff, plan, heritage opinion, funding, supervision and start-notification duties remain separate.
• The Commission’s individual decision, exact protected boundary and proposed recovery method require confirmation. Cantonal heritage approval does not by itself settle the federal monument requirements.

Canton 10: recreational shore detecting and recovery remain unresolved.

• Scope: Canton 10 only.
• This row covers inland shores and bathing areas in this canton; no marine-coast rule is assigned to it.
• Zakon o vodama (Water Law), 70/06, and the official cantonal water-law index distinguish water administration and use from other legal controls. Public enjoyment or bathing access does not settle detecting, digging, heritage approval or ownership. Complete current water/shore instruments and recovery permissions were not captured.

Canton 10: forest access and target recovery need current territorial confirmation.

• Scope: Canton 10 only.
• The federal ministry’s 2023 forest report with 2024 plans describes the former federal forest law ceasing in 2009 and nine cantons adopting forestry rules. That historical report and the current ministry index are source-map evidence, not a current visitor code or proof that forests lack restrictions.
• The complete current forest law, management restrictions and detector/recovery permissions for this scope were not obtained. Recreational entry, where available, does not itself authorize soil disturbance or retention of a find. Heritage, protected-area, land-right and closure controls must be checked separately.

Canton 10: protected-area detecting requires the applicable designation and management rules.

• Scope: Canton 10 only.
• Zakon o zaštiti prirode (Nature Protection Law), 66/13, is read with Zakon o izmjenama i dopunama Zakona o zaštiti prirode (Law Amending and Supplementing the Nature Protection Law), 10/25. Under Article 159, interventions and activities must not damage the protected value or alter the characteristics for which it is protected. As amended by Article 51 of 10/25, the Federal Ministry issues permits for categories Ia, Ib and II; the cantonal ministry issues permits for categories III–VI and may issue procedural guidelines. Permits are issued by decision, contain nature-protection conditions and are subject to appeal to the competent ministry. Activities under forestry, hunting, fishing, water-management and mining plans must both comply with protected-area goals, protection measures and management plans and have competent-ministry consent.
• Article 144, as amended by Article 38 of 10/25, retains federal parliamentary designation by law for categories I and II. Categories III–VI may be designated by cantonal assembly law or cantonal-government decision; those spanning two or more cantons require federal law with the cantonal assemblies’ consent. A city or municipal council may designate those categories within one city or municipality with competent-ministry consent. Under amended Article 145, a separate federal-government or cantonal-assembly decision may establish an outside buffer zone and protection measures on the relevant ministry’s proposal. Designation and buffer instruments therefore matter as well as the area boundary.
• Under Article 151, as amended by Article 43 of 10/25, the federal government establishes public enterprises for category I–II management, while cantonal assemblies establish public institutions for other protected areas and values; forming new enterprises or institutions still requires the prior decision of the Federal Parliament or cantonal assembly stated in Article 151. This public-manager regime excludes protected wild species/subspecies, native species/subspecies, minerals, tufa, fossils and cave formations. Management of categories IIIa, IIIb, IV, V and VI may also be entrusted to public institutions or enterprises founded by a city or municipal council. Amended Articles 154–156 distinguish spatial plans, ten-year management plans and annual programs. Article 155 adds municipal heads or city mayors to the management-plan adoption authorities and local nature-protection administrative services to the proposing authorities; a new plan is due at least 30 days before the existing plan expires. Legal and natural persons conducting activities must comply with the plan. The manager’s competent body adopts its annual program with federal-ministry consent, or cantonal-ministry consent where it concerns the canton.
• Article 49 of 10/25 deletes the former Article 158(1)–(2) provisions about internal-order rules; they are not presented here as an unchanged current requirement. The remaining Article 158 supervision provisions and new Articles 158a–158c concern nature-protection supervisors. Deletion alone does not establish that every existing local rule has ceased to apply. Article 241 still provides for temporary management guidelines before a management plan, with federal and competent cantonal ministries’ consent and without public inspection, but new 241(2) bars further temporary guidelines after ten years of implementation of the management plan referred to in 241(1). Article 247 retains older 33/03 implementing rules only insofar as consistent and pending replacement; repeal of the old statute does not create a visitor exemption.
• Article 160 allows visits only in ways that do not endanger protected values or protection, under equal conditions consistent with the law and its implementing rules; visits may be restricted or prohibited where conservation would be endangered. Visiting access is not a detector or recovery permit. The captured 10/25 amendment was published February 12, 2025 and states eighth-day commencement. Complete later amendments, individual-area instruments, current management plans and cantonal/local implementation were not established by this evidence set.

Canton 10: landowner agreement alone does not establish detecting permission.

• Scope: Canton 10 only.
• Arrange lawful entry with the rights-holder; private ownership does not remove applicable heritage, monument, forest or nature controls. The Federation property law makes ownership subject to legal limits. An agreement about access does not itself award title to finds.
• The historical residual-law lead is Zakon o zaštiti i korištenju kulturno-historijskog i prirodnog naslijeđa (Cultural, Historical and Natural Heritage Protection and Use Law), 20/85 with later amendments/takeover instruments. Constitutional continuity is conditional, and the 2026 federal ministry process map does not resolve this canton’s complete present law. The official ministry index includes draft heritage legislation; draft status does not establish enactment or repeal. No neighboring canton’s permit, ownership or reporting rule is imported here.
• The complete rule for non-archaeological modern-loss detecting and target recovery on private land remains unresolved.

Canton 10: finding an object does not establish unrestricted ownership.

• Scope: Canton 10 only.
• Zakon o stvarnim pravima (Real Rights Law), 66/13 with 100/13, Articles 120–125 distinguishes ordinary lost objects from long-hidden treasure. Losing an object does not abandon ownership. Under 124, one year after the public notice an unclaimed/unproven or refused find can pass to the finder’s immediate possession; this is not immediate ownership, and a later rightful claimant can require its return subject to costs and reward.
• Treasure under 125 means valuables hidden so long that the owner cannot be identified. If genuinely ownerless it belongs to the local government unit; prompt notice and protection are required. Finder and landowner rewards/costs, concealment disqualification, the building-right holder’s analogous position, and the authority’s option to relinquish it into joint independent possession are separate from unconditional finder title. Special heritage allocation remains separate.
• The captured 2013 amendment changes timing language in 370–372, not 120–125. The 2026 government item reports a further proposal, not a verified enactment. Complete subsequent court-decision/amendment effects and every category of find remain unresolved.
• The historical residual-law lead is Zakon o zaštiti i korištenju kulturno-historijskog i prirodnog naslijeđa (Cultural, Historical and Natural Heritage Protection and Use Law), 20/85 with later amendments/takeover instruments. Constitutional continuity is conditional, and the 2026 federal ministry process map does not resolve this canton’s complete present law. The official ministry index includes draft heritage legislation; draft status does not establish enactment or repeal. No neighboring canton’s permit, ownership or reporting rule is imported here.
• Within the Federation only, Zakon o zaštiti prirode (Nature Protection Law), 66/13, as amended by Zakon o izmjenama i dopunama Zakona o zaštiti prirode (Law Amending and Supplementing the Nature Protection Law), 10/25, separates natural finds from ordinary lost objects and archaeological finds. Amended Article 125 declares minerals, tufa (sedra), fossils and cave formations (sigovine) state-owned; this is the amended wording, not the former statement of Federation ownership. The Article 8 mineral definition excludes mineral raw materials. Article 125 prohibits destruction of these natural objects and damage to their deposits. Its exception requires Federal Ministry permission for active conservation and/or revitalization without which essential area characteristics would change and/or flooding or another natural disaster could occur, or where the Federation’s interest or a clearly expressed public interest applies, with a technical study adopted by the ministry.
• For those natural objects, Articles 126–128 distinguish protected values and sites, in-place preservation and protective custody from ownership. Taking protected objects or objects at a protected deposit is prohibited, except that the Federal Ministry may permit taking for scientific or professional research, education or exhibitions. Protective custody is not finder ownership. Amended Article 131 separately requires a Federal Ministry permit for taking or exploiting these objects from nature for placing on the market, based on an expert study during preliminary environmental-impact assessment and before urban-planning consent/location information; the ministry must find that taking will not significantly endanger geodiversity in view of distribution and quantity. The permit specifies protection conditions, type and quantity, lasts at most one year, is handed to the buyer on sale, and requires trading records to be supplied to the ministry. This is not a general hobby-detecting permission. Later completeness and implementing procedures remain unverified.

Canton 10: promptly return or surrender ordinary lost property and report treasure.

• Scope: Canton 10 only.
• Real Rights Law 120(1) requires return without delay to the identifiable person who lost the thing or its owner. If not returned, 120(2) requires delivery without delay to the nearest police station or another competent authority, directly or through the person in whose premises or vehicle it was found. Only authority delivery has the generally negligible-value exception.
• Article 125(3) requires notice of treasure to the competent state authority without delay and necessary protection pending handover. These ordinary-property provisions do not authorize disturbing archaeological material or displace special heritage duties. No single Federation-wide hobby reporting form was verified.
• The complete present special archaeological/heritage reporting recipient, deadline and custody scheme was not established for this entire territorial scope. The historical 1985 text and conditional continuity are not presented as a complete current procedure.
• Basis: captured Federation 66/13 and 100/13 provisions; complete later court-decision/currentness record and special procedures are not certified.
• Within the Federation only, Nature Protection Law 66/13, read with amendment 10/25, also governs specified natural discoveries. Under amended Article 129(1), the finder of minerals, tufa or fossils that could constitute a protected natural value under Article 126 must report to the Federal Ministry within eight days of discovery and take necessary measures against destruction, damage or theft. Unless the ministry determines otherwise, the finder must not conduct activities at the findspot that could destroy or damage the find, apart from protection measures. The ministry decides on deposit research within 30 days of the report after obtaining the Federal Institute’s opinion; its research decision includes protection measures. Landowners and persons carrying out the activity in which the find arose must allow research under the ministry’s decision; research is carried out by an authorized person under a Federal Ministry permit. The eight-day wording names minerals, tufa and fossils; it is not stated here as a deadline for every ordinary object or cave formation.
• Discovery of any speleological feature or part must be reported to both the Federal Ministry and the cantonal ministry within fifteen days under Article 44(6). The notice must include its location and description under new Article 44a(2). Amended 44(7) requires a Federal Ministry decision within ninety days of the discovery report, with safeguarding measures and protection conditions, based on the opinion of the Federal Institute, a cantonal nature-protection institute or an expert commission formed by the competent ministry, with a recommendation for further action. Article 44(8) provides that if the ministries issue no decision within that period, research and protection are deemed unnecessary and the person may continue works or interventions under special legislation. That provision is separate from the following works-discovery procedure; it is not treated as an ordinary detector permission.
• If a speleological feature is discovered during construction or other works on or below the ground, on land, in water or at sea, new Article 44a requires the person doing the work to stop at the discovery location and notify the competent ministry and the local-government unit without delay in writing, including location and description. The competent ministry appoints a commission for urgent research and an expert finding within twenty days of receiving that notice, at the investor’s expense. Within ten days after that finding it either permits continuation with safeguarding/protection measures or temporarily stops the works. Following a temporary stop, a commission performs detailed research and an expert finding within thirty days of that decision, at the investor’s expense; within fifteen days after this finding the ministry permits continuation by lifting the temporary stop or permanently stops the works. These are natural-feature procedures, distinct from lost-property and archaeological reporting. No assumption is made that a deadline overrides this decision process; complete later amendments and implementation remain unverified.

Central Bosnia Canton: national-monument detecting and recovery need specific confirmation.

• Scope: Central Bosnia Canton only.
• Federation national-monument protection is governed by individual Commission decisions and the implementation framework. Uredba o obavljanju prethodnih radova istražnog karaktera na nacionalnim spomenicima (National Monuments Preliminary Investigative Works Regulation), 36/08 with 20/26, applies to monuments within the Federation; it is a research/conservation workflow, not general hobby permission.
• Article 3 requires prior Federal Spatial Planning Ministry consent for covered investigative works. The 2026 amendment replaces Article 4(3)’s ownership-or-consent document with a land-register extract no older than 30 days. Staff, plan, heritage opinion, funding, supervision and start-notification duties remain separate.
• The Commission’s individual decision, exact protected boundary and proposed recovery method require confirmation. Cantonal heritage approval does not by itself settle the federal monument requirements.

Central Bosnia Canton: recreational shore detecting and recovery remain unresolved.

• Scope: Central Bosnia Canton only.
• This row covers inland shores and bathing areas in this canton; no marine-coast rule is assigned to it.
• Zakon o vodama (Water Law), 70/06, and the official cantonal water-law index distinguish water administration and use from other legal controls. Public enjoyment or bathing access does not settle detecting, digging, heritage approval or ownership. Complete current water/shore instruments and recovery permissions were not captured.

Central Bosnia Canton: forest access and target recovery need current territorial confirmation.

• Scope: Central Bosnia Canton only.
• The federal ministry’s 2023 forest report with 2024 plans describes the former federal forest law ceasing in 2009 and nine cantons adopting forestry rules. That historical report and the current ministry index are source-map evidence, not a current visitor code or proof that forests lack restrictions.
• The complete current forest law, management restrictions and detector/recovery permissions for this scope were not obtained. Recreational entry, where available, does not itself authorize soil disturbance or retention of a find. Heritage, protected-area, land-right and closure controls must be checked separately.

Central Bosnia Canton: protected-area detecting requires the applicable designation and management rules.

• Scope: Central Bosnia Canton only.
• Zakon o zaštiti prirode (Nature Protection Law), 66/13, is read with Zakon o izmjenama i dopunama Zakona o zaštiti prirode (Law Amending and Supplementing the Nature Protection Law), 10/25. Under Article 159, interventions and activities must not damage the protected value or alter the characteristics for which it is protected. As amended by Article 51 of 10/25, the Federal Ministry issues permits for categories Ia, Ib and II; the cantonal ministry issues permits for categories III–VI and may issue procedural guidelines. Permits are issued by decision, contain nature-protection conditions and are subject to appeal to the competent ministry. Activities under forestry, hunting, fishing, water-management and mining plans must both comply with protected-area goals, protection measures and management plans and have competent-ministry consent.
• Article 144, as amended by Article 38 of 10/25, retains federal parliamentary designation by law for categories I and II. Categories III–VI may be designated by cantonal assembly law or cantonal-government decision; those spanning two or more cantons require federal law with the cantonal assemblies’ consent. A city or municipal council may designate those categories within one city or municipality with competent-ministry consent. Under amended Article 145, a separate federal-government or cantonal-assembly decision may establish an outside buffer zone and protection measures on the relevant ministry’s proposal. Designation and buffer instruments therefore matter as well as the area boundary.
• Under Article 151, as amended by Article 43 of 10/25, the federal government establishes public enterprises for category I–II management, while cantonal assemblies establish public institutions for other protected areas and values; forming new enterprises or institutions still requires the prior decision of the Federal Parliament or cantonal assembly stated in Article 151. This public-manager regime excludes protected wild species/subspecies, native species/subspecies, minerals, tufa, fossils and cave formations. Management of categories IIIa, IIIb, IV, V and VI may also be entrusted to public institutions or enterprises founded by a city or municipal council. Amended Articles 154–156 distinguish spatial plans, ten-year management plans and annual programs. Article 155 adds municipal heads or city mayors to the management-plan adoption authorities and local nature-protection administrative services to the proposing authorities; a new plan is due at least 30 days before the existing plan expires. Legal and natural persons conducting activities must comply with the plan. The manager’s competent body adopts its annual program with federal-ministry consent, or cantonal-ministry consent where it concerns the canton.
• Article 49 of 10/25 deletes the former Article 158(1)–(2) provisions about internal-order rules; they are not presented here as an unchanged current requirement. The remaining Article 158 supervision provisions and new Articles 158a–158c concern nature-protection supervisors. Deletion alone does not establish that every existing local rule has ceased to apply. Article 241 still provides for temporary management guidelines before a management plan, with federal and competent cantonal ministries’ consent and without public inspection, but new 241(2) bars further temporary guidelines after ten years of implementation of the management plan referred to in 241(1). Article 247 retains older 33/03 implementing rules only insofar as consistent and pending replacement; repeal of the old statute does not create a visitor exemption.
• Article 160 allows visits only in ways that do not endanger protected values or protection, under equal conditions consistent with the law and its implementing rules; visits may be restricted or prohibited where conservation would be endangered. Visiting access is not a detector or recovery permit. The captured 10/25 amendment was published February 12, 2025 and states eighth-day commencement. Complete later amendments, individual-area instruments, current management plans and cantonal/local implementation were not established by this evidence set.

Central Bosnia Canton: landowner agreement alone does not establish detecting permission.

• Scope: Central Bosnia Canton only.
• Arrange lawful entry with the rights-holder; private ownership does not remove applicable heritage, monument, forest or nature controls. The Federation property law makes ownership subject to legal limits. An agreement about access does not itself award title to finds.
• The historical residual-law lead is Zakon o zaštiti i korištenju kulturno-historijskog i prirodnog naslijeđa (Cultural, Historical and Natural Heritage Protection and Use Law), 20/85 with later amendments/takeover instruments. Constitutional continuity is conditional, and the 2026 federal ministry process map does not resolve this canton’s complete present law. A 2025 official meeting agenda concerns preparation of heritage legislation; it does not establish adoption. No neighboring canton’s permit, ownership or reporting rule is imported here.
• The complete rule for non-archaeological modern-loss detecting and target recovery on private land remains unresolved.

Central Bosnia Canton: finding an object does not establish unrestricted ownership.

