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Description
On the one hand, there is a number of different types of protected areas (PAs) declared in Slovakia "on paper". On the other hand, the state of biodiversity and threats to individual species and their habitats is deteriorating yearly. The first assessment of the status of habitats and species of European importance under Article 17 of the Habitats Directive shows that only 16 % of species and 29 % of habitats are in favorable conservation status, while the remaining species and habitats are either in an unfavorable or unknown status. The SPA system is unclear, and complicated and most PAs lack zonation and management programs. Not a single Slovak national park as a whole meets the IUCN recommended requirements.
The project is aimed at initiating large-scale systemic changes in nature conservation in order to improve the protection of the environment for future generations with special biodiversity and rare natural areas. Within the project, the PP plans to actively participate in the development of the new Nature and Landscape Conservation Concept 2030 and to draft specific changes to the Nature and Landscape Conservation Act. One of the main components of the project is the analysis of the existing system of protected areas in Slovakia, the assessment of its representativeness and the elaboration of an expert proposal for the re-evaluation of the system of protected areas in Slovakia. The elaborated proposal will form the baseline for opening a discussion on changes in the protected areas system with all stakeholders and the public. The project also includes watchdog activities aimed at monitoring and evaluating the use of financial resources (EU funds, national resources) for nature conservation. Within the project, the project partner will also prepare a public awareness campaign to gain public support for systemic changes in nature conservation.
Summary of project results
The Project promoter set 4 activities heading to the overall goal to increase the quality of sustainable landsccape and environment management and protection by collecting and analysing relevant data, make a closer look at managing and spending the EU funds by the state authorities, and contribute to new complex concept of national regulation of environment and landscape protection in Slovakia called Strategy of the Environmental Policy of the Slovak Republic until 2030 „Greener Slovakia“ in close connection with field experts and wide public.
During the project lifetime the project promoter delivered 2 reviews of Strategy of the Environmental Policy of the Slovak Republic until 2030, draft proposal of National strategy of enivonmental and lanscape protection and very detailed data-based draft of Natural landscapes and semi-natural cultivated landscapes with a high value for securing biodiversity evaluation system, all these documents having the national importance. In the meantime this draft proposal was approved by the government and the law had passed. The project team pointed out and reported 4 suspicious EU funds spendings and their reports were accepted by the authorities. The project promoter organised a public petition „Safe the natural ladscape“ that was signed by 57 thousand people and finally project promoter published more than 150 social media oucomes, 5 public meetings.
The activities in this project brought significant improvement of national legal framework when it comes to protection of environment, landscape and biodiversity as mentioned above and the project promoter achieved wider public engangement which is neccessery for every system change. This project represent the most complex data based documents in this field and will be used for upcoming national legal changes.