Slovakia reforms national parks but weakens rules for biomass burning – euractiv.sk
At the COP26 climate summit, 141 countries, including Slovakia, signed agreements to halt deforestation by 2030. Although Slovakia has made a commitment, the various ministries are taking conflicting steps.
Leaders’ Declaration on Forests and Land Use is one of the most important announcements of the climate summit, which took place in Glasgow in November. Countries that cover more than 85 percent of the world’s forests, including Canada, Brazil, Russia, China, Indonesia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the United States and the Kingdom, have also committed to joint deforestation and land degradation. According to the British government, which hosted the summit, it is supported by almost 20 billion million from public and private sources.
Despite the fact that Slovakia has signed up to the call, the individual ministries are issuing conflicting signals in the field of forest protection. The Ministry of the Environment speaks openly about the fact that forests in Slovakia are declining, which is also to be prevented by the discussed reform of national parks. The economy wants to change the rules for biomass, which activists say could cause massive deforestation.
What are they up to agreed world leaders in Glasgow?
The agreement responds to the poor state of the world’s forests and the growing rate of deforestation, more severe and more frequent forest fires and damage caused by droughts and floods. Part of the funding will go to developing countries to rebuild damaged land, and support indigenous communities.
The countries that signed the Glasgow Declaration reaffirmed forest governance in limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius and their role in adapting to the effects of climate change and maintaining healthy ecosystem services. Together, they agreed to “halt and reverse forest loss and land degradation by 2030, as well as sustainable development and support for inclusive rural transformation”. However, concerns are raised about the fact that individual countries have not specified their contributions to this goal.
This major commitment was followed by a number of smaller agreements around forests, including financial commitments to protect tropical forests and local communities. They have the best opportunities to manage and restore forests and land.
However, the question remains whether these funds can really be used and who will decide on them.
In commitment Global forest financing commitment The countries promised to jointly provide $ 12 compensation in the years 2021 to 2025 to combat deforestation. These pledges are intended to ensure cooperation to halt and reverse forest losses and land degradation by 2030.
As important agreements required compromises, some questions about how the money would be spent and who would decide it remained unanswered. The NGOs agree on funding, criticizing it for being vague, and calling for more expertise and consideration of the implications for local communities.
The European Union has added a billion to the commitment to help countries around the world protect and restore forests and manage their sustainability.
Twelve companies with a good market share in commodities such as soybeans, palm oil, cocoa and cattle also joined the fight against deforestation. These products pose a great risk to forests, as their cultivation and breeding involve the acquisition of new fields and pastures at the expense of forests. Companies in the agreement they undertook to halt the loss of forests associated with the production and marketing of these agricultural products. Optimism is hampered by the fact that several of these companies have promised to remove deforestation from their supply chains in the past, and have not kept their promises.
The call was also supported by more than 30 of the world’s largest financial asset management companies worth more than 8.7 trillion, including Aviva, Schroders and Axa. They have promised to end investment in deforestation activities and the creation of a £ 1.1 billion fund to protect the world’s second-largest tropical rainforest in the Congo Basin.
Distrust is in place
Observers, NGOs and green organizations are reserved on promises to end deforestation from the COP26 climate conference. They point out that similar global agreements have failed in the past and have not achieved their goals.
These are, for example The New York Declaration on Forests 2014, which wanted to halve deforestation by 2020, or the Trillion Trees Plan announced at the World Economic Economy in Davos in 2020. However, since the launch of these global initiatives, forests have risen sharply, with 99,614 square feet being felled in 2020 alone. miles, they say latest data Global Forest Watch.
“The Declaration of Nearly 150 States on Forest Protection and Prevention of Deforestation in Glasgow is a key commitment. There is some skepticism about the extent to which it will be met. However, the fact that real funds have been set aside for this purpose gives us the hope that they will translate into real protection of forests around the world, “said Michal Kiča, State Secretary of the Ministry of the Environment, for EURACTIV Slovakia.
Distrust of the agreement to halt deforestation is also aroused by the fact that Brazil, whose government, on the contrary, supports deforestation, has also joined the effort.
“The government of Brazilian President Jairu Bolsonar has shown a new determination to eliminate deforestation in the Amazon, recognizing that this is an obstacle to improving relations with Europe.” commented Josep Borrell, Vice-President of the European Union, to join Brazil in the agreement against Glasgow.
Brazil is home to 60 percent of the world’s largest Amazon rainforest. Since Prime Minister Bolsonar took office in 2019, his destruction has risen sharply. The European Union is a major target for illegally harvested timber, which is often used with false logs. Mr Borrell said the EU was ready to tighten documentary checks on timber imported from Brazil in order to reduce the illegal trade of several million a year.
