The government did not approve the zoning of national parks by the end of March, which was a milestone deadline in the Recovery Plan. The initiative Green Majority pointed this out, saying that the proposals for Tatra National Park (TANAP), Low Tatras National Park, Poloniny National Park, and Malá Fatra National Park do not meet basic criteria and create space for logging and construction. Conservationists are therefore calling on the ministry to revise the zoning proposals so that they meet the Recovery Plan criteria, respect the law and international commitments, and guarantee strict protection of valuable locations on state-owned land in Poloniny and the Tatras.
According to environmentalists, zoning should ensure the protection of primeval forests, old-growth forests, and endangered habitats of the western capercaillie, and must comply with both Slovak and European legislation. “The Ministry of the Environment proceeded unsystematically and without sufficient consultation with relevant scientific institutions. In some cases, protection is even being reduced in an unprofessional way. The ministry now has only the last days to set unified criteria in all parks and, in accordance with the law, prioritize the interests of nature protection,” noted Lucia Szabová from Green Majority.
They described the most serious situation as being in Poloniny National Park, where only a quarter of the territory is to be strictly protected. UNESCO beech forests are expected to remain insufficiently protected, while protection in the catchment area of the Starina water reservoir is to be reduced across approximately 1,700 hectares, activists said.
“The proposal in the case of Poloniny is an incomprehensible paradox. It is an area without ski slopes or major infrastructure, but with enormous potential to become a model national park. It is therefore shocking that the state cannot ensure adequate protection even on its own land, despite owning nearly half of it here. Many valuable locations on state-owned land remain insufficiently protected, and in several places protection is even being reduced,” warned Rastislav Mičaník from the Aevis organization.
Green Majority continued that the TANAP zoning proposal creates new development zones, weakens the protection of watercourses, and in several locations prioritizes ski resort development, opening space for the privatization of land beneath ski slopes. In the Low Tatras, the initiative says not a single entire valley is strictly protected and zoning allows hunting in the most strictly protected zones. In Malá Fatra, doubts persist about the protection of old-growth forests, and in the Vrátna Valley the protection of valuable locations with endangered species is at risk of being reduced, environmentalists added.
Across all national parks, a key issue is the lack of a unified professional methodology for protecting old-growth forests. Old-growth forests are a criterion of the Recovery Plan, and the environment ministry agreed on these criteria with the European Commission during the plan’s revision. “A fundamental problem is also the insufficiently set agreements with private landowners. It is the state’s responsibility to ensure fair compensation and set up a system so that nature protection is not in conflict with property rights. The ministry had a year to resolve this, but it still has not, even though zoning should have been approved long ago,” emphasized Mičaník.
Source: TASR
