Municipality of Debarca

Debarca exists where the Sateska River descends from mountain valleys to feed Lake Ohrid—one of Europe's oldest and most biodiverse water bodies. This municipality of 3,719 residents in the Southwestern Region occupies the Debarca Valley between Karaorman and Ilinska Mountains, managing territory that includes 30 villages and North Macedonia's second international airport, Ohrid "St. Paul the Apostle."

The formation era positioned Debarca as the agricultural hinterland supporting the Ohrid lake basin. The Sateska watershed that drains through the municipality became a focus of Yugoslav-era land conversion: large portions of Struga Marsh were drained in the 1940s and 1960s, transforming wetland into agricultural land. The river itself was rerouted, altering hydrology that had evolved over millions of years in one of the world's oldest continuously-existing lakes.

Today Debarca operates within the UNESCO-protected Lake Ohrid region, where three municipalities—Ohrid, Struga, and Debarca—share management responsibilities for natural and cultural heritage. The 2021 joint statement by mayors committed to re-proclamation of Lake Ohrid as a Monument of Nature, acknowledging that agricultural intensification and urban expansion threaten the lake's endemic species. Belčišta village serves as municipal seat, while the airport brings tourism infrastructure that bypasses local economic integration.

By 2026, Debarca faces contradictory pressures: conservation requirements limiting agricultural expansion versus economic development needs in a low-population municipality. The UNESCO management plan proposes excluding intensive agricultural areas from protected landscape zoning—a negotiation between preservation and production that will define the municipality's trajectory.