New rules of nature protection in Slovakia

It took 17 years for an amendment to the law on nature and landscape protection to be introduced in Slovakia. New legislation came into force as of January 1, 2020. According to the Ministry of Environment, it is a groundbreaking policy document, which specifies and points to several issues, such as illegal logging. However, not all environmental protection organizations are satisfied with the new legislation. Marián Jasík from the civic association Prales points to the fact that the legislation does not allow nature conservation organizations to manage state-owned land in the protected areas. A straightforward example would be that the forests in a national park would be managed by the park's administration and by no other state entity. Even though the Environment Ministry does not oppose such a measure, according to its spokesperson Tomáš Ferenčák, the main advantage of the new legislation was to limit the limit unnecessary tree logging in protected areas. The parks' administration has to officially react to any logging carried out on its territory, but the final decision on the legality of the logging will be taken by the district authorities.