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Greens: New Zoning Plan for High Tatras National Park Is New Disaster
Wednesday 17 February 2010 Zoom in | Print page
Bratislava, February 17 (TASR) - The new zoning plan for the High Tatras National Park (TANAP) is yet another catastrophe for the High Tatra mountains, said Green Party head Peter Pilinsky on Wednesday.
According to Pilinsky, this latest blow follows other outrages such as the polo match organised by the J&T financial group right on the frozen surface of Strbske pleso (the best known lake in the High Tatras) and the approved territorial plan for the town of Vysoke Tatry (Poprad region).
The Environment Ministry is supposed to hand the TANAP zoning plan proposal to the Government by the end of March. In Pilinsky's opinion, the ministry when dividing Slovakia's oldest national park into zones was not acting in the interests of natural protection based on expert opinions and public discussion, but in the interests of investors and the timber industry vis-a-vis areas where their activities are currently prohibited.
Pilinsky pointed to one sub-zone that is part of the most-strictly protected area at the moment but according to the new zoning plan will be open to "certain activities that would otherwise come under state regulation". "After identifying this territory, it's clear that these are areas that have been sacrificed to investors for the construction of new accommodation, ski-slopes and sports sites," said Pilinsky.
Environment Minister Jozef Medved considers the situation that has emerged to be a misunderstanding. He said that the proposal is only a draft and expert discussion will follow. "The zoning plan hasn't been concluded," he stressed, adding that the state has increased the ratio of protected Natura 2000 areas from 11 percent to 13 percent.
The zoning plan proposal was drawn up by the Environment Ministry and the Commission for Zoning of Protected Areas, and was released on the websites of Regional Environment Offices in Zilina and Presov last week.
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