Bolsonaro said in Brazil’s negotiations on the agreement at COP26 that deforestation in Brazil was slowing down. However, shortly after the summit, the Brazilian National Space Research Institute published it data, according to which the Amazon lost more than 13,000 meters of rainforest from August 2020 to August 2021. This is 22 percent more than in the previous 12-month period and the worst in 15 years.
Slovakia is also suffering from deforestation
According to State Secretary Kič, Slovakia’s steps in protecting forests and combating deforestation are in line with the priorities of the European Union.
“In our country, the debate is on a slightly different level. From a formal point of view, we have large areas of forests in our country, but even experts do not know whether these large areas of forest stands also provide ecosystem services. Therefore, there is no debate in Slovakia about the extent of the areas covered by forests, but about the quality and condition of forests, “Kiča told EURACTIV Slovakia.
According to him, Slovakia also confirmed its commitment from Glasgow by declaring the Pralesy Slovenska nature reserve, within which six and a half thousand hectares of the strictest protected forests have been added, which are either directly rainforests or forest remnants.
“It is a very specific contribution from Slovakia to the fulfillment of the COP26 commitment. Another important step of the Slovak government in this direction is the reform of national parks, because our most valuable territories are located. It is she who can move Slovakia among the leaders in fulfilling the commitments from the Glasgow summit, “stressed the representative of the environment.
According to satellite images evaluated by the Institute of Environmental Policy (IEP), the average annual deforestation in Slovakia has increased by almost a quarter over the last four years. Since the beginning of the millennium, an average of 0.46 percent of the forest area has decreased from Slovak forests each year. With the exception of the calamity of 2004, Slovakia experienced a large layer of forest in 2018, with the most affected region in the last 20 years being the Kysúc region. This situation has been maintained over the past four years. In national parks, the average annual forest loss in the years 2017 to 2020 was 0.56 percent.
IEP analysts used already processed satellite image data from the Global Forest Watch portal. Use the vegetation index to identify the forest. The tool identifies only the older forest with a height of about 5 meters on an area of 30 × 30 meters. If there is at least 30 percent tree cover in a given area, then the area is considered a forest.
The reform is supposed to help
According to satellite photographs, the losses of forest stands are a necessary problem for Slovakia, despite the relatively high area of forests. According to Michal Kič, the fact that we have a forest plot in Slovakia does not mean that there is a real forest on it. “It is similar with the area of forests, where it should be according to the map data of the forest, but in fact the aerial photographs will show us that there is no state forest,” the secretary Kiča underlined.
It is the reform of national parks that sees the key to improving forest quality and halting deforestation. In national parks, the forest has been disappearing faster than in other areas in the last 20 years. In the years 2017 to 2020, the average annual forest loss was 0.56 percent.
The long-discussed reform of national parks was approved by parliament in December. The reform will ensure the transfer of land in national parks under the administration of the Ministry of Agriculture under the State Nature Protection of the Slovak Republic. Land management has in the past been an obstacle to increasing forest protection, argues the Ministry of the Environment. “Integrated territorial governance can more effectively balance economic and environmental interests while helping to halt deforestation, as world leaders committed at the Glasgow Climate Conference,” the ministry said in a statement.
Conflicting signals
However, the fulfillment of the promise to stop deforestation, made by the Slovak government at the UN climate summit, may slow down draft law on the promotion of renewable resources. This was submitted by the Ministry of Economy for comment in December.
The VLK Forest Protection Association drew attention to the proposal, which it initiated bulk reminder to the law. “The submitted proposal of the Ministry of Economy will again (umožní) make it possible to subsidize the burning of wood from Slovak forests, riparian stands, draws or windbreaks,” the non-governmental government writes in its comment.
Wood biomass is currently considered a renewable resource only if it is waste from the wood processing industry or comes from special energy stands grown for such purposes. This definition was adopted by the then government in 2018. According to the VLK association, the government then adjusted the conditions for the use of wood as a renewable resource and “especially to subsidize the subsidization of wood from Slovak forests.”
The new draft law of the Ministry of Economy proposes these sustainable criteria for the removal of biomass. This would make all biomass a renewable resource without further specification of its origin, which, according to NGOs, will lead to massive deforestation.
The proposal goes even further. The intention is to emphasize that “forest biomass” is “biomass that is a product of forestry”. This means that while before the change in December 2018 it was only possible to subsidize the burning of firewood, which had drastic effects on Slovak forests, the currently proposed will allow the association to subsidize any wood, the association argues in a mass comment supported by almost four thousand people.
However, the ministry says it plans to discuss the proposal with all stakeholders. “As it is possible to adjust, even new, that there may be a number of misunderstandings, the process of interdepartmental commentary (MPK), in which it is located until December 21, serves to clarify them. A good legislative priority is a priority for the ministry, and therefore the reservations of the VLK forestry economy will also be duly discussed. ” saved Ministry of Economy for SITA.