The ministries for the environment and agriculture should cooperate more closely, the two responsible ministers agreed. Tomas Taraba of Environment and Richard Takač of Agriculture gave a joint press conference today.
The Agriculture Mimister said his department hasn't received any money from the EU recovery plan. "The Environment Ministry has received over €1 billion, and we'll seek ways to use the money jointly," he said.
Takac claims that they managed to find a common path and that the Environment Ministry will cooperate with the Agriculture Ministry for the first time in 30 years.
The two also said they wanted to "redefine the entire system of national parks" according to international criteria.
Some fear this would lead to the reduction of some national parks, perhaps even removing their protected status.
Dennik N newspaper says: according to the criteria of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, a national park should have at least 50 percent of the territory in a non-intervention mode.
Currently, not one of the nine Slovak national parks meets this criterium. Even the oldest Tatra National Park officially has only 44 percent of its territory in a non-intervention regime, although in reality it is 54 percent thanks to agreements with land owners and decisions of the authorities.
(TASR, Dennik N)