• Scope: Central Bosnia Canton only.
• Zakon o stvarnim pravima (Real Rights Law), 66/13 with 100/13, Articles 120–125 distinguishes ordinary lost objects from long-hidden treasure. Losing an object does not abandon ownership. Under 124, one year after the public notice an unclaimed/unproven or refused find can pass to the finder’s immediate possession; this is not immediate ownership, and a later rightful claimant can require its return subject to costs and reward.
• Treasure under 125 means valuables hidden so long that the owner cannot be identified. If genuinely ownerless it belongs to the local government unit; prompt notice and protection are required. Finder and landowner rewards/costs, concealment disqualification, the building-right holder’s analogous position, and the authority’s option to relinquish it into joint independent possession are separate from unconditional finder title. Special heritage allocation remains separate.
• The captured 2013 amendment changes timing language in 370–372, not 120–125. The 2026 government item reports a further proposal, not a verified enactment. Complete subsequent court-decision/amendment effects and every category of find remain unresolved.
• The historical residual-law lead is Zakon o zaštiti i korištenju kulturno-historijskog i prirodnog naslijeđa (Cultural, Historical and Natural Heritage Protection and Use Law), 20/85 with later amendments/takeover instruments. Constitutional continuity is conditional, and the 2026 federal ministry process map does not resolve this canton’s complete present law. A 2025 official meeting agenda concerns preparation of heritage legislation; it does not establish adoption. No neighboring canton’s permit, ownership or reporting rule is imported here.
• Within the Federation only, Zakon o zaštiti prirode (Nature Protection Law), 66/13, as amended by Zakon o izmjenama i dopunama Zakona o zaštiti prirode (Law Amending and Supplementing the Nature Protection Law), 10/25, separates natural finds from ordinary lost objects and archaeological finds. Amended Article 125 declares minerals, tufa (sedra), fossils and cave formations (sigovine) state-owned; this is the amended wording, not the former statement of Federation ownership. The Article 8 mineral definition excludes mineral raw materials. Article 125 prohibits destruction of these natural objects and damage to their deposits. Its exception requires Federal Ministry permission for active conservation and/or revitalization without which essential area characteristics would change and/or flooding or another natural disaster could occur, or where the Federation’s interest or a clearly expressed public interest applies, with a technical study adopted by the ministry.
• For those natural objects, Articles 126–128 distinguish protected values and sites, in-place preservation and protective custody from ownership. Taking protected objects or objects at a protected deposit is prohibited, except that the Federal Ministry may permit taking for scientific or professional research, education or exhibitions. Protective custody is not finder ownership. Amended Article 131 separately requires a Federal Ministry permit for taking or exploiting these objects from nature for placing on the market, based on an expert study during preliminary environmental-impact assessment and before urban-planning consent/location information; the ministry must find that taking will not significantly endanger geodiversity in view of distribution and quantity. The permit specifies protection conditions, type and quantity, lasts at most one year, is handed to the buyer on sale, and requires trading records to be supplied to the ministry. This is not a general hobby-detecting permission. Later completeness and implementing procedures remain unverified.

Central Bosnia Canton: promptly return or surrender ordinary lost property and report treasure.

• Scope: Central Bosnia Canton only.
• Real Rights Law 120(1) requires return without delay to the identifiable person who lost the thing or its owner. If not returned, 120(2) requires delivery without delay to the nearest police station or another competent authority, directly or through the person in whose premises or vehicle it was found. Only authority delivery has the generally negligible-value exception.
• Article 125(3) requires notice of treasure to the competent state authority without delay and necessary protection pending handover. These ordinary-property provisions do not authorize disturbing archaeological material or displace special heritage duties. No single Federation-wide hobby reporting form was verified.
• The complete present special archaeological/heritage reporting recipient, deadline and custody scheme was not established for this entire territorial scope. The historical 1985 text and conditional continuity are not presented as a complete current procedure.
• Basis: captured Federation 66/13 and 100/13 provisions; complete later court-decision/currentness record and special procedures are not certified.
• Within the Federation only, Nature Protection Law 66/13, read with amendment 10/25, also governs specified natural discoveries. Under amended Article 129(1), the finder of minerals, tufa or fossils that could constitute a protected natural value under Article 126 must report to the Federal Ministry within eight days of discovery and take necessary measures against destruction, damage or theft. Unless the ministry determines otherwise, the finder must not conduct activities at the findspot that could destroy or damage the find, apart from protection measures. The ministry decides on deposit research within 30 days of the report after obtaining the Federal Institute’s opinion; its research decision includes protection measures. Landowners and persons carrying out the activity in which the find arose must allow research under the ministry’s decision; research is carried out by an authorized person under a Federal Ministry permit. The eight-day wording names minerals, tufa and fossils; it is not stated here as a deadline for every ordinary object or cave formation.
• Discovery of any speleological feature or part must be reported to both the Federal Ministry and the cantonal ministry within fifteen days under Article 44(6). The notice must include its location and description under new Article 44a(2). Amended 44(7) requires a Federal Ministry decision within ninety days of the discovery report, with safeguarding measures and protection conditions, based on the opinion of the Federal Institute, a cantonal nature-protection institute or an expert commission formed by the competent ministry, with a recommendation for further action. Article 44(8) provides that if the ministries issue no decision within that period, research and protection are deemed unnecessary and the person may continue works or interventions under special legislation. That provision is separate from the following works-discovery procedure; it is not treated as an ordinary detector permission.
• If a speleological feature is discovered during construction or other works on or below the ground, on land, in water or at sea, new Article 44a requires the person doing the work to stop at the discovery location and notify the competent ministry and the local-government unit without delay in writing, including location and description. The competent ministry appoints a commission for urgent research and an expert finding within twenty days of receiving that notice, at the investor’s expense. Within ten days after that finding it either permits continuation with safeguarding/protection measures or temporarily stops the works. Following a temporary stop, a commission performs detailed research and an expert finding within thirty days of that decision, at the investor’s expense; within fifteen days after this finding the ministry permits continuation by lifting the temporary stop or permanently stops the works. These are natural-feature procedures, distinct from lost-property and archaeological reporting. No assumption is made that a deadline overrides this decision process; complete later amendments and implementation remain unverified.

Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina: national-monument detecting and recovery need specific confirmation.

• Scope: Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina only.
• Federation national-monument protection is governed by individual Commission decisions and the implementation framework. Uredba o obavljanju prethodnih radova istražnog karaktera na nacionalnim spomenicima (National Monuments Preliminary Investigative Works Regulation), 36/08 with 20/26, applies to monuments within the Federation; it is a research/conservation workflow, not general hobby permission.
• Article 3 requires prior Federal Spatial Planning Ministry consent for covered investigative works. The 2026 amendment replaces Article 4(3)’s ownership-or-consent document with a land-register extract no older than 30 days. Staff, plan, heritage opinion, funding, supervision and start-notification duties remain separate.
• The Commission’s individual decision, exact protected boundary and proposed recovery method require confirmation. Cantonal heritage approval does not by itself settle the federal monument requirements.

Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina: recreational shore detecting and recovery remain unresolved.

• Scope: Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina only.
• This scope includes the Federation’s marine coastal setting in Herzegovina-Neretva as well as inland waters. No jurisdiction across a national maritime boundary is inferred.
• Zakon o vodama (Water Law), 70/06, and the official cantonal water-law index distinguish water administration and use from other legal controls. Public enjoyment or bathing access does not settle detecting, digging, heritage approval or ownership. Complete current water/shore instruments and recovery permissions were not captured.

Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina: forest access and target recovery need current territorial confirmation.

• Scope: Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina only.
• The federal ministry’s 2023 forest report with 2024 plans describes the former federal forest law ceasing in 2009 and nine cantons adopting forestry rules. That historical report and the current ministry index are source-map evidence, not a current visitor code or proof that forests lack restrictions.
• The complete current forest law, management restrictions and detector/recovery permissions for this scope were not obtained. Recreational entry, where available, does not itself authorize soil disturbance or retention of a find. Heritage, protected-area, land-right and closure controls must be checked separately.

Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina: protected-area detecting requires the applicable designation and management rules.

• Scope: Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina only.
• Zakon o zaštiti prirode (Nature Protection Law), 66/13, is read with Zakon o izmjenama i dopunama Zakona o zaštiti prirode (Law Amending and Supplementing the Nature Protection Law), 10/25. Under Article 159, interventions and activities must not damage the protected value or alter the characteristics for which it is protected. As amended by Article 51 of 10/25, the Federal Ministry issues permits for categories Ia, Ib and II; the cantonal ministry issues permits for categories III–VI and may issue procedural guidelines. Permits are issued by decision, contain nature-protection conditions and are subject to appeal to the competent ministry. Activities under forestry, hunting, fishing, water-management and mining plans must both comply with protected-area goals, protection measures and management plans and have competent-ministry consent.
• Article 144, as amended by Article 38 of 10/25, retains federal parliamentary designation by law for categories I and II. Categories III–VI may be designated by cantonal assembly law or cantonal-government decision; those spanning two or more cantons require federal law with the cantonal assemblies’ consent. A city or municipal council may designate those categories within one city or municipality with competent-ministry consent. Under amended Article 145, a separate federal-government or cantonal-assembly decision may establish an outside buffer zone and protection measures on the relevant ministry’s proposal. Designation and buffer instruments therefore matter as well as the area boundary.
• Under Article 151, as amended by Article 43 of 10/25, the federal government establishes public enterprises for category I–II management, while cantonal assemblies establish public institutions for other protected areas and values; forming new enterprises or institutions still requires the prior decision of the Federal Parliament or cantonal assembly stated in Article 151. This public-manager regime excludes protected wild species/subspecies, native species/subspecies, minerals, tufa, fossils and cave formations. Management of categories IIIa, IIIb, IV, V and VI may also be entrusted to public institutions or enterprises founded by a city or municipal council. Amended Articles 154–156 distinguish spatial plans, ten-year management plans and annual programs. Article 155 adds municipal heads or city mayors to the management-plan adoption authorities and local nature-protection administrative services to the proposing authorities; a new plan is due at least 30 days before the existing plan expires. Legal and natural persons conducting activities must comply with the plan. The manager’s competent body adopts its annual program with federal-ministry consent, or cantonal-ministry consent where it concerns the canton.
• Article 49 of 10/25 deletes the former Article 158(1)–(2) provisions about internal-order rules; they are not presented here as an unchanged current requirement. The remaining Article 158 supervision provisions and new Articles 158a–158c concern nature-protection supervisors. Deletion alone does not establish that every existing local rule has ceased to apply. Article 241 still provides for temporary management guidelines before a management plan, with federal and competent cantonal ministries’ consent and without public inspection, but new 241(2) bars further temporary guidelines after ten years of implementation of the management plan referred to in 241(1). Article 247 retains older 33/03 implementing rules only insofar as consistent and pending replacement; repeal of the old statute does not create a visitor exemption.
• Article 160 allows visits only in ways that do not endanger protected values or protection, under equal conditions consistent with the law and its implementing rules; visits may be restricted or prohibited where conservation would be endangered. Visiting access is not a detector or recovery permit. The captured 10/25 amendment was published February 12, 2025 and states eighth-day commencement. Complete later amendments, individual-area instruments, current management plans and cantonal/local implementation were not established by this evidence set.

Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina: landowner agreement alone does not establish detecting permission.

• Scope: Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina only.
• Arrange lawful entry with the rights-holder; private ownership does not remove applicable heritage, monument, forest or nature controls. The Federation property law makes ownership subject to legal limits. An agreement about access does not itself award title to finds.
• Ustav Federacije Bosne i Hercegovine (Federation Constitution), III 4(c), assigns cultural policy to cantons; IX 5(1) continues pre-existing law only so far as consistent and unless the competent authority provides otherwise. The 2026 federal culture-ministry process map still cites the 1985 heritage law and takeover instruments. That administrative reference does not establish identical present rules across all ten cantons.
• The complete rule for non-archaeological modern-loss detecting and target recovery on private land remains unresolved.

Federation: preliminary archaeological work at national monuments needs qualified approval.

• Scope: preliminary investigative works on national monuments within the Federation only, under Regulation 36/08 as amended by 20/26. This is not a general rule for every recovery hole or for all archaeological places.
• Prior consent comes from Federalno ministarstvo prostornog uređenja (Federal Ministry of Spatial Planning). The investor supplies project, methodology, personnel and funding information, a plan/program with competent heritage-institution opinion, and the land-register extract no older than 30 days required by the 2026 amendment.
• Article 5 requires a Bosnia and Herzegovina citizen as professional leader, with relevant higher education, professional examination and ten years of experience. Article 8 allows domestic natural and legal persons to participate; when justified, a noncitizen expert may participate with approval of the competent protection service. That exception does not waive the leader’s separate requirements.
• Approval specifies area, scope, conditions, protective measures, starting time and duration. Article 7 gives a 30-day decision period after a duly filed request, not deemed permission. The leader must be present or appoint a qualified substitute, keep a field diary and permit supervision. Changes require a ministry request; before beginning, the investor must notify the competent municipal administrative service under 12.

Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina: finding an object does not establish unrestricted ownership.

• Scope: Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina only.
• Zakon o stvarnim pravima (Real Rights Law), 66/13 with 100/13, Articles 120–125 distinguishes ordinary lost objects from long-hidden treasure. Losing an object does not abandon ownership. Under 124, one year after the public notice an unclaimed/unproven or refused find can pass to the finder’s immediate possession; this is not immediate ownership, and a later rightful claimant can require its return subject to costs and reward.
• Treasure under 125 means valuables hidden so long that the owner cannot be identified. If genuinely ownerless it belongs to the local government unit; prompt notice and protection are required. Finder and landowner rewards/costs, concealment disqualification, the building-right holder’s analogous position, and the authority’s option to relinquish it into joint independent possession are separate from unconditional finder title. Special heritage allocation remains separate.
• The captured 2013 amendment changes timing language in 370–372, not 120–125. The 2026 government item reports a further proposal, not a verified enactment. Complete subsequent court-decision/amendment effects and every category of find remain unresolved.
• Ustav Federacije Bosne i Hercegovine (Federation Constitution), III 4(c), assigns cultural policy to cantons; IX 5(1) continues pre-existing law only so far as consistent and unless the competent authority provides otherwise. The 2026 federal culture-ministry process map still cites the 1985 heritage law and takeover instruments. That administrative reference does not establish identical present rules across all ten cantons.
• Within the Federation only, Zakon o zaštiti prirode (Nature Protection Law), 66/13, as amended by Zakon o izmjenama i dopunama Zakona o zaštiti prirode (Law Amending and Supplementing the Nature Protection Law), 10/25, separates natural finds from ordinary lost objects and archaeological finds. Amended Article 125 declares minerals, tufa (sedra), fossils and cave formations (sigovine) state-owned; this is the amended wording, not the former statement of Federation ownership. The Article 8 mineral definition excludes mineral raw materials. Article 125 prohibits destruction of these natural objects and damage to their deposits. Its exception requires Federal Ministry permission for active conservation and/or revitalization without which essential area characteristics would change and/or flooding or another natural disaster could occur, or where the Federation’s interest or a clearly expressed public interest applies, with a technical study adopted by the ministry.
• For those natural objects, Articles 126–128 distinguish protected values and sites, in-place preservation and protective custody from ownership. Taking protected objects or objects at a protected deposit is prohibited, except that the Federal Ministry may permit taking for scientific or professional research, education or exhibitions. Protective custody is not finder ownership. Amended Article 131 separately requires a Federal Ministry permit for taking or exploiting these objects from nature for placing on the market, based on an expert study during preliminary environmental-impact assessment and before urban-planning consent/location information; the ministry must find that taking will not significantly endanger geodiversity in view of distribution and quantity. The permit specifies protection conditions, type and quantity, lasts at most one year, is handed to the buyer on sale, and requires trading records to be supplied to the ministry. This is not a general hobby-detecting permission. Later completeness and implementing procedures remain unverified.

Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina: promptly return or surrender ordinary lost property and report treasure.

• Scope: Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina only.
• Real Rights Law 120(1) requires return without delay to the identifiable person who lost the thing or its owner. If not returned, 120(2) requires delivery without delay to the nearest police station or another competent authority, directly or through the person in whose premises or vehicle it was found. Only authority delivery has the generally negligible-value exception.
• Article 125(3) requires notice of treasure to the competent state authority without delay and necessary protection pending handover. These ordinary-property provisions do not authorize disturbing archaeological material or displace special heritage duties. No single Federation-wide hobby reporting form was verified.
• The complete present special archaeological/heritage reporting recipient, deadline and custody scheme was not established for this entire territorial scope. The historical 1985 text and conditional continuity are not presented as a complete current procedure.
• Basis: captured Federation 66/13 and 100/13 provisions; complete later court-decision/currentness record and special procedures are not certified.
• Within the Federation only, Nature Protection Law 66/13, read with amendment 10/25, also governs specified natural discoveries. Under amended Article 129(1), the finder of minerals, tufa or fossils that could constitute a protected natural value under Article 126 must report to the Federal Ministry within eight days of discovery and take necessary measures against destruction, damage or theft. Unless the ministry determines otherwise, the finder must not conduct activities at the findspot that could destroy or damage the find, apart from protection measures. The ministry decides on deposit research within 30 days of the report after obtaining the Federal Institute’s opinion; its research decision includes protection measures. Landowners and persons carrying out the activity in which the find arose must allow research under the ministry’s decision; research is carried out by an authorized person under a Federal Ministry permit. The eight-day wording names minerals, tufa and fossils; it is not stated here as a deadline for every ordinary object or cave formation.
• Discovery of any speleological feature or part must be reported to both the Federal Ministry and the cantonal ministry within fifteen days under Article 44(6). The notice must include its location and description under new Article 44a(2). Amended 44(7) requires a Federal Ministry decision within ninety days of the discovery report, with safeguarding measures and protection conditions, based on the opinion of the Federal Institute, a cantonal nature-protection institute or an expert commission formed by the competent ministry, with a recommendation for further action. Article 44(8) provides that if the ministries issue no decision within that period, research and protection are deemed unnecessary and the person may continue works or interventions under special legislation. That provision is separate from the following works-discovery procedure; it is not treated as an ordinary detector permission.
• If a speleological feature is discovered during construction or other works on or below the ground, on land, in water or at sea, new Article 44a requires the person doing the work to stop at the discovery location and notify the competent ministry and the local-government unit without delay in writing, including location and description. The competent ministry appoints a commission for urgent research and an expert finding within twenty days of receiving that notice, at the investor’s expense. Within ten days after that finding it either permits continuation with safeguarding/protection measures or temporarily stops the works. Following a temporary stop, a commission performs detailed research and an expert finding within thirty days of that decision, at the investor’s expense; within fifteen days after this finding the ministry permits continuation by lifting the temporary stop or permanently stops the works. These are natural-feature procedures, distinct from lost-property and archaeological reporting. No assumption is made that a deadline overrides this decision process; complete later amendments and implementation remain unverified.

