The Macedonian Speleological Federation (SFM) is a not-for-profit non-governmental organization and the national speleological organization of the Republic of North Macedonia, that was established in 2002, thus uniting the local speleological clubs.
SFM main goals are to coordinate and develop the exploration, documentation and protection of caves and karst areas in North Macedonia. The main activities include the organization and support of training and technical advancement of caving and cave rescue techniques, and technical and logistical support in maintaining safe speleological activity, including participation and management of cave rescue operations.
There is no separate national cave rescue organization in North Macedonia, and while there are several rescue-related institutions (e.g. Protection and rescue directorate; Crisis Management Center; Macedonian Red Cross) the Macedonian Speleological Federation and its member clubs, remain the only organization with technically trained personnel to participate in, and perform cave rescue operations. Furthermore, there is a well-established relationship between the Macedonian Speleological Federation and the governmental rescue institutions, with the personnel and expertise of the Macedonian Speleological Federation being made available for the national rescue institutions for the needs of cave rescue-related activities, with future plans to organize the cave rescue system fully within the Macedonian Speleological Federation, with logistical cooperation of the national rescue institutions.
Caves and karst in North Macedonia
North Macedonia has 12% of its territory covered by karst areas, with less than 500 explored caves, most of them in the central and western mountainous parts of the country. The longest explored cave is SlatinskiIzvor (4 km), the deepest explored cave is Slovačka Jama (-700 m), and the deepest underwater cave is MatkaVrelo, explored to the depth of -240 m.
Contact person
Darko Nedanoski – President of the Macedonian Speleological Federation
Phone: +389 78 520 792
E-mail: nedanoski@gmail.com
Web page: https://sfm.speleo.mk/
E-mail: speleomacedonia@yahoo.com