Posted on October, 06 2007

Europe's greatest wilderness areas are facing increasing threats from infrastructure development. While there are a number of potentially powerful tools to address conflicts between nature and infrastructure in the Carpathians, their effectiveness is often limited in practice.

This was one of the chief conclusions of a seminar on opportunities for funding nature conservation in the Carpathian Mountains that took place October 4, 2007 in the Czech village of Hostetin.

The seminar, which involved environmental NGOs, protected area authorities and experts from the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Romania, Hungary, Belgium, Austria and Germany, was organized by WWF’s Danube-Carpathian Program as part of the Carpathian Project with support from the European Union and the MAVA Foundation.

Infrastructure development, from motorways to tourism facilities, is growing across the Carpathians, with increasing negative effects on the area's rich natural treasures. Tourism facilities, including alpine ski runs and resorts, are a problem common across the highest ranges, with all too many encroaching on official protected areas. There are also many cases of illegal or semi-legal development, for example of villas and tourist accommodations in the core zones of national parks.

"While some loss of biodiversity is probably an inevitable trade-off with the need for development in this relatively poor region, the cost is far higher than necessary," said Andreas Beckmann of the WWF Danube-Carpathian Programme, who moderated the workshop.

A number of potentially powerful legal and administrative tools exist for mediating conflicts between infrastructure development and nature conservation and ensuring optimal solutions, ranging from Environmental Impact and Strategic Environmental Assessments to a number of complaint mechanisms that exist in Carpathian countries as well as at EU and international levels.

But presentations and comments from representatives of the different Carpathian countries revealed that the effectiveness of many of the measures is more on paper than in practice. For instance, most Environmental Impact Assessments are paid for by project promoters and thus invariably come to a favorable conclusion for the proposed development.

There are some examples however where committed action has managed to put a halt to especially inappropriate developments. Cases presented at the workshop included successful efforts to stop construction of a hydropower plant on the Lech River in Austria. A complaint submitted to the European Commission regarding destruction of a Natura 2000 area played an important role in giving the unique river valley a lease on life. "Today," said Andreas Baumueller, who led WWF-Austria's campaign for the Lech, "the Lech is a top tourist destination and local people are proud of what they have."

Wolfgang Suske, an independent consultant and former nature conservation director for Lower Austria, presented his work with the Austrian motorway company ASFINAG, which following significant delays to projects due to opposition from environmentalists and local residents, has completely changed its approach to assessment and planning.

Today, ASFINAG tries to ensure that all information is on the table and possible issues are addressed before it actually puts its bulldozers into motion. This has entailed a very proactive and progressive approach to undertaking environmental assessments and involving environmental and other stakeholders and addressing their concerns.

"The company has realised that doing things right is not only best for the environment and communities, but also for their business," said Suske.


For further information about the seminar, please contact Hildegard Meyer at the WWF Danube-Carpathian Programme in Vienna.