Herzegovina-Neretva Canton: national-monument detecting and recovery need specific confirmation.

• Scope: Herzegovina-Neretva Canton only.
• Federation national-monument protection is governed by individual Commission decisions and the implementation framework. Uredba o obavljanju prethodnih radova istražnog karaktera na nacionalnim spomenicima (National Monuments Preliminary Investigative Works Regulation), 36/08 with 20/26, applies to monuments within the Federation; it is a research/conservation workflow, not general hobby permission.
• Article 3 requires prior Federal Spatial Planning Ministry consent for covered investigative works. The 2026 amendment replaces Article 4(3)’s ownership-or-consent document with a land-register extract no older than 30 days. Staff, plan, heritage opinion, funding, supervision and start-notification duties remain separate.
• The Commission’s individual decision, exact protected boundary and proposed recovery method require confirmation. Cantonal heritage approval does not by itself settle the federal monument requirements.

Herzegovina-Neretva Canton: recreational shore detecting and recovery remain unresolved.

• Scope: Herzegovina-Neretva Canton only.
• This scope includes the Federation’s marine coastal setting in Herzegovina-Neretva as well as inland waters. No jurisdiction across a national maritime boundary is inferred.
• Zakon o vodama (Water Law), 70/06, and the official cantonal water-law index distinguish water administration and use from other legal controls. Public enjoyment or bathing access does not settle detecting, digging, heritage approval or ownership. Complete current water/shore instruments and recovery permissions were not captured.
• The captured Herzegovina-Neretva Water Law 6/13 expressly covers cantonal water responsibilities and coastal-water definitions; complete later amendment/court effects remain unverified. Its heritage law 29 applies archaeological-research provisions underwater.

Herzegovina-Neretva Canton: forest access and target recovery need current territorial confirmation.

• Scope: Herzegovina-Neretva Canton only.
• The federal ministry’s 2023 forest report with 2024 plans describes the former federal forest law ceasing in 2009 and nine cantons adopting forestry rules. That historical report and the current ministry index are source-map evidence, not a current visitor code or proof that forests lack restrictions.
• The complete current forest law, management restrictions and detector/recovery permissions for this scope were not obtained. Recreational entry, where available, does not itself authorize soil disturbance or retention of a find. Heritage, protected-area, land-right and closure controls must be checked separately.

Herzegovina-Neretva Canton: protected-area detecting requires the applicable designation and management rules.

• Scope: Herzegovina-Neretva Canton only.
• Zakon o zaštiti prirode (Nature Protection Law), 66/13, is read with Zakon o izmjenama i dopunama Zakona o zaštiti prirode (Law Amending and Supplementing the Nature Protection Law), 10/25. Under Article 159, interventions and activities must not damage the protected value or alter the characteristics for which it is protected. As amended by Article 51 of 10/25, the Federal Ministry issues permits for categories Ia, Ib and II; the cantonal ministry issues permits for categories III–VI and may issue procedural guidelines. Permits are issued by decision, contain nature-protection conditions and are subject to appeal to the competent ministry. Activities under forestry, hunting, fishing, water-management and mining plans must both comply with protected-area goals, protection measures and management plans and have competent-ministry consent.
• Article 144, as amended by Article 38 of 10/25, retains federal parliamentary designation by law for categories I and II. Categories III–VI may be designated by cantonal assembly law or cantonal-government decision; those spanning two or more cantons require federal law with the cantonal assemblies’ consent. A city or municipal council may designate those categories within one city or municipality with competent-ministry consent. Under amended Article 145, a separate federal-government or cantonal-assembly decision may establish an outside buffer zone and protection measures on the relevant ministry’s proposal. Designation and buffer instruments therefore matter as well as the area boundary.
• Under Article 151, as amended by Article 43 of 10/25, the federal government establishes public enterprises for category I–II management, while cantonal assemblies establish public institutions for other protected areas and values; forming new enterprises or institutions still requires the prior decision of the Federal Parliament or cantonal assembly stated in Article 151. This public-manager regime excludes protected wild species/subspecies, native species/subspecies, minerals, tufa, fossils and cave formations. Management of categories IIIa, IIIb, IV, V and VI may also be entrusted to public institutions or enterprises founded by a city or municipal council. Amended Articles 154–156 distinguish spatial plans, ten-year management plans and annual programs. Article 155 adds municipal heads or city mayors to the management-plan adoption authorities and local nature-protection administrative services to the proposing authorities; a new plan is due at least 30 days before the existing plan expires. Legal and natural persons conducting activities must comply with the plan. The manager’s competent body adopts its annual program with federal-ministry consent, or cantonal-ministry consent where it concerns the canton.
• Article 49 of 10/25 deletes the former Article 158(1)–(2) provisions about internal-order rules; they are not presented here as an unchanged current requirement. The remaining Article 158 supervision provisions and new Articles 158a–158c concern nature-protection supervisors. Deletion alone does not establish that every existing local rule has ceased to apply. Article 241 still provides for temporary management guidelines before a management plan, with federal and competent cantonal ministries’ consent and without public inspection, but new 241(2) bars further temporary guidelines after ten years of implementation of the management plan referred to in 241(1). Article 247 retains older 33/03 implementing rules only insofar as consistent and pending replacement; repeal of the old statute does not create a visitor exemption.
• Article 160 allows visits only in ways that do not endanger protected values or protection, under equal conditions consistent with the law and its implementing rules; visits may be restricted or prohibited where conservation would be endangered. Visiting access is not a detector or recovery permit. The captured 10/25 amendment was published February 12, 2025 and states eighth-day commencement. Complete later amendments, individual-area instruments, current management plans and cantonal/local implementation were not established by this evidence set.

Herzegovina-Neretva Canton: landowner agreement alone does not establish detecting permission.

• Scope: Herzegovina-Neretva Canton only.
• Arrange lawful entry with the rights-holder; private ownership does not remove applicable heritage, monument, forest or nature controls. The Federation property law makes ownership subject to legal limits. An agreement about access does not itself award title to finds.
• Zakon o zaštiti kulturno-historijskog nasljeđa u Hercegovačko-neretvanskom kantonu (Herzegovina-Neretva Canton Cultural and Historical Heritage Protection Law), 2/06, Article 28 requires Institute approval for archaeological excavation and research;29 applies that framework underwater. Article 1 excludes designated national-monument and UNESCO-listed goods from this law regarding protection, conservation, revitalization, repair and economic or other exploitation; the separate federal monument framework must be checked. A general ordinary-loss detector rule was not established.
• The complete rule for non-archaeological modern-loss detecting and target recovery on private land remains unresolved.

Herzegovina-Neretva Canton: archaeological excavation/research requires approved qualified work.

• Scope: Herzegovina-Neretva Canton only.
• Zakon o zaštiti kulturno-historijskog nasljeđa u Hercegovačko-neretvanskom kantonu (Herzegovina-Neretva Canton Cultural and Historical Heritage Protection Law), 2/06, Article 28 requires Institute approval for archaeological excavation and research;29 applies that framework underwater. Article 1 excludes designated national-monument and UNESCO-listed goods from this law regarding protection, conservation, revitalization, repair and economic or other exploitation; the separate federal monument framework must be checked. A general ordinary-loss detector rule was not established.
• Legal or natural applicants must be professionally qualified and have material and technical resources for research, conservation and presentation. Approval defines area, type, scope, conditions, deadline, storage and reporting.29 extends this to underwater archaeological research; the Article 1 national-monument/UNESCO aspect exception and federal rules remain separate.
• Access and find custody remain separate; complete implementing forms and standard hobby fees were not verified.

Herzegovina-Neretva Canton: finding an object does not establish unrestricted ownership.

• Scope: Herzegovina-Neretva Canton only.
• Zakon o stvarnim pravima (Real Rights Law), 66/13 with 100/13, Articles 120–125 distinguishes ordinary lost objects from long-hidden treasure. Losing an object does not abandon ownership. Under 124, one year after the public notice an unclaimed/unproven or refused find can pass to the finder’s immediate possession; this is not immediate ownership, and a later rightful claimant can require its return subject to costs and reward.
• Treasure under 125 means valuables hidden so long that the owner cannot be identified. If genuinely ownerless it belongs to the local government unit; prompt notice and protection are required. Finder and landowner rewards/costs, concealment disqualification, the building-right holder’s analogous position, and the authority’s option to relinquish it into joint independent possession are separate from unconditional finder title. Special heritage allocation remains separate.
• The captured 2013 amendment changes timing language in 370–372, not 120–125. The 2026 government item reports a further proposal, not a verified enactment. Complete subsequent court-decision/amendment effects and every category of find remain unresolved.
• Zakon o zaštiti kulturno-historijskog nasljeđa u Hercegovačko-neretvanskom kantonu (Herzegovina-Neretva Canton Cultural and Historical Heritage Protection Law), 2/06, Article 28 requires Institute approval for archaeological excavation and research;29 applies that framework underwater. Article 1 excludes designated national-monument and UNESCO-listed goods from this law regarding protection, conservation, revitalization, repair and economic or other exploitation; the separate federal monument framework must be checked. A general ordinary-loss detector rule was not established.
• Within the Federation only, Zakon o zaštiti prirode (Nature Protection Law), 66/13, as amended by Zakon o izmjenama i dopunama Zakona o zaštiti prirode (Law Amending and Supplementing the Nature Protection Law), 10/25, separates natural finds from ordinary lost objects and archaeological finds. Amended Article 125 declares minerals, tufa (sedra), fossils and cave formations (sigovine) state-owned; this is the amended wording, not the former statement of Federation ownership. The Article 8 mineral definition excludes mineral raw materials. Article 125 prohibits destruction of these natural objects and damage to their deposits. Its exception requires Federal Ministry permission for active conservation and/or revitalization without which essential area characteristics would change and/or flooding or another natural disaster could occur, or where the Federation’s interest or a clearly expressed public interest applies, with a technical study adopted by the ministry.
• For those natural objects, Articles 126–128 distinguish protected values and sites, in-place preservation and protective custody from ownership. Taking protected objects or objects at a protected deposit is prohibited, except that the Federal Ministry may permit taking for scientific or professional research, education or exhibitions. Protective custody is not finder ownership. Amended Article 131 separately requires a Federal Ministry permit for taking or exploiting these objects from nature for placing on the market, based on an expert study during preliminary environmental-impact assessment and before urban-planning consent/location information; the ministry must find that taking will not significantly endanger geodiversity in view of distribution and quantity. The permit specifies protection conditions, type and quantity, lasts at most one year, is handed to the buyer on sale, and requires trading records to be supplied to the ministry. This is not a general hobby-detecting permission. Later completeness and implementing procedures remain unverified.

Herzegovina-Neretva Canton: finding heritage does not give the finder title.

• Scope: Herzegovina-Neretva Canton only.
• Article 32 assigns heritage found during research, other work or accidentally to the canton and requires delivery to the Institute. Reward depends on the potential good being placed under protection and is paid by the recipient institution under the regulation; reward does not confer title. Article 1’s specified national-monument/UNESCO exception must be checked separately.
• This special heritage row does not decide ownership of every modern lost object; ordinary property rules remain separate.

Herzegovina-Neretva Canton: promptly return or surrender ordinary lost property and report treasure.

• Scope: Herzegovina-Neretva Canton only.
• Real Rights Law 120(1) requires return without delay to the identifiable person who lost the thing or its owner. If not returned, 120(2) requires delivery without delay to the nearest police station or another competent authority, directly or through the person in whose premises or vehicle it was found. Only authority delivery has the generally negligible-value exception.
• Article 125(3) requires notice of treasure to the competent state authority without delay and necessary protection pending handover. These ordinary-property provisions do not authorize disturbing archaeological material or displace special heritage duties. No single Federation-wide hobby reporting form was verified.
• Heritage Law 10 requires every legal or natural person to report potential heritage to an authority or protection service under Articles 59–60 and allow the Institute to examine it and record information. The receiving authority or service must notify the Institute immediately. Article 32 requires handover of found heritage to the Institute; the stated reward depends on the potential find being placed under protection. If, during works, unexpected danger to protected heritage arises or potential heritage is discovered, Article 26 requires the contractor to stop the work and notify the Institute without delay; the stop lasts until the Institute sets protection measures, for no more than 60 days. Article 1 excludes designated national-monument and UNESCO-listed goods for protection, conservation, revitalization, repair and economic or other exploitation; the separate applicable protection framework must be checked.
• Basis: captured Federation 66/13 and 100/13 provisions; complete later court-decision/currentness record and special procedures are not certified.
• Within the Federation only, Nature Protection Law 66/13, read with amendment 10/25, also governs specified natural discoveries. Under amended Article 129(1), the finder of minerals, tufa or fossils that could constitute a protected natural value under Article 126 must report to the Federal Ministry within eight days of discovery and take necessary measures against destruction, damage or theft. Unless the ministry determines otherwise, the finder must not conduct activities at the findspot that could destroy or damage the find, apart from protection measures. The ministry decides on deposit research within 30 days of the report after obtaining the Federal Institute’s opinion; its research decision includes protection measures. Landowners and persons carrying out the activity in which the find arose must allow research under the ministry’s decision; research is carried out by an authorized person under a Federal Ministry permit. The eight-day wording names minerals, tufa and fossils; it is not stated here as a deadline for every ordinary object or cave formation.
• Discovery of any speleological feature or part must be reported to both the Federal Ministry and the cantonal ministry within fifteen days under Article 44(6). The notice must include its location and description under new Article 44a(2). Amended 44(7) requires a Federal Ministry decision within ninety days of the discovery report, with safeguarding measures and protection conditions, based on the opinion of the Federal Institute, a cantonal nature-protection institute or an expert commission formed by the competent ministry, with a recommendation for further action. Article 44(8) provides that if the ministries issue no decision within that period, research and protection are deemed unnecessary and the person may continue works or interventions under special legislation. That provision is separate from the following works-discovery procedure; it is not treated as an ordinary detector permission.
• If a speleological feature is discovered during construction or other works on or below the ground, on land, in water or at sea, new Article 44a requires the person doing the work to stop at the discovery location and notify the competent ministry and the local-government unit without delay in writing, including location and description. The competent ministry appoints a commission for urgent research and an expert finding within twenty days of receiving that notice, at the investor’s expense. Within ten days after that finding it either permits continuation with safeguarding/protection measures or temporarily stops the works. Following a temporary stop, a commission performs detailed research and an expert finding within thirty days of that decision, at the investor’s expense; within fifteen days after this finding the ministry permits continuation by lifting the temporary stop or permanently stops the works. These are natural-feature procedures, distinct from lost-property and archaeological reporting. No assumption is made that a deadline overrides this decision process; complete later amendments and implementation remain unverified.

Posavina Canton: national-monument detecting and recovery need specific confirmation.

• Scope: Posavina Canton only.
• Federation national-monument protection is governed by individual Commission decisions and the implementation framework. Uredba o obavljanju prethodnih radova istražnog karaktera na nacionalnim spomenicima (National Monuments Preliminary Investigative Works Regulation), 36/08 with 20/26, applies to monuments within the Federation; it is a research/conservation workflow, not general hobby permission.
• Article 3 requires prior Federal Spatial Planning Ministry consent for covered investigative works. The 2026 amendment replaces Article 4(3)’s ownership-or-consent document with a land-register extract no older than 30 days. Staff, plan, heritage opinion, funding, supervision and start-notification duties remain separate.
• The Commission’s individual decision, exact protected boundary and proposed recovery method require confirmation. Cantonal heritage approval does not by itself settle the federal monument requirements.

Posavina Canton: recreational shore detecting and recovery remain unresolved.

• Scope: Posavina Canton only.
• This row covers inland shores and bathing areas in this canton; no marine-coast rule is assigned to it.
• Zakon o vodama (Water Law), 70/06, and the official cantonal water-law index distinguish water administration and use from other legal controls. Public enjoyment or bathing access does not settle detecting, digging, heritage approval or ownership. Complete current water/shore instruments and recovery permissions were not captured.

Posavina Canton: forest access and target recovery need current territorial confirmation.

