Geographical location and the fact that Prijedor is situated on river banks of the regional beauty River Sana, on a downhill of gentle and forest covered Kozara Mountain clearly provide for immense potentials of tourism development.

 

Kozara Mountain
Kozara – Dinars Mountain in its length of 75 km and its highest peaks Lisina of 978km and Rudina of 920 km – is mostly covered by forests and it’s a sort of an air spa being favourable to active practice of many different types of sports. 

In the area there are crystal clear springs of rivers and streams filled with brook trout.
Mountain and sub mountain area is filled with huge natural and cultural wealth, and recreational potential. Complexity of interaction of ecological factors in the area has provided for existence of biological versatility of both herbal and animal life – forests of white willows and black alder, flowery oaks and beech forest, and community of deciduous tree such as white hornbeam, black European ash and black hornbeam – ending with dense forests of beech and fir as a basic feature of Kozara Mountain. Noteworthy is the fact that Kozara represents the utter south-eastern border of areal of forests of gentle oak - endangered mid-European specie.

There are over 30 endangered and rare plants in the area out of which the most known are: yew, peony, lily of the valley, white still nettle etc.

Wealth of Kozara can also be seen in existence of numerous herbs such as yarrow, thyme, valerian, Klamath weed, centaury, and grape hyacinth, etc. Kozara is also filled with eatable growing wild plants, aromatic and spice herbs, many fruit trees such as wild pears, wild apples, wild cherries, thorn fruit and cornelian cherry etc.

There can also be found many types of mushrooms – e.g. boletus mushroom, etc.

Kozara Mountain has its rich animal world – mammals, birds, insects, amphibian animals and reptiles, and roe deer, rabbits and foxes.

Numerous mountain river streams have not been polluted – spring of river Mljecanica, Crna Rijeka, Vrbaska, Mostanica and Starenica.

River Sana
River Sana breaks out nearby Medna in Ribnik Municipality and flows into River Una nearby Novi Grad Municipality. With its flow 138 kilometres long River Sana links the following municipalities – Ribnik, Kljuc, Sanski Most, Prijedor and Novi Grad.
Legend says that Roman legionaries upon each battle had cured their wounds while crossing River Sana and it is therefore believed that the river name itself stemmed from a Latin word “sanus” that stands for “health”.

Even in the past River Sana had been of immense importance to Prijedor as river traffic had been developed, and at the beginning of 19th century the Prijedor merchant fleet had possessed around 70 ships of capacity up to 20 tons.

In the upper flow of River Sana there can be found trout and huchen, while in the middle and lower flow there can be found carp, catfish, redeye fish, barbell and perch. 

As of 1905 Sana’s water level has been constantly measured. According to incomplete data, for period 1946-1965 the lowest water level was measured in 1950 (+34 cm with 480 m³/sec influx) and the highest water level was measured in 1955 (+480 cm, 696.50 m³/sec influx).
A critical point of water level for Prijedor is +430 cm.

River Gomjenica – a right tributary of Sana – flows through Prijedor by its lower course only. Gomjenica has a fanlike river basin thus huge concentration of water occurs thereby resulting in abrupt emergence of huge quantity of water.

River Puharska is very torrent, and it never dries. It has been regulated in its downstream and directed into channel of the open sewage.

It is important to note that there are four lakes in the area of Prijedor Municipality:

• Sanicani, anartificial lake  - fish pond, was founded in 1903 and apart from producing fresh fish as a principal activity, it offers opportunities for hunting trips in its own hunting area of 40 km² ( wild geese, pheasants, and other birds)
• Ljubija, artificial lake, located 15 km from Prijedorto the southwest 
• Tomasica, located 20 km from Prijedorto the south
• Gradina, located 25 km from Prijedorto the southeast