Slovak government fails to protect its World Heritage

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	Slovak government fails to protect its World Heritage
	admin
	2018-06-27
发布年	2018
语种	英语
国家	国际
领域	资源环境
正文(英文)	Bratislava - The future of the Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians, listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, remains unclear in Slovakia, warns WWF. For 11 years, the Slovak government has been unable to secure the protection of the site and meet all stakeholders’ interests to ensure that the old growth forests remain untouched. It is expected that this year’s session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee in Bahrain will publish its opinion on the state of these forests after a field visit in May. WWF urges the Slovak government to take action now. Following criticism of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, Slovakia sent a report in February 2018 on its plans to resolve persistent problems in the Slovak part of the site caused by logging and hunting. WWF’s research found that the document does not specify the precise definition of the site in Slovakia. It also does not establish the responsibilities of the individual authorities for fulfilling the obligations in the field of adequate nature protection and does not provide a specific agenda for the proposed measures. “Although Slovakia declares it will establish three nature reserves, the government has not yet submitted a proposal for any of them. Just one group of stakeholders has reached an agreement, but not in all sites”, said Miroslava Plassmann, Country Coordinator of WWF in Slovakia. Another serious drawback is the management of the buffer zone, which at present does not help to protect the most precious core zone. In the Poloniny National Park, there is extensive logging near old growth forest sites. This results in the creation of a large area of young forests of the same age that no longer have the natural value of the woods before logging. Forest roads are also being built, often downhill, resulting in increased water outflow and degradation of soil quality. Most of the harvested wood from this massive logging in recent years is exported outside the region, thus reducing the availability for the local people. At the same time, logging decreases opportunities for the development of sustainable tourism. Natural forests are located in the upper parts of the valleys, so in order to reach them tourists would first need to cross muddy forest roads. “The key problem is that Slovakia does not implement an integrated management of the protected sites. The government should give a strong signal that protection of nature in national parks is a priority and not logging. A prerequisite for this is the management of forests in a sustainable way”, said Miroslava Cierna-Plassman.
URL	查看原文
来源平台	World Wide Fund for Nature
文献类型	新闻
条目标识符	http://119.78.100.173/C666/handle/2XK7JSWQ/125130
专题	资源环境科学
推荐引用方式 GB/T 7714	admin. Slovak government fails to protect its World Heritage. 2018.