• Scope: Posavina Canton only.
• The federal ministry’s 2023 forest report with 2024 plans describes the former federal forest law ceasing in 2009 and nine cantons adopting forestry rules. That historical report and the current ministry index are source-map evidence, not a current visitor code or proof that forests lack restrictions.
• The complete current forest law, management restrictions and detector/recovery permissions for this scope were not obtained. Recreational entry, where available, does not itself authorize soil disturbance or retention of a find. Heritage, protected-area, land-right and closure controls must be checked separately.

Posavina Canton: protected-area detecting requires the applicable designation and management rules.

• Scope: Posavina Canton only.
• Zakon o zaštiti prirode (Nature Protection Law), 66/13, is read with Zakon o izmjenama i dopunama Zakona o zaštiti prirode (Law Amending and Supplementing the Nature Protection Law), 10/25. Under Article 159, interventions and activities must not damage the protected value or alter the characteristics for which it is protected. As amended by Article 51 of 10/25, the Federal Ministry issues permits for categories Ia, Ib and II; the cantonal ministry issues permits for categories III–VI and may issue procedural guidelines. Permits are issued by decision, contain nature-protection conditions and are subject to appeal to the competent ministry. Activities under forestry, hunting, fishing, water-management and mining plans must both comply with protected-area goals, protection measures and management plans and have competent-ministry consent.
• Article 144, as amended by Article 38 of 10/25, retains federal parliamentary designation by law for categories I and II. Categories III–VI may be designated by cantonal assembly law or cantonal-government decision; those spanning two or more cantons require federal law with the cantonal assemblies’ consent. A city or municipal council may designate those categories within one city or municipality with competent-ministry consent. Under amended Article 145, a separate federal-government or cantonal-assembly decision may establish an outside buffer zone and protection measures on the relevant ministry’s proposal. Designation and buffer instruments therefore matter as well as the area boundary.
• Under Article 151, as amended by Article 43 of 10/25, the federal government establishes public enterprises for category I–II management, while cantonal assemblies establish public institutions for other protected areas and values; forming new enterprises or institutions still requires the prior decision of the Federal Parliament or cantonal assembly stated in Article 151. This public-manager regime excludes protected wild species/subspecies, native species/subspecies, minerals, tufa, fossils and cave formations. Management of categories IIIa, IIIb, IV, V and VI may also be entrusted to public institutions or enterprises founded by a city or municipal council. Amended Articles 154–156 distinguish spatial plans, ten-year management plans and annual programs. Article 155 adds municipal heads or city mayors to the management-plan adoption authorities and local nature-protection administrative services to the proposing authorities; a new plan is due at least 30 days before the existing plan expires. Legal and natural persons conducting activities must comply with the plan. The manager’s competent body adopts its annual program with federal-ministry consent, or cantonal-ministry consent where it concerns the canton.
• Article 49 of 10/25 deletes the former Article 158(1)–(2) provisions about internal-order rules; they are not presented here as an unchanged current requirement. The remaining Article 158 supervision provisions and new Articles 158a–158c concern nature-protection supervisors. Deletion alone does not establish that every existing local rule has ceased to apply. Article 241 still provides for temporary management guidelines before a management plan, with federal and competent cantonal ministries’ consent and without public inspection, but new 241(2) bars further temporary guidelines after ten years of implementation of the management plan referred to in 241(1). Article 247 retains older 33/03 implementing rules only insofar as consistent and pending replacement; repeal of the old statute does not create a visitor exemption.
• Article 160 allows visits only in ways that do not endanger protected values or protection, under equal conditions consistent with the law and its implementing rules; visits may be restricted or prohibited where conservation would be endangered. Visiting access is not a detector or recovery permit. The captured 10/25 amendment was published February 12, 2025 and states eighth-day commencement. Complete later amendments, individual-area instruments, current management plans and cantonal/local implementation were not established by this evidence set.

Posavina Canton: landowner agreement alone does not establish detecting permission.

• Scope: Posavina Canton only.
• Arrange lawful entry with the rights-holder; private ownership does not remove applicable heritage, monument, forest or nature controls. The Federation property law makes ownership subject to legal limits. An agreement about access does not itself award title to finds.
• The historical residual-law lead is Zakon o zaštiti i korištenju kulturno-historijskog i prirodnog naslijeđa (Cultural, Historical and Natural Heritage Protection and Use Law), 20/85 with later amendments/takeover instruments. Constitutional continuity is conditional, and the 2026 federal ministry process map does not resolve this canton’s complete present law. The official 2024 government report gives culture context but does not establish a current complete heritage statute. No neighboring canton’s permit, ownership or reporting rule is imported here.
• The complete rule for non-archaeological modern-loss detecting and target recovery on private land remains unresolved.

Posavina Canton: finding an object does not establish unrestricted ownership.

• Scope: Posavina Canton only.
• Zakon o stvarnim pravima (Real Rights Law), 66/13 with 100/13, Articles 120–125 distinguishes ordinary lost objects from long-hidden treasure. Losing an object does not abandon ownership. Under 124, one year after the public notice an unclaimed/unproven or refused find can pass to the finder’s immediate possession; this is not immediate ownership, and a later rightful claimant can require its return subject to costs and reward.
• Treasure under 125 means valuables hidden so long that the owner cannot be identified. If genuinely ownerless it belongs to the local government unit; prompt notice and protection are required. Finder and landowner rewards/costs, concealment disqualification, the building-right holder’s analogous position, and the authority’s option to relinquish it into joint independent possession are separate from unconditional finder title. Special heritage allocation remains separate.
• The captured 2013 amendment changes timing language in 370–372, not 120–125. The 2026 government item reports a further proposal, not a verified enactment. Complete subsequent court-decision/amendment effects and every category of find remain unresolved.
• The historical residual-law lead is Zakon o zaštiti i korištenju kulturno-historijskog i prirodnog naslijeđa (Cultural, Historical and Natural Heritage Protection and Use Law), 20/85 with later amendments/takeover instruments. Constitutional continuity is conditional, and the 2026 federal ministry process map does not resolve this canton’s complete present law. The official 2024 government report gives culture context but does not establish a current complete heritage statute. No neighboring canton’s permit, ownership or reporting rule is imported here.
• Within the Federation only, Zakon o zaštiti prirode (Nature Protection Law), 66/13, as amended by Zakon o izmjenama i dopunama Zakona o zaštiti prirode (Law Amending and Supplementing the Nature Protection Law), 10/25, separates natural finds from ordinary lost objects and archaeological finds. Amended Article 125 declares minerals, tufa (sedra), fossils and cave formations (sigovine) state-owned; this is the amended wording, not the former statement of Federation ownership. The Article 8 mineral definition excludes mineral raw materials. Article 125 prohibits destruction of these natural objects and damage to their deposits. Its exception requires Federal Ministry permission for active conservation and/or revitalization without which essential area characteristics would change and/or flooding or another natural disaster could occur, or where the Federation’s interest or a clearly expressed public interest applies, with a technical study adopted by the ministry.
• For those natural objects, Articles 126–128 distinguish protected values and sites, in-place preservation and protective custody from ownership. Taking protected objects or objects at a protected deposit is prohibited, except that the Federal Ministry may permit taking for scientific or professional research, education or exhibitions. Protective custody is not finder ownership. Amended Article 131 separately requires a Federal Ministry permit for taking or exploiting these objects from nature for placing on the market, based on an expert study during preliminary environmental-impact assessment and before urban-planning consent/location information; the ministry must find that taking will not significantly endanger geodiversity in view of distribution and quantity. The permit specifies protection conditions, type and quantity, lasts at most one year, is handed to the buyer on sale, and requires trading records to be supplied to the ministry. This is not a general hobby-detecting permission. Later completeness and implementing procedures remain unverified.

Posavina Canton: promptly return or surrender ordinary lost property and report treasure.

• Scope: Posavina Canton only.
• Real Rights Law 120(1) requires return without delay to the identifiable person who lost the thing or its owner. If not returned, 120(2) requires delivery without delay to the nearest police station or another competent authority, directly or through the person in whose premises or vehicle it was found. Only authority delivery has the generally negligible-value exception.
• Article 125(3) requires notice of treasure to the competent state authority without delay and necessary protection pending handover. These ordinary-property provisions do not authorize disturbing archaeological material or displace special heritage duties. No single Federation-wide hobby reporting form was verified.
• The complete present special archaeological/heritage reporting recipient, deadline and custody scheme was not established for this entire territorial scope. The historical 1985 text and conditional continuity are not presented as a complete current procedure.
• Basis: captured Federation 66/13 and 100/13 provisions; complete later court-decision/currentness record and special procedures are not certified.
• Within the Federation only, Nature Protection Law 66/13, read with amendment 10/25, also governs specified natural discoveries. Under amended Article 129(1), the finder of minerals, tufa or fossils that could constitute a protected natural value under Article 126 must report to the Federal Ministry within eight days of discovery and take necessary measures against destruction, damage or theft. Unless the ministry determines otherwise, the finder must not conduct activities at the findspot that could destroy or damage the find, apart from protection measures. The ministry decides on deposit research within 30 days of the report after obtaining the Federal Institute’s opinion; its research decision includes protection measures. Landowners and persons carrying out the activity in which the find arose must allow research under the ministry’s decision; research is carried out by an authorized person under a Federal Ministry permit. The eight-day wording names minerals, tufa and fossils; it is not stated here as a deadline for every ordinary object or cave formation.
• Discovery of any speleological feature or part must be reported to both the Federal Ministry and the cantonal ministry within fifteen days under Article 44(6). The notice must include its location and description under new Article 44a(2). Amended 44(7) requires a Federal Ministry decision within ninety days of the discovery report, with safeguarding measures and protection conditions, based on the opinion of the Federal Institute, a cantonal nature-protection institute or an expert commission formed by the competent ministry, with a recommendation for further action. Article 44(8) provides that if the ministries issue no decision within that period, research and protection are deemed unnecessary and the person may continue works or interventions under special legislation. That provision is separate from the following works-discovery procedure; it is not treated as an ordinary detector permission.
• If a speleological feature is discovered during construction or other works on or below the ground, on land, in water or at sea, new Article 44a requires the person doing the work to stop at the discovery location and notify the competent ministry and the local-government unit without delay in writing, including location and description. The competent ministry appoints a commission for urgent research and an expert finding within twenty days of receiving that notice, at the investor’s expense. Within ten days after that finding it either permits continuation with safeguarding/protection measures or temporarily stops the works. Following a temporary stop, a commission performs detailed research and an expert finding within thirty days of that decision, at the investor’s expense; within fifteen days after this finding the ministry permits continuation by lifting the temporary stop or permanently stops the works. These are natural-feature procedures, distinct from lost-property and archaeological reporting. No assumption is made that a deadline overrides this decision process; complete later amendments and implementation remain unverified.

Republika Srpska: archaeological-purpose detector searches require approved institutional research.

• Scope: Republika Srpska only. Закон о културним добрима (Cultural Goods Law), 38/22, Articles 52–57, requires institute approval for archaeological research, with the eligibility and activity limits stated here. Article 105 repeals the older 11/95 and 103/08 law; Article 106 provides entry into force on the eighth day after publication. Complete later implementing forms and project conditions were not verified.
• The detector rule applies to searching for archaeological remains, including attempts to locate subsurface finds or structures. Approval is for archaeological research rather than an unrestricted hobby license.
• Article 52 permits excavation/research by protection, scientific-research or higher-education institutions with an appropriate study program. The applicant needs a project, qualified staff, equipment and funding for investigation and conservation; if normal use of the place must be restricted, arrangements governing that use must be documented.
• Article 52(5) allows an expedited approval procedure where destruction, damage or disappearance is reasonably threatened; it does not waive approval. Article 54 specifies area, work, duration and protective obligations. Article 57 permits suspension and cancellation for noncompliance.
• Land access, national-monument measures, nature protection and reporting/ownership duties apply separately. Complete implementing forms and individual project requirements were not captured.

Republika Srpska: monument-specific detecting and recovery limits need confirmation.

• Scope: Republika Srpska only. Закон о културним добрима (Cultural Goods Law), 38/22, Articles 52–57, requires institute approval for archaeological research, with the eligibility and activity limits stated here. Article 105 repeals the older 11/95 and 103/08 law; Article 106 provides entry into force on the eighth day after publication. Complete later implementing forms and project conditions were not verified.
• The Commission sets protection measures in each national-monument decision. The RS implementation-law integral text through 64/08 must be read with 1/25: the amendment updates the ministry and inspectorate, deletes the words dispensing with further measures fromArticle 3, and leaves the specific site protection to be checked. No blanket monument hobby permission follows.
• Archaeological-purpose detector research requires institute approval under 57. Heritage-law technical-protection and other-work procedures also apply to protected immovable cultural property; the complete classification, boundary, decision and proposed recovery must be checked.

Republika Srpska: recreational shore detecting remains unresolved.

• Scope: Republika Srpska only. Закон о културним добрима (Cultural Goods Law), 38/22, Articles 52–57, requires institute approval for archaeological research, with the eligibility and activity limits stated here. Article 105 repeals the older 11/95 and 103/08 law; Article 106 provides entry into force on the eighth day after publication. Complete later implementing forms and project conditions were not verified.
• This row concerns shores and bathing areas within Republika Srpska; it does not assign a marine-coast rule to the entity. No generally applicable shore detector/recovery authorization was established.
• Archaeological-purpose searches remain controlled by 57, and archaeological finds from water belong to Republika Srpska under 53(3). Bathing access and water use do not settle detector permission, ground disturbance or ownership. Protected-area and property restrictions may also apply.

Republika Srpska: forest recreation access does not establish detector-recovery permission.

• Scope: forests in Republika Srpska. Закон о шумама (Forest Law), 75/08 with 60/13 and 70/20, Article 60 allows recreational access to Republic-owned forests subject to protected areas, ongoing activities and lawful restrictions.
• Article 61 requires visitors not to damage forest soil or infrastructure and prohibits damage to vegetation, habitat, soil and forest litter. This is a damage rule; these captures do not establish whether every small recovery hole is prohibited or an available authorization covers it. No general detecting permission is inferred from access.
• Unit rules, closure signs and protected-area measures must be checked. Archaeological-purpose searching additionally requires institute approval under Cultural Goods Law 57.

Republika Srpska: protected-area detecting depends on controls not completely verified.

• Scope: protected areas in Republika Srpska. Закон о заштити природе (Nature Protection Law), 49/24, Article 75 prohibits works/activities damaging, disrupting or changing the protected characteristics. Potentially affecting works outside environmental-assessment procedures require institute expert conditions under 75(3); the project holder must notify the manager in writing under 75(4).
• Strict and special reserves have additional limits under 49–50, including manager permission for educational visits. National parks also have separate laws, plans and internal-order rules. Zakon o nacionalnim parkovima (National Parks Law), 75/10, Articles 8 and 14, provides park-institution consent for scientific research and ministerial internal-order rules; those are not a hobby detector permit.
• The 2024 Nature Protection Law repeals 20/14; previously protected places remain protected, pending proceedings continue under the previous law and consistent earlier regulations remain pending replacements. Its two-year manager alignment period does not suspend visitor protections. Complete current site instruments and ordinary-loss recovery rules were not captured.

Republika Srpska: private consent alone does not settle ordinary detecting.

• Scope: Republika Srpska only. Закон о културним добрима (Cultural Goods Law), 38/22, Articles 52–57, requires institute approval for archaeological research, with the eligibility and activity limits stated here. Article 105 repeals the older 11/95 and 103/08 law; Article 106 provides entry into force on the eighth day after publication. Complete later implementing forms and project conditions were not verified.
• The Real Rights Law regulates ownership subject to statutory restrictions. Arrange lawful access with the rights-holder; that agreement does not substitute for archaeological research approval or transfer ownership of an archaeological find.
• No current blanket authorization for non-archaeological modern-loss detecting on private land was established. Protected cultural property, forests and nature areas can impose additional restrictions.

Republika Srpska: archaeological excavation is limited to approved eligible institutions.

• Scope: Republika Srpska only. Закон о културним добрима (Cultural Goods Law), 38/22, Articles 52–57, requires institute approval for archaeological research, with the eligibility and activity limits stated here. Article 105 repeals the older 11/95 and 103/08 law; Article 106 provides entry into force on the eighth day after publication. Complete later implementing forms and project conditions were not verified.
• The detector rule applies to searching for archaeological remains, including attempts to locate subsurface finds or structures. Approval is for archaeological research rather than an unrestricted hobby license.
• Article 52 permits excavation/research by protection, scientific-research or higher-education institutions with an appropriate study program. The applicant needs a project, qualified staff, equipment and funding for investigation and conservation; if normal use of the place must be restricted, arrangements governing that use must be documented.
• Article 52(5) allows an expedited approval procedure where destruction, damage or disappearance is reasonably threatened; it does not waive approval. Article 54 specifies area, work, duration and protective obligations. Article 57 permits suspension and cancellation for noncompliance.
• Land access, national-monument measures, nature protection and reporting/ownership duties apply separately. Complete implementing forms and individual project requirements were not captured.

Republika Srpska: no unconditional right to keep every detector find.

