Una-Sana Canton

Una-Sana Canton occupies Bosnia-Herzegovina's northwestern corner, named for the Una and Sana rivers that create the region's most significant natural assets. Una National Park, established 2008, protects waterfalls and travertine formations that attract growing nature tourism. The rivers themselves offer rafting and fishing that compete with Croatian alternatives just across the border. This natural heritage represents development potential that decades of underinvestment have left largely unrealized.

Bihać, the cantonal capital, anchored northwestern Bosnia's economy during Yugoslav times and suffered severe damage during the 1990s war. Recovery has been uneven: some manufacturing capacity restored, but emigration depleted the skilled workforce. The 2018-19 migration crisis—when thousands of migrants transited through Bihać en route to Croatia—created both humanitarian challenges and informal economic activity (services for migrants and NGOs).

Croatian EU membership intensified border effects. The Una River forms the EU external frontier, with Schengen requirements complicating cross-border economic integration that geography would otherwise encourage. Agriculture in the Sana valley, wood processing in forested uplands, and emerging tourism create a diversified but undercapitalized economy. Whether EU accession negotiations accelerate development—or whether Croatian alternatives continue draining talent westward—shapes Una-Sana's prospects.