• Scope: Republika Srpska only. Закон о културним добрима (Cultural Goods Law), 38/22, Articles 52–57, requires institute approval for archaeological research, with the eligibility and activity limits stated here. Article 105 repeals the older 11/95 and 103/08 law; Article 106 provides entry into force on the eighth day after publication. Complete later implementing forms and project conditions were not verified.
• Archaeological finds and remains found on the surface, in the ground or in water belong to Republika Srpska under Article 53(3); possessing an archaeological find or collection requires proof of origin under 53(2). Temporary research custody under 56(5), normally up to three years unless otherwise agreed with the custodian institution, is not finder ownership.
• Закон о стварним правима (Real Rights Law), Articles 120–125, separately treats lost property and long-hidden treasure. Lost or stolen objects remain their owner’s property. An unclaimed find may be delivered into the finder’s possession after one year from the public notice under 124, but that is not automatic ownership; a later claimant’s rights and the separate acquisitive-prescription requirements remain.
• Treasure means money, valuables or other valuable things hidden so long that the owner cannot be established. Under 125 it must be secured and reported without delay; if ownerless, it belongs to the local self-government unit. Finder and landowner rewards, necessary costs and the authority’s ability to relinquish it are separate from a general right to keep. Special archaeological ownership still applies.
• The official compilation includes 21/26 but does not reproduce every referenced constitutional-court decision. A complete current ownership outcome for every category and individual find has not been verified.

Republika Srpska: a finder cannot acquire archaeological finds merely by finding them.

• Scope: Republika Srpska only. Закон о културним добрима (Cultural Goods Law), 38/22, Articles 52–57, requires institute approval for archaeological research, with the eligibility and activity limits stated here. Article 105 repeals the older 11/95 and 103/08 law; Article 106 provides entry into force on the eighth day after publication. Complete later implementing forms and project conditions were not verified.
• Article 53(3) vests archaeological finds/remains found on the surface, in the ground or in water in Republika Srpska. Proof of origin is required for possession under 53(2).
• Article 56(5) permits an approved research holder to retain movable finds for scientific study for up to three years unless a different arrangement is made with their custodian institution. This is custody for research, not private ownership.

Republika Srpska: promptly return or surrender ordinary lost finds; report treasure and archaeological discoveries.

• Scope: Republika Srpska only. Закон о културним добрима (Cultural Goods Law), 38/22, Articles 52–57, requires institute approval for archaeological research, with the eligibility and activity limits stated here. Article 105 repeals the older 11/95 and 103/08 law; Article 106 provides entry into force on the eighth day after publication. Complete later implementing forms and project conditions were not verified.
• Real Rights Law 120(1) requires a finder to return a lost, mislaid or stolen object without delay to the person who lost it or its owner, if identifiable from marks or circumstances. If not returned, 120(2) requires delivery without delay to the nearest police station or other competent authority, directly or through the person in whose premises or vehicle it was found. The authority-delivery duty excludes things of generally negligible value.
• Article 125(3) requires notice of treasure to the competent authority without delay and necessary protection until delivery. It does not name a single nationwide treasure office.
• Under Cultural Goods Law 53(1), a contractor encountering an archaeological site or find during construction or other work must immediately stop, notify Републички завод за заштиту културно-историјског и природног насљеђа (Republic Institute for the Protection of Cultural, Historical and Natural Heritage), prevent damage and preserve it in place and position. This is distinct from ordinary lost-property delivery; do not move an archaeological find in reliance on the treasure-custody provision.
• The currentness basis is the official property compilation through 21/26 and cultural-goods 38/22; no standard hobby form or fee was verified.

Sarajevo Canton: national-monument detecting and recovery need specific confirmation.

• Scope: Sarajevo Canton only.
• Federation national-monument protection is governed by individual Commission decisions and the implementation framework. Uredba o obavljanju prethodnih radova istražnog karaktera na nacionalnim spomenicima (National Monuments Preliminary Investigative Works Regulation), 36/08 with 20/26, applies to monuments within the Federation; it is a research/conservation workflow, not general hobby permission.
• Article 3 requires prior Federal Spatial Planning Ministry consent for covered investigative works. The 2026 amendment replaces Article 4(3)’s ownership-or-consent document with a land-register extract no older than 30 days. Staff, plan, heritage opinion, funding, supervision and start-notification duties remain separate.
• The Commission’s individual decision, exact protected boundary and proposed recovery method require confirmation. Cantonal heritage approval does not by itself settle the federal monument requirements.

Sarajevo Canton: recreational shore detecting and recovery remain unresolved.

• Scope: Sarajevo Canton only.
• This row covers inland shores and bathing areas in this canton; no marine-coast rule is assigned to it.
• Zakon o vodama (Water Law), 70/06, and the official cantonal water-law index distinguish water administration and use from other legal controls. Public enjoyment or bathing access does not settle detecting, digging, heritage approval or ownership. Complete current water/shore instruments and recovery permissions were not captured.

Sarajevo Canton: forest access and target recovery need current territorial confirmation.

• Scope: Sarajevo Canton only.
• The federal ministry’s 2023 forest report with 2024 plans describes the former federal forest law ceasing in 2009 and nine cantons adopting forestry rules. That historical report and the current ministry index are source-map evidence, not a current visitor code or proof that forests lack restrictions.
• The complete current forest law, management restrictions and detector/recovery permissions for this scope were not obtained. Recreational entry, where available, does not itself authorize soil disturbance or retention of a find. Heritage, protected-area, land-right and closure controls must be checked separately.

Sarajevo Canton: protected-area detecting requires the applicable designation and management rules.

• Scope: Sarajevo Canton only.
• Zakon o zaštiti prirode (Nature Protection Law), 66/13, is read with Zakon o izmjenama i dopunama Zakona o zaštiti prirode (Law Amending and Supplementing the Nature Protection Law), 10/25. Under Article 159, interventions and activities must not damage the protected value or alter the characteristics for which it is protected. As amended by Article 51 of 10/25, the Federal Ministry issues permits for categories Ia, Ib and II; the cantonal ministry issues permits for categories III–VI and may issue procedural guidelines. Permits are issued by decision, contain nature-protection conditions and are subject to appeal to the competent ministry. Activities under forestry, hunting, fishing, water-management and mining plans must both comply with protected-area goals, protection measures and management plans and have competent-ministry consent.
• Article 144, as amended by Article 38 of 10/25, retains federal parliamentary designation by law for categories I and II. Categories III–VI may be designated by cantonal assembly law or cantonal-government decision; those spanning two or more cantons require federal law with the cantonal assemblies’ consent. A city or municipal council may designate those categories within one city or municipality with competent-ministry consent. Under amended Article 145, a separate federal-government or cantonal-assembly decision may establish an outside buffer zone and protection measures on the relevant ministry’s proposal. Designation and buffer instruments therefore matter as well as the area boundary.
• Under Article 151, as amended by Article 43 of 10/25, the federal government establishes public enterprises for category I–II management, while cantonal assemblies establish public institutions for other protected areas and values; forming new enterprises or institutions still requires the prior decision of the Federal Parliament or cantonal assembly stated in Article 151. This public-manager regime excludes protected wild species/subspecies, native species/subspecies, minerals, tufa, fossils and cave formations. Management of categories IIIa, IIIb, IV, V and VI may also be entrusted to public institutions or enterprises founded by a city or municipal council. Amended Articles 154–156 distinguish spatial plans, ten-year management plans and annual programs. Article 155 adds municipal heads or city mayors to the management-plan adoption authorities and local nature-protection administrative services to the proposing authorities; a new plan is due at least 30 days before the existing plan expires. Legal and natural persons conducting activities must comply with the plan. The manager’s competent body adopts its annual program with federal-ministry consent, or cantonal-ministry consent where it concerns the canton.
• Article 49 of 10/25 deletes the former Article 158(1)–(2) provisions about internal-order rules; they are not presented here as an unchanged current requirement. The remaining Article 158 supervision provisions and new Articles 158a–158c concern nature-protection supervisors. Deletion alone does not establish that every existing local rule has ceased to apply. Article 241 still provides for temporary management guidelines before a management plan, with federal and competent cantonal ministries’ consent and without public inspection, but new 241(2) bars further temporary guidelines after ten years of implementation of the management plan referred to in 241(1). Article 247 retains older 33/03 implementing rules only insofar as consistent and pending replacement; repeal of the old statute does not create a visitor exemption.
• Article 160 allows visits only in ways that do not endanger protected values or protection, under equal conditions consistent with the law and its implementing rules; visits may be restricted or prohibited where conservation would be endangered. Visiting access is not a detector or recovery permit. The captured 10/25 amendment was published February 12, 2025 and states eighth-day commencement. Complete later amendments, individual-area instruments, current management plans and cantonal/local implementation were not established by this evidence set.

Sarajevo Canton: landowner agreement alone does not establish detecting permission.

• Scope: Sarajevo Canton only.
• Arrange lawful entry with the rights-holder; private ownership does not remove applicable heritage, monument, forest or nature controls. The Federation property law makes ownership subject to legal limits. An agreement about access does not itself award title to finds.
• Zakon o zaštiti kulturne baštine (Cultural Heritage Protection Law), 2/00 with 37/08, Article 27 requires an archaeological excavation/research application to Kantonalni zavod za zaštitu kulturno-historijskog i prirodnog naslijeđa Sarajevo (Sarajevo Cantonal Heritage Institute). Approval depends on appropriate staff and equipment. Article 24 also controls work at protected/buffer, recorded potential and reasonably suspected heritage areas. This does not establish an ordinary modern-loss detecting permission. The government portal was inaccessible; the independent institute supplied the full base/amendment texts.
• The complete rule for non-archaeological modern-loss detecting and target recovery on private land remains unresolved.

Sarajevo Canton: archaeological excavation/research requires approved qualified work.

• Scope: Sarajevo Canton only.
• Zakon o zaštiti kulturne baštine (Cultural Heritage Protection Law), 2/00 with 37/08, Article 27 requires an archaeological excavation/research application to Kantonalni zavod za zaštitu kulturno-historijskog i prirodnog naslijeđa Sarajevo (Sarajevo Cantonal Heritage Institute). Approval depends on appropriate staff and equipment. Article 24 also controls work at protected/buffer, recorded potential and reasonably suspected heritage areas. This does not establish an ordinary modern-loss detecting permission. The government portal was inaccessible; the independent institute supplied the full base/amendment texts.
• Legal or natural applicants need appropriate staff and equipment; the Institute must refuse an inadequately equipped/staffed applicant. The decision specifies area, scope and protection. This authorization concerns archaeological work, not an unrestricted detector hobby license.
• Access and find custody remain separate; complete implementing forms and standard hobby fees were not verified.

Sarajevo Canton: finding an object does not establish unrestricted ownership.

• Scope: Sarajevo Canton only.
• Zakon o stvarnim pravima (Real Rights Law), 66/13 with 100/13, Articles 120–125 distinguishes ordinary lost objects from long-hidden treasure. Losing an object does not abandon ownership. Under 124, one year after the public notice an unclaimed/unproven or refused find can pass to the finder’s immediate possession; this is not immediate ownership, and a later rightful claimant can require its return subject to costs and reward.
• Treasure under 125 means valuables hidden so long that the owner cannot be identified. If genuinely ownerless it belongs to the local government unit; prompt notice and protection are required. Finder and landowner rewards/costs, concealment disqualification, the building-right holder’s analogous position, and the authority’s option to relinquish it into joint independent possession are separate from unconditional finder title. Special heritage allocation remains separate.
• The captured 2013 amendment changes timing language in 370–372, not 120–125. The 2026 government item reports a further proposal, not a verified enactment. Complete subsequent court-decision/amendment effects and every category of find remain unresolved.
• Zakon o zaštiti kulturne baštine (Cultural Heritage Protection Law), 2/00 with 37/08, Article 27 requires an archaeological excavation/research application to Kantonalni zavod za zaštitu kulturno-historijskog i prirodnog naslijeđa Sarajevo (Sarajevo Cantonal Heritage Institute). Approval depends on appropriate staff and equipment. Article 24 also controls work at protected/buffer, recorded potential and reasonably suspected heritage areas. This does not establish an ordinary modern-loss detecting permission. The government portal was inaccessible; the independent institute supplied the full base/amendment texts.
• Within the Federation only, Zakon o zaštiti prirode (Nature Protection Law), 66/13, as amended by Zakon o izmjenama i dopunama Zakona o zaštiti prirode (Law Amending and Supplementing the Nature Protection Law), 10/25, separates natural finds from ordinary lost objects and archaeological finds. Amended Article 125 declares minerals, tufa (sedra), fossils and cave formations (sigovine) state-owned; this is the amended wording, not the former statement of Federation ownership. The Article 8 mineral definition excludes mineral raw materials. Article 125 prohibits destruction of these natural objects and damage to their deposits. Its exception requires Federal Ministry permission for active conservation and/or revitalization without which essential area characteristics would change and/or flooding or another natural disaster could occur, or where the Federation’s interest or a clearly expressed public interest applies, with a technical study adopted by the ministry.
• For those natural objects, Articles 126–128 distinguish protected values and sites, in-place preservation and protective custody from ownership. Taking protected objects or objects at a protected deposit is prohibited, except that the Federal Ministry may permit taking for scientific or professional research, education or exhibitions. Protective custody is not finder ownership. Amended Article 131 separately requires a Federal Ministry permit for taking or exploiting these objects from nature for placing on the market, based on an expert study during preliminary environmental-impact assessment and before urban-planning consent/location information; the ministry must find that taking will not significantly endanger geodiversity in view of distribution and quantity. The permit specifies protection conditions, type and quantity, lasts at most one year, is handed to the buyer on sale, and requires trading records to be supplied to the ministry. This is not a general hobby-detecting permission. Later completeness and implementing procedures remain unverified.

Sarajevo Canton: finding heritage does not give the finder title.

• Scope: Sarajevo Canton only.
• Article 28 assigns heritage found during excavation, other work or accidentally to the canton. Under 37/08 Article 9 the finder delivers it to the Museum of Sarajevo; subsequent category-based museum custody and a reward conditional on protection do not confer finder ownership.
• This special heritage row does not decide ownership of every modern lost object; ordinary property rules remain separate.

Sarajevo Canton: promptly return or surrender ordinary lost property and report treasure.

• Scope: Sarajevo Canton only.
• Real Rights Law 120(1) requires return without delay to the identifiable person who lost the thing or its owner. If not returned, 120(2) requires delivery without delay to the nearest police station or another competent authority, directly or through the person in whose premises or vehicle it was found. Only authority delivery has the generally negligible-value exception.
• Article 125(3) requires notice of treasure to the competent state authority without delay and necessary protection pending handover. These ordinary-property provisions do not authorize disturbing archaeological material or displace special heritage duties. No single Federation-wide hobby reporting form was verified.
• Heritage Law 10 requires potential heritage reporting to a body/service under 45–46 and examination by the Institute. Under 28 as amended by 37/08 Article 9, found heritage must be handed to Muzej Sarajeva (Museum of Sarajevo), replacing the original Institute recipient. The reward remains conditional on protection designation. During works, 25 requires stopping and Institute notification without delay, with a maximum 60-day stop pending measures.
• Basis: captured Federation 66/13 and 100/13 provisions; complete later court-decision/currentness record and special procedures are not certified.
• Within the Federation only, Nature Protection Law 66/13, read with amendment 10/25, also governs specified natural discoveries. Under amended Article 129(1), the finder of minerals, tufa or fossils that could constitute a protected natural value under Article 126 must report to the Federal Ministry within eight days of discovery and take necessary measures against destruction, damage or theft. Unless the ministry determines otherwise, the finder must not conduct activities at the findspot that could destroy or damage the find, apart from protection measures. The ministry decides on deposit research within 30 days of the report after obtaining the Federal Institute’s opinion; its research decision includes protection measures. Landowners and persons carrying out the activity in which the find arose must allow research under the ministry’s decision; research is carried out by an authorized person under a Federal Ministry permit. The eight-day wording names minerals, tufa and fossils; it is not stated here as a deadline for every ordinary object or cave formation.
• Discovery of any speleological feature or part must be reported to both the Federal Ministry and the cantonal ministry within fifteen days under Article 44(6). The notice must include its location and description under new Article 44a(2). Amended 44(7) requires a Federal Ministry decision within ninety days of the discovery report, with safeguarding measures and protection conditions, based on the opinion of the Federal Institute, a cantonal nature-protection institute or an expert commission formed by the competent ministry, with a recommendation for further action. Article 44(8) provides that if the ministries issue no decision within that period, research and protection are deemed unnecessary and the person may continue works or interventions under special legislation. That provision is separate from the following works-discovery procedure; it is not treated as an ordinary detector permission.
• If a speleological feature is discovered during construction or other works on or below the ground, on land, in water or at sea, new Article 44a requires the person doing the work to stop at the discovery location and notify the competent ministry and the local-government unit without delay in writing, including location and description. The competent ministry appoints a commission for urgent research and an expert finding within twenty days of receiving that notice, at the investor’s expense. Within ten days after that finding it either permits continuation with safeguarding/protection measures or temporarily stops the works. Following a temporary stop, a commission performs detailed research and an expert finding within thirty days of that decision, at the investor’s expense; within fifteen days after this finding the ministry permits continuation by lifting the temporary stop or permanently stops the works. These are natural-feature procedures, distinct from lost-property and archaeological reporting. No assumption is made that a deadline overrides this decision process; complete later amendments and implementation remain unverified.

Tuzla Canton: national-monument detecting and recovery need specific confirmation.

• Scope: Tuzla Canton only.
• Federation national-monument protection is governed by individual Commission decisions and the implementation framework. Uredba o obavljanju prethodnih radova istražnog karaktera na nacionalnim spomenicima (National Monuments Preliminary Investigative Works Regulation), 36/08 with 20/26, applies to monuments within the Federation; it is a research/conservation workflow, not general hobby permission.
• Article 3 requires prior Federal Spatial Planning Ministry consent for covered investigative works. The 2026 amendment replaces Article 4(3)’s ownership-or-consent document with a land-register extract no older than 30 days. Staff, plan, heritage opinion, funding, supervision and start-notification duties remain separate.
• The Commission’s individual decision, exact protected boundary and proposed recovery method require confirmation. Cantonal heritage approval does not by itself settle the federal monument requirements.

Tuzla Canton: recreational shore detecting and recovery remain unresolved.

• Scope: Tuzla Canton only.
• This row covers inland shores and bathing areas in this canton; no marine-coast rule is assigned to it.
• Zakon o vodama (Water Law), 70/06, and the official cantonal water-law index distinguish water administration and use from other legal controls. Public enjoyment or bathing access does not settle detecting, digging, heritage approval or ownership. Complete current water/shore instruments and recovery permissions were not captured.

Tuzla Canton: forest access and target recovery need current territorial confirmation.

• Scope: Tuzla Canton only.
• The federal ministry’s 2023 forest report with 2024 plans describes the former federal forest law ceasing in 2009 and nine cantons adopting forestry rules. That historical report and the current ministry index are source-map evidence, not a current visitor code or proof that forests lack restrictions.
• The complete current forest law, management restrictions and detector/recovery permissions for this scope were not obtained. Recreational entry, where available, does not itself authorize soil disturbance or retention of a find. Heritage, protected-area, land-right and closure controls must be checked separately.

Tuzla Canton: protected-area detecting requires the applicable designation and management rules.

• Scope: Tuzla Canton only.
• Zakon o zaštiti prirode (Nature Protection Law), 66/13, is read with Zakon o izmjenama i dopunama Zakona o zaštiti prirode (Law Amending and Supplementing the Nature Protection Law), 10/25. Under Article 159, interventions and activities must not damage the protected value or alter the characteristics for which it is protected. As amended by Article 51 of 10/25, the Federal Ministry issues permits for categories Ia, Ib and II; the cantonal ministry issues permits for categories III–VI and may issue procedural guidelines. Permits are issued by decision, contain nature-protection conditions and are subject to appeal to the competent ministry. Activities under forestry, hunting, fishing, water-management and mining plans must both comply with protected-area goals, protection measures and management plans and have competent-ministry consent.
• Article 144, as amended by Article 38 of 10/25, retains federal parliamentary designation by law for categories I and II. Categories III–VI may be designated by cantonal assembly law or cantonal-government decision; those spanning two or more cantons require federal law with the cantonal assemblies’ consent. A city or municipal council may designate those categories within one city or municipality with competent-ministry consent. Under amended Article 145, a separate federal-government or cantonal-assembly decision may establish an outside buffer zone and protection measures on the relevant ministry’s proposal. Designation and buffer instruments therefore matter as well as the area boundary.
• Under Article 151, as amended by Article 43 of 10/25, the federal government establishes public enterprises for category I–II management, while cantonal assemblies establish public institutions for other protected areas and values; forming new enterprises or institutions still requires the prior decision of the Federal Parliament or cantonal assembly stated in Article 151. This public-manager regime excludes protected wild species/subspecies, native species/subspecies, minerals, tufa, fossils and cave formations. Management of categories IIIa, IIIb, IV, V and VI may also be entrusted to public institutions or enterprises founded by a city or municipal council. Amended Articles 154–156 distinguish spatial plans, ten-year management plans and annual programs. Article 155 adds municipal heads or city mayors to the management-plan adoption authorities and local nature-protection administrative services to the proposing authorities; a new plan is due at least 30 days before the existing plan expires. Legal and natural persons conducting activities must comply with the plan. The manager’s competent body adopts its annual program with federal-ministry consent, or cantonal-ministry consent where it concerns the canton.
• Article 49 of 10/25 deletes the former Article 158(1)–(2) provisions about internal-order rules; they are not presented here as an unchanged current requirement. The remaining Article 158 supervision provisions and new Articles 158a–158c concern nature-protection supervisors. Deletion alone does not establish that every existing local rule has ceased to apply. Article 241 still provides for temporary management guidelines before a management plan, with federal and competent cantonal ministries’ consent and without public inspection, but new 241(2) bars further temporary guidelines after ten years of implementation of the management plan referred to in 241(1). Article 247 retains older 33/03 implementing rules only insofar as consistent and pending replacement; repeal of the old statute does not create a visitor exemption.
• Article 160 allows visits only in ways that do not endanger protected values or protection, under equal conditions consistent with the law and its implementing rules; visits may be restricted or prohibited where conservation would be endangered. Visiting access is not a detector or recovery permit. The captured 10/25 amendment was published February 12, 2025 and states eighth-day commencement. Complete later amendments, individual-area instruments, current management plans and cantonal/local implementation were not established by this evidence set.

Tuzla Canton: landowner agreement alone does not establish detecting permission.

• Scope: Tuzla Canton only.
• Arrange lawful entry with the rights-holder; private ownership does not remove applicable heritage, monument, forest or nature controls. The Federation property law makes ownership subject to legal limits. An agreement about access does not itself award title to finds.
• Zakon o zaštiti kulturne baštine Tuzlanskog kantona (Tuzla Canton Cultural Heritage Protection Law), 16/20, replaces the earlier heritage law in the canton under 62. Article 32 controls archaeological research through Ministarstvo za kulturu, sport i mlade Tuzlanskog kantona (Tuzla Ministry for Culture, Sport and Youth), with institute opinion and required staff/equipment. This research provision does not expressly decide every ordinary modern-loss detector sweep.
• The complete rule for non-archaeological modern-loss detecting and target recovery on private land remains unresolved.

Tuzla Canton: archaeological excavation/research requires approved qualified work.

• Scope: Tuzla Canton only.
• Zakon o zaštiti kulturne baštine Tuzlanskog kantona (Tuzla Canton Cultural Heritage Protection Law), 16/20, replaces the earlier heritage law in the canton under 62. Article 32 controls archaeological research through Ministarstvo za kulturu, sport i mlade Tuzlanskog kantona (Tuzla Ministry for Culture, Sport and Youth), with institute opinion and required staff/equipment. This research provision does not expressly decide every ordinary modern-loss detector sweep.
• Legal or natural applicants must prove professional and technical capacity. Ministry obtains Institute opinion; the decision specifies area, scope, protection, staff and equipment and mandatory professional attendance from Muzej istočne Bosne (Museum of Eastern Bosnia). It must refuse inadequate staffing/equipment; no administrative appeal, but judicial review remains available under 32(5).
• Access and find custody remain separate; complete implementing forms and standard hobby fees were not verified.

Tuzla Canton: finding an object does not establish unrestricted ownership.

• Scope: Tuzla Canton only.
• Zakon o stvarnim pravima (Real Rights Law), 66/13 with 100/13, Articles 120–125 distinguishes ordinary lost objects from long-hidden treasure. Losing an object does not abandon ownership. Under 124, one year after the public notice an unclaimed/unproven or refused find can pass to the finder’s immediate possession; this is not immediate ownership, and a later rightful claimant can require its return subject to costs and reward.
• Treasure under 125 means valuables hidden so long that the owner cannot be identified. If genuinely ownerless it belongs to the local government unit; prompt notice and protection are required. Finder and landowner rewards/costs, concealment disqualification, the building-right holder’s analogous position, and the authority’s option to relinquish it into joint independent possession are separate from unconditional finder title. Special heritage allocation remains separate.
• The captured 2013 amendment changes timing language in 370–372, not 120–125. The 2026 government item reports a further proposal, not a verified enactment. Complete subsequent court-decision/amendment effects and every category of find remain unresolved.
• Zakon o zaštiti kulturne baštine Tuzlanskog kantona (Tuzla Canton Cultural Heritage Protection Law), 16/20, replaces the earlier heritage law in the canton under 62. Article 32 controls archaeological research through Ministarstvo za kulturu, sport i mlade Tuzlanskog kantona (Tuzla Ministry for Culture, Sport and Youth), with institute opinion and required staff/equipment. This research provision does not expressly decide every ordinary modern-loss detector sweep.
• Within the Federation only, Zakon o zaštiti prirode (Nature Protection Law), 66/13, as amended by Zakon o izmjenama i dopunama Zakona o zaštiti prirode (Law Amending and Supplementing the Nature Protection Law), 10/25, separates natural finds from ordinary lost objects and archaeological finds. Amended Article 125 declares minerals, tufa (sedra), fossils and cave formations (sigovine) state-owned; this is the amended wording, not the former statement of Federation ownership. The Article 8 mineral definition excludes mineral raw materials. Article 125 prohibits destruction of these natural objects and damage to their deposits. Its exception requires Federal Ministry permission for active conservation and/or revitalization without which essential area characteristics would change and/or flooding or another natural disaster could occur, or where the Federation’s interest or a clearly expressed public interest applies, with a technical study adopted by the ministry.
• For those natural objects, Articles 126–128 distinguish protected values and sites, in-place preservation and protective custody from ownership. Taking protected objects or objects at a protected deposit is prohibited, except that the Federal Ministry may permit taking for scientific or professional research, education or exhibitions. Protective custody is not finder ownership. Amended Article 131 separately requires a Federal Ministry permit for taking or exploiting these objects from nature for placing on the market, based on an expert study during preliminary environmental-impact assessment and before urban-planning consent/location information; the ministry must find that taking will not significantly endanger geodiversity in view of distribution and quantity. The permit specifies protection conditions, type and quantity, lasts at most one year, is handed to the buyer on sale, and requires trading records to be supplied to the ministry. This is not a general hobby-detecting permission. Later completeness and implementing procedures remain unverified.

Tuzla Canton: finding heritage does not give the finder title.

• Scope: Tuzla Canton only.
• Presumed heritage in earth or water belongs to the local government unit under 38(3);38(4) allows a person claiming ownership to bring a court action. Article 33 separately assigns research finds to the local unit, with processing at the Museum of Eastern Bosnia and later local-museum deposit where suitable; heritage qualification affects the statutory custody sequence. Finding alone is not ownership.
• This special heritage row does not decide ownership of every modern lost object; ordinary property rules remain separate.

Tuzla Canton: promptly return or surrender ordinary lost property and report treasure.

• Scope: Tuzla Canton only.
• Real Rights Law 120(1) requires return without delay to the identifiable person who lost the thing or its owner. If not returned, 120(2) requires delivery without delay to the nearest police station or another competent authority, directly or through the person in whose premises or vehicle it was found. Only authority delivery has the generally negligible-value exception.
• Article 125(3) requires notice of treasure to the competent state authority without delay and necessary protection pending handover. These ordinary-property provisions do not authorize disturbing archaeological material or displace special heritage duties. No single Federation-wide hobby reporting form was verified.
• Cultural Heritage Law 16 requires every legal or natural person to report a presumed heritage find within 24 hours to the competent public heritage-protection institution under 50. The institution’s eight-day assessment period is separate from the finder’s deadline. During construction work, 30 requires the investor to stop and notify the Institute without delay if unexpected danger or potential heritage appears.
• Basis: captured Federation 66/13 and 100/13 provisions; complete later court-decision/currentness record and special procedures are not certified.
• Within the Federation only, Nature Protection Law 66/13, read with amendment 10/25, also governs specified natural discoveries. Under amended Article 129(1), the finder of minerals, tufa or fossils that could constitute a protected natural value under Article 126 must report to the Federal Ministry within eight days of discovery and take necessary measures against destruction, damage or theft. Unless the ministry determines otherwise, the finder must not conduct activities at the findspot that could destroy or damage the find, apart from protection measures. The ministry decides on deposit research within 30 days of the report after obtaining the Federal Institute’s opinion; its research decision includes protection measures. Landowners and persons carrying out the activity in which the find arose must allow research under the ministry’s decision; research is carried out by an authorized person under a Federal Ministry permit. The eight-day wording names minerals, tufa and fossils; it is not stated here as a deadline for every ordinary object or cave formation.
• Discovery of any speleological feature or part must be reported to both the Federal Ministry and the cantonal ministry within fifteen days under Article 44(6). The notice must include its location and description under new Article 44a(2). Amended 44(7) requires a Federal Ministry decision within ninety days of the discovery report, with safeguarding measures and protection conditions, based on the opinion of the Federal Institute, a cantonal nature-protection institute or an expert commission formed by the competent ministry, with a recommendation for further action. Article 44(8) provides that if the ministries issue no decision within that period, research and protection are deemed unnecessary and the person may continue works or interventions under special legislation. That provision is separate from the following works-discovery procedure; it is not treated as an ordinary detector permission.
• If a speleological feature is discovered during construction or other works on or below the ground, on land, in water or at sea, new Article 44a requires the person doing the work to stop at the discovery location and notify the competent ministry and the local-government unit without delay in writing, including location and description. The competent ministry appoints a commission for urgent research and an expert finding within twenty days of receiving that notice, at the investor’s expense. Within ten days after that finding it either permits continuation with safeguarding/protection measures or temporarily stops the works. Following a temporary stop, a commission performs detailed research and an expert finding within thirty days of that decision, at the investor’s expense; within fifteen days after this finding the ministry permits continuation by lifting the temporary stop or permanently stops the works. These are natural-feature procedures, distinct from lost-property and archaeological reporting. No assumption is made that a deadline overrides this decision process; complete later amendments and implementation remain unverified.

Una-Sana Canton: national-monument detecting and recovery need specific confirmation.

• Scope: Una-Sana Canton only.
• Federation national-monument protection is governed by individual Commission decisions and the implementation framework. Uredba o obavljanju prethodnih radova istražnog karaktera na nacionalnim spomenicima (National Monuments Preliminary Investigative Works Regulation), 36/08 with 20/26, applies to monuments within the Federation; it is a research/conservation workflow, not general hobby permission.
• Article 3 requires prior Federal Spatial Planning Ministry consent for covered investigative works. The 2026 amendment replaces Article 4(3)’s ownership-or-consent document with a land-register extract no older than 30 days. Staff, plan, heritage opinion, funding, supervision and start-notification duties remain separate.
• The Commission’s individual decision, exact protected boundary and proposed recovery method require confirmation. Cantonal heritage approval does not by itself settle the federal monument requirements.

Una-Sana Canton: recreational shore detecting and recovery remain unresolved.

• Scope: Una-Sana Canton only.
• This row covers inland shores and bathing areas in this canton; no marine-coast rule is assigned to it.
• Zakon o vodama (Water Law), 70/06, and the official cantonal water-law index distinguish water administration and use from other legal controls. Public enjoyment or bathing access does not settle detecting, digging, heritage approval or ownership. Complete current water/shore instruments and recovery permissions were not captured.

Una-Sana Canton: forest access and target recovery need current territorial confirmation.

• Scope: Una-Sana Canton only.
• The federal ministry’s 2023 forest report with 2024 plans describes the former federal forest law ceasing in 2009 and nine cantons adopting forestry rules. That historical report and the current ministry index are source-map evidence, not a current visitor code or proof that forests lack restrictions.
• The complete current forest law, management restrictions and detector/recovery permissions for this scope were not obtained. Recreational entry, where available, does not itself authorize soil disturbance or retention of a find. Heritage, protected-area, land-right and closure controls must be checked separately.

Una-Sana Canton: protected-area detecting requires the applicable designation and management rules.

• Scope: Una-Sana Canton only.
• Zakon o zaštiti prirode (Nature Protection Law), 66/13, is read with Zakon o izmjenama i dopunama Zakona o zaštiti prirode (Law Amending and Supplementing the Nature Protection Law), 10/25. Under Article 159, interventions and activities must not damage the protected value or alter the characteristics for which it is protected. As amended by Article 51 of 10/25, the Federal Ministry issues permits for categories Ia, Ib and II; the cantonal ministry issues permits for categories III–VI and may issue procedural guidelines. Permits are issued by decision, contain nature-protection conditions and are subject to appeal to the competent ministry. Activities under forestry, hunting, fishing, water-management and mining plans must both comply with protected-area goals, protection measures and management plans and have competent-ministry consent.
• Article 144, as amended by Article 38 of 10/25, retains federal parliamentary designation by law for categories I and II. Categories III–VI may be designated by cantonal assembly law or cantonal-government decision; those spanning two or more cantons require federal law with the cantonal assemblies’ consent. A city or municipal council may designate those categories within one city or municipality with competent-ministry consent. Under amended Article 145, a separate federal-government or cantonal-assembly decision may establish an outside buffer zone and protection measures on the relevant ministry’s proposal. Designation and buffer instruments therefore matter as well as the area boundary.
• Under Article 151, as amended by Article 43 of 10/25, the federal government establishes public enterprises for category I–II management, while cantonal assemblies establish public institutions for other protected areas and values; forming new enterprises or institutions still requires the prior decision of the Federal Parliament or cantonal assembly stated in Article 151. This public-manager regime excludes protected wild species/subspecies, native species/subspecies, minerals, tufa, fossils and cave formations. Management of categories IIIa, IIIb, IV, V and VI may also be entrusted to public institutions or enterprises founded by a city or municipal council. Amended Articles 154–156 distinguish spatial plans, ten-year management plans and annual programs. Article 155 adds municipal heads or city mayors to the management-plan adoption authorities and local nature-protection administrative services to the proposing authorities; a new plan is due at least 30 days before the existing plan expires. Legal and natural persons conducting activities must comply with the plan. The manager’s competent body adopts its annual program with federal-ministry consent, or cantonal-ministry consent where it concerns the canton.
• Article 49 of 10/25 deletes the former Article 158(1)–(2) provisions about internal-order rules; they are not presented here as an unchanged current requirement. The remaining Article 158 supervision provisions and new Articles 158a–158c concern nature-protection supervisors. Deletion alone does not establish that every existing local rule has ceased to apply. Article 241 still provides for temporary management guidelines before a management plan, with federal and competent cantonal ministries’ consent and without public inspection, but new 241(2) bars further temporary guidelines after ten years of implementation of the management plan referred to in 241(1). Article 247 retains older 33/03 implementing rules only insofar as consistent and pending replacement; repeal of the old statute does not create a visitor exemption.
• Article 160 allows visits only in ways that do not endanger protected values or protection, under equal conditions consistent with the law and its implementing rules; visits may be restricted or prohibited where conservation would be endangered. Visiting access is not a detector or recovery permit. The captured 10/25 amendment was published February 12, 2025 and states eighth-day commencement. Complete later amendments, individual-area instruments, current management plans and cantonal/local implementation were not established by this evidence set.

Una-Sana Canton: landowner agreement alone does not establish detecting permission.

• Scope: Una-Sana Canton only.
• Arrange lawful entry with the rights-holder; private ownership does not remove applicable heritage, monument, forest or nature controls. The Federation property law makes ownership subject to legal limits. An agreement about access does not itself award title to finds.
• Zakon o zaštiti kulturnog naslijeđa (Cultural Heritage Protection Law), 3/04, Article 24 requires prior written permission for archaeological excavation and names Komisija za naslijeđe Bosne i Hercegovine (Bosnia and Herzegovina Heritage Commission). This is not an express general detector-use rule. Its present administrative relationship with the other federal/Commission procedures was not resolved; the Institute must not simply be substituted for the actor named in 24. Amendment 15/10 changes director qualifications only. The Institute cites both instruments in its September 2026 notice.
• The complete rule for non-archaeological modern-loss detecting and target recovery on private land remains unresolved.

Una-Sana Canton: finding an object does not establish unrestricted ownership.

• Scope: Una-Sana Canton only.
• Zakon o stvarnim pravima (Real Rights Law), 66/13 with 100/13, Articles 120–125 distinguishes ordinary lost objects from long-hidden treasure. Losing an object does not abandon ownership. Under 124, one year after the public notice an unclaimed/unproven or refused find can pass to the finder’s immediate possession; this is not immediate ownership, and a later rightful claimant can require its return subject to costs and reward.
• Treasure under 125 means valuables hidden so long that the owner cannot be identified. If genuinely ownerless it belongs to the local government unit; prompt notice and protection are required. Finder and landowner rewards/costs, concealment disqualification, the building-right holder’s analogous position, and the authority’s option to relinquish it into joint independent possession are separate from unconditional finder title. Special heritage allocation remains separate.
• The captured 2013 amendment changes timing language in 370–372, not 120–125. The 2026 government item reports a further proposal, not a verified enactment. Complete subsequent court-decision/amendment effects and every category of find remain unresolved.
• Zakon o zaštiti kulturnog naslijeđa (Cultural Heritage Protection Law), 3/04, Article 24 requires prior written permission for archaeological excavation and names Komisija za naslijeđe Bosne i Hercegovine (Bosnia and Herzegovina Heritage Commission). This is not an express general detector-use rule. Its present administrative relationship with the other federal/Commission procedures was not resolved; the Institute must not simply be substituted for the actor named in 24. Amendment 15/10 changes director qualifications only. The Institute cites both instruments in its September 2026 notice.
• Within the Federation only, Zakon o zaštiti prirode (Nature Protection Law), 66/13, as amended by Zakon o izmjenama i dopunama Zakona o zaštiti prirode (Law Amending and Supplementing the Nature Protection Law), 10/25, separates natural finds from ordinary lost objects and archaeological finds. Amended Article 125 declares minerals, tufa (sedra), fossils and cave formations (sigovine) state-owned; this is the amended wording, not the former statement of Federation ownership. The Article 8 mineral definition excludes mineral raw materials. Article 125 prohibits destruction of these natural objects and damage to their deposits. Its exception requires Federal Ministry permission for active conservation and/or revitalization without which essential area characteristics would change and/or flooding or another natural disaster could occur, or where the Federation’s interest or a clearly expressed public interest applies, with a technical study adopted by the ministry.
• For those natural objects, Articles 126–128 distinguish protected values and sites, in-place preservation and protective custody from ownership. Taking protected objects or objects at a protected deposit is prohibited, except that the Federal Ministry may permit taking for scientific or professional research, education or exhibitions. Protective custody is not finder ownership. Amended Article 131 separately requires a Federal Ministry permit for taking or exploiting these objects from nature for placing on the market, based on an expert study during preliminary environmental-impact assessment and before urban-planning consent/location information; the ministry must find that taking will not significantly endanger geodiversity in view of distribution and quantity. The permit specifies protection conditions, type and quantity, lasts at most one year, is handed to the buyer on sale, and requires trading records to be supplied to the ministry. This is not a general hobby-detecting permission. Later completeness and implementing procedures remain unverified.

Una-Sana Canton: promptly return or surrender ordinary lost property and report treasure.

• Scope: Una-Sana Canton only.
• Real Rights Law 120(1) requires return without delay to the identifiable person who lost the thing or its owner. If not returned, 120(2) requires delivery without delay to the nearest police station or another competent authority, directly or through the person in whose premises or vehicle it was found. Only authority delivery has the generally negligible-value exception.
• Article 125(3) requires notice of treasure to the competent state authority without delay and necessary protection pending handover. These ordinary-property provisions do not authorize disturbing archaeological material or displace special heritage duties. No single Federation-wide hobby reporting form was verified.
• The complete present special archaeological/heritage reporting recipient, deadline and custody scheme was not established for this entire territorial scope. The historical 1985 text and conditional continuity are not presented as a complete current procedure.
• Basis: captured Federation 66/13 and 100/13 provisions; complete later court-decision/currentness record and special procedures are not certified.
• Within the Federation only, Nature Protection Law 66/13, read with amendment 10/25, also governs specified natural discoveries. Under amended Article 129(1), the finder of minerals, tufa or fossils that could constitute a protected natural value under Article 126 must report to the Federal Ministry within eight days of discovery and take necessary measures against destruction, damage or theft. Unless the ministry determines otherwise, the finder must not conduct activities at the findspot that could destroy or damage the find, apart from protection measures. The ministry decides on deposit research within 30 days of the report after obtaining the Federal Institute’s opinion; its research decision includes protection measures. Landowners and persons carrying out the activity in which the find arose must allow research under the ministry’s decision; research is carried out by an authorized person under a Federal Ministry permit. The eight-day wording names minerals, tufa and fossils; it is not stated here as a deadline for every ordinary object or cave formation.
• Discovery of any speleological feature or part must be reported to both the Federal Ministry and the cantonal ministry within fifteen days under Article 44(6). The notice must include its location and description under new Article 44a(2). Amended 44(7) requires a Federal Ministry decision within ninety days of the discovery report, with safeguarding measures and protection conditions, based on the opinion of the Federal Institute, a cantonal nature-protection institute or an expert commission formed by the competent ministry, with a recommendation for further action. Article 44(8) provides that if the ministries issue no decision within that period, research and protection are deemed unnecessary and the person may continue works or interventions under special legislation. That provision is separate from the following works-discovery procedure; it is not treated as an ordinary detector permission.
• If a speleological feature is discovered during construction or other works on or below the ground, on land, in water or at sea, new Article 44a requires the person doing the work to stop at the discovery location and notify the competent ministry and the local-government unit without delay in writing, including location and description. The competent ministry appoints a commission for urgent research and an expert finding within twenty days of receiving that notice, at the investor’s expense. Within ten days after that finding it either permits continuation with safeguarding/protection measures or temporarily stops the works. Following a temporary stop, a commission performs detailed research and an expert finding within thirty days of that decision, at the investor’s expense; within fifteen days after this finding the ministry permits continuation by lifting the temporary stop or permanently stops the works. These are natural-feature procedures, distinct from lost-property and archaeological reporting. No assumption is made that a deadline overrides this decision process; complete later amendments and implementation remain unverified.

West Herzegovina Canton: national-monument detecting and recovery need specific confirmation.

• Scope: West Herzegovina Canton only.
• Federation national-monument protection is governed by individual Commission decisions and the implementation framework. Uredba o obavljanju prethodnih radova istražnog karaktera na nacionalnim spomenicima (National Monuments Preliminary Investigative Works Regulation), 36/08 with 20/26, applies to monuments within the Federation; it is a research/conservation workflow, not general hobby permission.
• Article 3 requires prior Federal Spatial Planning Ministry consent for covered investigative works. The 2026 amendment replaces Article 4(3)’s ownership-or-consent document with a land-register extract no older than 30 days. Staff, plan, heritage opinion, funding, supervision and start-notification duties remain separate.
• The Commission’s individual decision, exact protected boundary and proposed recovery method require confirmation. Cantonal heritage approval does not by itself settle the federal monument requirements.

West Herzegovina Canton: recreational shore detecting and recovery remain unresolved.

• Scope: West Herzegovina Canton only.
• This row covers inland shores and bathing areas in this canton; no marine-coast rule is assigned to it.
• Zakon o vodama (Water Law), 70/06, and the official cantonal water-law index distinguish water administration and use from other legal controls. Public enjoyment or bathing access does not settle detecting, digging, heritage approval or ownership. Complete current water/shore instruments and recovery permissions were not captured.

West Herzegovina Canton: forest access and target recovery need current territorial confirmation.

• Scope: West Herzegovina Canton only.
• The federal ministry’s 2023 forest report with 2024 plans describes the former federal forest law ceasing in 2009 and nine cantons adopting forestry rules. That historical report and the current ministry index are source-map evidence, not a current visitor code or proof that forests lack restrictions.
• The complete current forest law, management restrictions and detector/recovery permissions for this scope were not obtained. Recreational entry, where available, does not itself authorize soil disturbance or retention of a find. Heritage, protected-area, land-right and closure controls must be checked separately.

West Herzegovina Canton: protected-area detecting requires the applicable designation and management rules.

• Scope: West Herzegovina Canton only.
• Zakon o zaštiti prirode (Nature Protection Law), 66/13, is read with Zakon o izmjenama i dopunama Zakona o zaštiti prirode (Law Amending and Supplementing the Nature Protection Law), 10/25. Under Article 159, interventions and activities must not damage the protected value or alter the characteristics for which it is protected. As amended by Article 51 of 10/25, the Federal Ministry issues permits for categories Ia, Ib and II; the cantonal ministry issues permits for categories III–VI and may issue procedural guidelines. Permits are issued by decision, contain nature-protection conditions and are subject to appeal to the competent ministry. Activities under forestry, hunting, fishing, water-management and mining plans must both comply with protected-area goals, protection measures and management plans and have competent-ministry consent.
• Article 144, as amended by Article 38 of 10/25, retains federal parliamentary designation by law for categories I and II. Categories III–VI may be designated by cantonal assembly law or cantonal-government decision; those spanning two or more cantons require federal law with the cantonal assemblies’ consent. A city or municipal council may designate those categories within one city or municipality with competent-ministry consent. Under amended Article 145, a separate federal-government or cantonal-assembly decision may establish an outside buffer zone and protection measures on the relevant ministry’s proposal. Designation and buffer instruments therefore matter as well as the area boundary.
• Under Article 151, as amended by Article 43 of 10/25, the federal government establishes public enterprises for category I–II management, while cantonal assemblies establish public institutions for other protected areas and values; forming new enterprises or institutions still requires the prior decision of the Federal Parliament or cantonal assembly stated in Article 151. This public-manager regime excludes protected wild species/subspecies, native species/subspecies, minerals, tufa, fossils and cave formations. Management of categories IIIa, IIIb, IV, V and VI may also be entrusted to public institutions or enterprises founded by a city or municipal council. Amended Articles 154–156 distinguish spatial plans, ten-year management plans and annual programs. Article 155 adds municipal heads or city mayors to the management-plan adoption authorities and local nature-protection administrative services to the proposing authorities; a new plan is due at least 30 days before the existing plan expires. Legal and natural persons conducting activities must comply with the plan. The manager’s competent body adopts its annual program with federal-ministry consent, or cantonal-ministry consent where it concerns the canton.
• Article 49 of 10/25 deletes the former Article 158(1)–(2) provisions about internal-order rules; they are not presented here as an unchanged current requirement. The remaining Article 158 supervision provisions and new Articles 158a–158c concern nature-protection supervisors. Deletion alone does not establish that every existing local rule has ceased to apply. Article 241 still provides for temporary management guidelines before a management plan, with federal and competent cantonal ministries’ consent and without public inspection, but new 241(2) bars further temporary guidelines after ten years of implementation of the management plan referred to in 241(1). Article 247 retains older 33/03 implementing rules only insofar as consistent and pending replacement; repeal of the old statute does not create a visitor exemption.
• Article 160 allows visits only in ways that do not endanger protected values or protection, under equal conditions consistent with the law and its implementing rules; visits may be restricted or prohibited where conservation would be endangered. Visiting access is not a detector or recovery permit. The captured 10/25 amendment was published February 12, 2025 and states eighth-day commencement. Complete later amendments, individual-area instruments, current management plans and cantonal/local implementation were not established by this evidence set.

West Herzegovina Canton: landowner agreement alone does not establish detecting permission.

• Scope: West Herzegovina Canton only.
• Arrange lawful entry with the rights-holder; private ownership does not remove applicable heritage, monument, forest or nature controls. The Federation property law makes ownership subject to legal limits. An agreement about access does not itself award title to finds.
• Zakon o zaštiti i korištenju kulturno-povijesne i prirodne baštine (Cultural, Historical and Natural Heritage Protection and Use Law), 6/99, distinguishes archaeological/other heritage research by legal persons with Institute approval in 57(1) from scientific research by legal or natural persons with Institute/protection-organization approval in 57(3). No general hobby detector authorization is inferred. The government’s 2026 meeting report describes the existing 1999 law and a new nature-law draft; the draft is not treated as enacted.
• The complete rule for non-archaeological modern-loss detecting and target recovery on private land remains unresolved.

West Herzegovina Canton: archaeological excavation/research requires approved qualified work.

• Scope: West Herzegovina Canton only.
• Zakon o zaštiti i korištenju kulturno-povijesne i prirodne baštine (Cultural, Historical and Natural Heritage Protection and Use Law), 6/99, distinguishes archaeological/other heritage research by legal persons with Institute approval in 57(1) from scientific research by legal or natural persons with Institute/protection-organization approval in 57(3). No general hobby detector authorization is inferred. The government’s 2026 meeting report describes the existing 1999 law and a new nature-law draft; the draft is not treated as enacted.
• Article 57(1) archaeological and other heritage research is by legal persons under a research program and Institute approval, after the relevant municipal authority’s opinion.57(3) separately allows scientific research by legal or natural persons with Institute/protection-organization approval. Do not merge those actor categories. Approval sets area, scope, conditions and protection. Six-month reporting and conservation/custody duties under 59–62 are not finder ownership.
• Access and find custody remain separate; complete implementing forms and standard hobby fees were not verified.

West Herzegovina Canton: finding an object does not establish unrestricted ownership.

• Scope: West Herzegovina Canton only.
• Zakon o stvarnim pravima (Real Rights Law), 66/13 with 100/13, Articles 120–125 distinguishes ordinary lost objects from long-hidden treasure. Losing an object does not abandon ownership. Under 124, one year after the public notice an unclaimed/unproven or refused find can pass to the finder’s immediate possession; this is not immediate ownership, and a later rightful claimant can require its return subject to costs and reward.
• Treasure under 125 means valuables hidden so long that the owner cannot be identified. If genuinely ownerless it belongs to the local government unit; prompt notice and protection are required. Finder and landowner rewards/costs, concealment disqualification, the building-right holder’s analogous position, and the authority’s option to relinquish it into joint independent possession are separate from unconditional finder title. Special heritage allocation remains separate.
• The captured 2013 amendment changes timing language in 370–372, not 120–125. The 2026 government item reports a further proposal, not a verified enactment. Complete subsequent court-decision/amendment effects and every category of find remain unresolved.
• Zakon o zaštiti i korištenju kulturno-povijesne i prirodne baštine (Cultural, Historical and Natural Heritage Protection and Use Law), 6/99, distinguishes archaeological/other heritage research by legal persons with Institute approval in 57(1) from scientific research by legal or natural persons with Institute/protection-organization approval in 57(3). No general hobby detector authorization is inferred. The government’s 2026 meeting report describes the existing 1999 law and a new nature-law draft; the draft is not treated as enacted.
• Within the Federation only, Zakon o zaštiti prirode (Nature Protection Law), 66/13, as amended by Zakon o izmjenama i dopunama Zakona o zaštiti prirode (Law Amending and Supplementing the Nature Protection Law), 10/25, separates natural finds from ordinary lost objects and archaeological finds. Amended Article 125 declares minerals, tufa (sedra), fossils and cave formations (sigovine) state-owned; this is the amended wording, not the former statement of Federation ownership. The Article 8 mineral definition excludes mineral raw materials. Article 125 prohibits destruction of these natural objects and damage to their deposits. Its exception requires Federal Ministry permission for active conservation and/or revitalization without which essential area characteristics would change and/or flooding or another natural disaster could occur, or where the Federation’s interest or a clearly expressed public interest applies, with a technical study adopted by the ministry.
• For those natural objects, Articles 126–128 distinguish protected values and sites, in-place preservation and protective custody from ownership. Taking protected objects or objects at a protected deposit is prohibited, except that the Federal Ministry may permit taking for scientific or professional research, education or exhibitions. Protective custody is not finder ownership. Amended Article 131 separately requires a Federal Ministry permit for taking or exploiting these objects from nature for placing on the market, based on an expert study during preliminary environmental-impact assessment and before urban-planning consent/location information; the ministry must find that taking will not significantly endanger geodiversity in view of distribution and quantity. The permit specifies protection conditions, type and quantity, lasts at most one year, is handed to the buyer on sale, and requires trading records to be supplied to the ministry. This is not a general hobby-detecting permission. Later completeness and implementing procedures remain unverified.

West Herzegovina Canton: finding heritage does not give the finder title.

• Scope: West Herzegovina Canton only.
• Article 10 assigns excavated or water-recovered presumed cultural-historical or natural heritage to the canton. Research custody and later institutional deposit under 60 are not a right for a finder to keep the object.
• This special heritage row does not decide ownership of every modern lost object; ordinary property rules remain separate.

West Herzegovina Canton: promptly return or surrender ordinary lost property and report treasure.

• Scope: West Herzegovina Canton only.
• Real Rights Law 120(1) requires return without delay to the identifiable person who lost the thing or its owner. If not returned, 120(2) requires delivery without delay to the nearest police station or another competent authority, directly or through the person in whose premises or vehicle it was found. Only authority delivery has the generally negligible-value exception.
• Article 125(3) requires notice of treasure to the competent state authority without delay and necessary protection pending handover. These ordinary-property provisions do not authorize disturbing archaeological material or displace special heritage duties. No single Federation-wide hobby reporting form was verified.
• Heritage Law 30 requires possessors of presumed cultural-historical or natural heritage to notify the Institute or corresponding protection organization AND the municipal cultural authority immediately, supply information, preserve it in place/position/state and permit examination. During construction or other works, 51 requires the contractor to notify the Institute; any stop is handled through the statutory authority procedure.
• Basis: captured Federation 66/13 and 100/13 provisions; complete later court-decision/currentness record and special procedures are not certified.
• Within the Federation only, Nature Protection Law 66/13, read with amendment 10/25, also governs specified natural discoveries. Under amended Article 129(1), the finder of minerals, tufa or fossils that could constitute a protected natural value under Article 126 must report to the Federal Ministry within eight days of discovery and take necessary measures against destruction, damage or theft. Unless the ministry determines otherwise, the finder must not conduct activities at the findspot that could destroy or damage the find, apart from protection measures. The ministry decides on deposit research within 30 days of the report after obtaining the Federal Institute’s opinion; its research decision includes protection measures. Landowners and persons carrying out the activity in which the find arose must allow research under the ministry’s decision; research is carried out by an authorized person under a Federal Ministry permit. The eight-day wording names minerals, tufa and fossils; it is not stated here as a deadline for every ordinary object or cave formation.
• Discovery of any speleological feature or part must be reported to both the Federal Ministry and the cantonal ministry within fifteen days under Article 44(6). The notice must include its location and description under new Article 44a(2). Amended 44(7) requires a Federal Ministry decision within ninety days of the discovery report, with safeguarding measures and protection conditions, based on the opinion of the Federal Institute, a cantonal nature-protection institute or an expert commission formed by the competent ministry, with a recommendation for further action. Article 44(8) provides that if the ministries issue no decision within that period, research and protection are deemed unnecessary and the person may continue works or interventions under special legislation. That provision is separate from the following works-discovery procedure; it is not treated as an ordinary detector permission.
• If a speleological feature is discovered during construction or other works on or below the ground, on land, in water or at sea, new Article 44a requires the person doing the work to stop at the discovery location and notify the competent ministry and the local-government unit without delay in writing, including location and description. The competent ministry appoints a commission for urgent research and an expert finding within twenty days of receiving that notice, at the investor’s expense. Within ten days after that finding it either permits continuation with safeguarding/protection measures or temporarily stops the works. Following a temporary stop, a commission performs detailed research and an expert finding within thirty days of that decision, at the investor’s expense; within fifteen days after this finding the ministry permits continuation by lifting the temporary stop or permanently stops the works. These are natural-feature procedures, distinct from lost-property and archaeological reporting. No assumption is made that a deadline overrides this decision process; complete later amendments and implementation remain unverified.

Zenica-Doboj Canton: national-monument detecting and recovery need specific confirmation.

• Scope: Zenica-Doboj Canton only.
• Federation national-monument protection is governed by individual Commission decisions and the implementation framework. Uredba o obavljanju prethodnih radova istražnog karaktera na nacionalnim spomenicima (National Monuments Preliminary Investigative Works Regulation), 36/08 with 20/26, applies to monuments within the Federation; it is a research/conservation workflow, not general hobby permission.
• Article 3 requires prior Federal Spatial Planning Ministry consent for covered investigative works. The 2026 amendment replaces Article 4(3)’s ownership-or-consent document with a land-register extract no older than 30 days. Staff, plan, heritage opinion, funding, supervision and start-notification duties remain separate.
• The Commission’s individual decision, exact protected boundary and proposed recovery method require confirmation. Cantonal heritage approval does not by itself settle the federal monument requirements.

Zenica-Doboj Canton: recreational shore detecting and recovery remain unresolved.

• Scope: Zenica-Doboj Canton only.
• This row covers inland shores and bathing areas in this canton; no marine-coast rule is assigned to it.
• Zakon o vodama (Water Law), 70/06, and the official cantonal water-law index distinguish water administration and use from other legal controls. Public enjoyment or bathing access does not settle detecting, digging, heritage approval or ownership. Complete current water/shore instruments and recovery permissions were not captured.

Zenica-Doboj Canton: forest access and target recovery need current territorial confirmation.

• Scope: Zenica-Doboj Canton only.
• The federal ministry’s 2023 forest report with 2024 plans describes the former federal forest law ceasing in 2009 and nine cantons adopting forestry rules. That historical report and the current ministry index are source-map evidence, not a current visitor code or proof that forests lack restrictions.
• The complete current forest law, management restrictions and detector/recovery permissions for this scope were not obtained. Recreational entry, where available, does not itself authorize soil disturbance or retention of a find. Heritage, protected-area, land-right and closure controls must be checked separately.

Zenica-Doboj Canton: protected-area detecting requires the applicable designation and management rules.

• Scope: Zenica-Doboj Canton only.
• Zakon o zaštiti prirode (Nature Protection Law), 66/13, is read with Zakon o izmjenama i dopunama Zakona o zaštiti prirode (Law Amending and Supplementing the Nature Protection Law), 10/25. Under Article 159, interventions and activities must not damage the protected value or alter the characteristics for which it is protected. As amended by Article 51 of 10/25, the Federal Ministry issues permits for categories Ia, Ib and II; the cantonal ministry issues permits for categories III–VI and may issue procedural guidelines. Permits are issued by decision, contain nature-protection conditions and are subject to appeal to the competent ministry. Activities under forestry, hunting, fishing, water-management and mining plans must both comply with protected-area goals, protection measures and management plans and have competent-ministry consent.
• Article 144, as amended by Article 38 of 10/25, retains federal parliamentary designation by law for categories I and II. Categories III–VI may be designated by cantonal assembly law or cantonal-government decision; those spanning two or more cantons require federal law with the cantonal assemblies’ consent. A city or municipal council may designate those categories within one city or municipality with competent-ministry consent. Under amended Article 145, a separate federal-government or cantonal-assembly decision may establish an outside buffer zone and protection measures on the relevant ministry’s proposal. Designation and buffer instruments therefore matter as well as the area boundary.
• Under Article 151, as amended by Article 43 of 10/25, the federal government establishes public enterprises for category I–II management, while cantonal assemblies establish public institutions for other protected areas and values; forming new enterprises or institutions still requires the prior decision of the Federal Parliament or cantonal assembly stated in Article 151. This public-manager regime excludes protected wild species/subspecies, native species/subspecies, minerals, tufa, fossils and cave formations. Management of categories IIIa, IIIb, IV, V and VI may also be entrusted to public institutions or enterprises founded by a city or municipal council. Amended Articles 154–156 distinguish spatial plans, ten-year management plans and annual programs. Article 155 adds municipal heads or city mayors to the management-plan adoption authorities and local nature-protection administrative services to the proposing authorities; a new plan is due at least 30 days before the existing plan expires. Legal and natural persons conducting activities must comply with the plan. The manager’s competent body adopts its annual program with federal-ministry consent, or cantonal-ministry consent where it concerns the canton.
• Article 49 of 10/25 deletes the former Article 158(1)–(2) provisions about internal-order rules; they are not presented here as an unchanged current requirement. The remaining Article 158 supervision provisions and new Articles 158a–158c concern nature-protection supervisors. Deletion alone does not establish that every existing local rule has ceased to apply. Article 241 still provides for temporary management guidelines before a management plan, with federal and competent cantonal ministries’ consent and without public inspection, but new 241(2) bars further temporary guidelines after ten years of implementation of the management plan referred to in 241(1). Article 247 retains older 33/03 implementing rules only insofar as consistent and pending replacement; repeal of the old statute does not create a visitor exemption.
• Article 160 allows visits only in ways that do not endanger protected values or protection, under equal conditions consistent with the law and its implementing rules; visits may be restricted or prohibited where conservation would be endangered. Visiting access is not a detector or recovery permit. The captured 10/25 amendment was published February 12, 2025 and states eighth-day commencement. Complete later amendments, individual-area instruments, current management plans and cantonal/local implementation were not established by this evidence set.

Zenica-Doboj Canton: landowner agreement alone does not establish detecting permission.

• Scope: Zenica-Doboj Canton only.
• Arrange lawful entry with the rights-holder; private ownership does not remove applicable heritage, monument, forest or nature controls. The Federation property law makes ownership subject to legal limits. An agreement about access does not itself award title to finds.
• Zakon o zaštiti kulturne baštine (Cultural Heritage Protection Law), 2/00 with 9/15, Article 27 requires an archaeological excavation/research application to Kantonalni zavod (Cantonal Heritage Institute). Article 66 assigns its functions to the ministry heritage service pending establishment; the present organization was not completely verified. Article 70 displaces the earlier heritage law within the canton for cultural-historical heritage. Amendment 9/15 changes reporting, ownership and procedure; it is read alongside the base text.
• The complete rule for non-archaeological modern-loss detecting and target recovery on private land remains unresolved.

Zenica-Doboj Canton: archaeological excavation/research requires approved qualified work.

• Scope: Zenica-Doboj Canton only.
• Zakon o zaštiti kulturne baštine (Cultural Heritage Protection Law), 2/00 with 9/15, Article 27 requires an archaeological excavation/research application to Kantonalni zavod (Cantonal Heritage Institute). Article 66 assigns its functions to the ministry heritage service pending establishment; the present organization was not completely verified. Article 70 displaces the earlier heritage law within the canton for cultural-historical heritage. Amendment 9/15 changes reporting, ownership and procedure; it is read alongside the base text.
• Legal or natural applicants need appropriate staff and equipment. The Institute must obtain federal/state heritage-institute opinion; approval defines area, scope and protection. Article 66’s ministry-service fallback must be resolved administratively. Amendment 9/15’s 30 cm language changes a site-definition clause and is not a shallow-digging or detector exemption.
• Access and find custody remain separate; complete implementing forms and standard hobby fees were not verified.

Zenica-Doboj Canton: finding an object does not establish unrestricted ownership.

• Scope: Zenica-Doboj Canton only.
• Zakon o stvarnim pravima (Real Rights Law), 66/13 with 100/13, Articles 120–125 distinguishes ordinary lost objects from long-hidden treasure. Losing an object does not abandon ownership. Under 124, one year after the public notice an unclaimed/unproven or refused find can pass to the finder’s immediate possession; this is not immediate ownership, and a later rightful claimant can require its return subject to costs and reward.
• Treasure under 125 means valuables hidden so long that the owner cannot be identified. If genuinely ownerless it belongs to the local government unit; prompt notice and protection are required. Finder and landowner rewards/costs, concealment disqualification, the building-right holder’s analogous position, and the authority’s option to relinquish it into joint independent possession are separate from unconditional finder title. Special heritage allocation remains separate.
• The captured 2013 amendment changes timing language in 370–372, not 120–125. The 2026 government item reports a further proposal, not a verified enactment. Complete subsequent court-decision/amendment effects and every category of find remain unresolved.
• Zakon o zaštiti kulturne baštine (Cultural Heritage Protection Law), 2/00 with 9/15, Article 27 requires an archaeological excavation/research application to Kantonalni zavod (Cantonal Heritage Institute). Article 66 assigns its functions to the ministry heritage service pending establishment; the present organization was not completely verified. Article 70 displaces the earlier heritage law within the canton for cultural-historical heritage. Amendment 9/15 changes reporting, ownership and procedure; it is read alongside the base text.
• Within the Federation only, Zakon o zaštiti prirode (Nature Protection Law), 66/13, as amended by Zakon o izmjenama i dopunama Zakona o zaštiti prirode (Law Amending and Supplementing the Nature Protection Law), 10/25, separates natural finds from ordinary lost objects and archaeological finds. Amended Article 125 declares minerals, tufa (sedra), fossils and cave formations (sigovine) state-owned; this is the amended wording, not the former statement of Federation ownership. The Article 8 mineral definition excludes mineral raw materials. Article 125 prohibits destruction of these natural objects and damage to their deposits. Its exception requires Federal Ministry permission for active conservation and/or revitalization without which essential area characteristics would change and/or flooding or another natural disaster could occur, or where the Federation’s interest or a clearly expressed public interest applies, with a technical study adopted by the ministry.
• For those natural objects, Articles 126–128 distinguish protected values and sites, in-place preservation and protective custody from ownership. Taking protected objects or objects at a protected deposit is prohibited, except that the Federal Ministry may permit taking for scientific or professional research, education or exhibitions. Protective custody is not finder ownership. Amended Article 131 separately requires a Federal Ministry permit for taking or exploiting these objects from nature for placing on the market, based on an expert study during preliminary environmental-impact assessment and before urban-planning consent/location information; the ministry must find that taking will not significantly endanger geodiversity in view of distribution and quantity. The permit specifies protection conditions, type and quantity, lasts at most one year, is handed to the buyer on sale, and requires trading records to be supplied to the ministry. This is not a general hobby-detecting permission. Later completeness and implementing procedures remain unverified.

Zenica-Doboj Canton: finding heritage does not give the finder title.

• Scope: Zenica-Doboj Canton only.
• Read 28 with 9/15 Article 9: found heritage belongs to the canton or one of its museums, and the find is handed into ownership of the nearest museum. The amendment deletes the old third paragraph and replaces the old finder-delivery/reward wording; the base-law reward sentence must not be presented as current.
• This special heritage row does not decide ownership of every modern lost object; ordinary property rules remain separate.

Zenica-Doboj Canton: promptly return or surrender ordinary lost property and report treasure.

• Scope: Zenica-Doboj Canton only.
• Real Rights Law 120(1) requires return without delay to the identifiable person who lost the thing or its owner. If not returned, 120(2) requires delivery without delay to the nearest police station or another competent authority, directly or through the person in whose premises or vehicle it was found. Only authority delivery has the generally negligible-value exception.
• Article 125(3) requires notice of treasure to the competent state authority without delay and necessary protection pending handover. These ordinary-property provisions do not authorize disturbing archaeological material or displace special heritage duties. No single Federation-wide hobby reporting form was verified.
• Heritage Law 10(1) requires every person to report potential heritage to a body/service under 43–44 and allow Institute examination. Amendment 9/15 Article 4 gives the receiving body immediate onward notification with an outside limit of five days; that is not a five-day allowance for the finder. Amended 28 requires delivery into ownership of the nearest museum. For discoveries during works, 25 requires stopping and notifying without delay;9/15 reduces the maximum temporary stop from 60 to 30 days.
• Basis: captured Federation 66/13 and 100/13 provisions; complete later court-decision/currentness record and special procedures are not certified.
• Within the Federation only, Nature Protection Law 66/13, read with amendment 10/25, also governs specified natural discoveries. Under amended Article 129(1), the finder of minerals, tufa or fossils that could constitute a protected natural value under Article 126 must report to the Federal Ministry within eight days of discovery and take necessary measures against destruction, damage or theft. Unless the ministry determines otherwise, the finder must not conduct activities at the findspot that could destroy or damage the find, apart from protection measures. The ministry decides on deposit research within 30 days of the report after obtaining the Federal Institute’s opinion; its research decision includes protection measures. Landowners and persons carrying out the activity in which the find arose must allow research under the ministry’s decision; research is carried out by an authorized person under a Federal Ministry permit. The eight-day wording names minerals, tufa and fossils; it is not stated here as a deadline for every ordinary object or cave formation.
• Discovery of any speleological feature or part must be reported to both the Federal Ministry and the cantonal ministry within fifteen days under Article 44(6). The notice must include its location and description under new Article 44a(2). Amended 44(7) requires a Federal Ministry decision within ninety days of the discovery report, with safeguarding measures and protection conditions, based on the opinion of the Federal Institute, a cantonal nature-protection institute or an expert commission formed by the competent ministry, with a recommendation for further action. Article 44(8) provides that if the ministries issue no decision within that period, research and protection are deemed unnecessary and the person may continue works or interventions under special legislation. That provision is separate from the following works-discovery procedure; it is not treated as an ordinary detector permission.
• If a speleological feature is discovered during construction or other works on or below the ground, on land, in water or at sea, new Article 44a requires the person doing the work to stop at the discovery location and notify the competent ministry and the local-government unit without delay in writing, including location and description. The competent ministry appoints a commission for urgent research and an expert finding within twenty days of receiving that notice, at the investor’s expense. Within ten days after that finding it either permits continuation with safeguarding/protection measures or temporarily stops the works. Following a temporary stop, a commission performs detailed research and an expert finding within thirty days of that decision, at the investor’s expense; within fifteen days after this finding the ministry permits continuation by lifting the temporary stop or permanently stops the works. These are natural-feature procedures, distinct from lost-property and archaeological reporting. No assumption is made that a deadline overrides this decision process; complete later amendments and implementation remain unverified.