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System of internationally important protected areas

Last update of indicator20.12.2023

Indicator definition

The indicator describes an overview of internationally important protected areas (number, area, % of the area of the Slovak Republic), resulting from international treaties, programs and membership in international organizations to which the Slovak Republic has joined (wetlands of international importance, world heritage sites, biosphere reserves and other internationally important areas ).
 

Units

%, ha, number

Metadata

Related policy documents and targets

Greener Slovakia - The Strategy for Environmental Policy of the Slovak Republic until 2030 (Envirostrategy 2030) (2019)

2.1 Stopping the Loss of Biodiversity

  • To complete the system of internationally important territories
2.3 Simplify the system and adhere to thenon-intervention in areas with the highest degree of protection
  • In the long term it is necessary to sort out the question of ownership in protected areas and gradually transfer as large an area as possible into the ownership of the state via exchanges, buy-outs, long-term lease, or contractual management and, if appropriate, in terms of state-owned land also via delimitation of competencies

 

The updated National Biodiversity Conservation Strategy up to 2020 (2014)
 
Area A: Nature protection

Objective A.1 To stop the deterioration of the status of all species and habitats, especially those covered by the EU legislation and achieve a significant and measurable improvement in their status.

 

An action plan for implementation of measures resulting from the updated National Biodiversity Conservation Strategy up to 2020 (2014)
 
Objective A.1
Measure A.1.1 Consistently implement the Birds Directive and the Habitats Directive, adopted resolutions and decisions of international conventions, organizations and programs and improved national legislation in order to strengthen the protection of species and habitats and also link the network of protected areas on a scientific basis
Proposed tasks:
5. To implement approved LIFE projects aimed at protected species and protected areas
Measure A.1.2 To ensure the integrated management of important areas based on an ecosystem approach through the development and implementation of care programmes and their integration into sectoral concepts and strategies

Proposed tasks:
12. To ensure processing and implementation of care programmes and conservation programs of protected areas, and particularly those included in the Natura 2000, and sites of international importance, including caves (Subterranean habitats)
14. To ensure the implementation of management measures in protected areas during the period up to the approval of the their care programmes
15. To provide compensation for the limitation of common management – the transfer of protected areas with the 5th level of protection and selected areas with a lower level of protection to the ownership of state (purchase and exchange of lands), lease, contractual care
 

Key question

What is the state and trend in the internationally important protected areas?

Key messages

There are currently 5 categories of internationally important protected areas in the Slovak Republic:

  • Territories with the Council of Europe's European Diploma for Protected Areas,
  • Biosphere Reserves - within the UN Man and Biosphere Program (MaB),
  • Ramsar sites - within the framework of the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance primarily as waterfowl habitats,
  • UNESCO World Heritage Sites and
  • Important underground sites for bats in Europe - within the framework of the Agreement on the Protection of European Bat Populations - EUROBATS

 

Change since 2005 Change since 2015 Last year-on-year change
Pozitivny trend Pozitivny trend --
1 Ramsar site and 1 world natural heritage site were added. Both territories with the European Diploma of the Council of Europe received this prestigious international award again in 2018 for another ten-year period. In 2017, the PLA - Poľana Biosphere Reserve received a prestigious award - the Michel Batiss Award for the best management of a biosphere reserve in the world.

--

 

Detailed assessment

 

Most of the territories of international importance are also part of the national system of CHÚ. If this is not the case, according to § 28b par. 3 of the Act on the Protection of Nature and Landscape should be declared a protected area. These locations are published on the website of the Ministry of the Interior of the Slovak Republic.
 

Areas with the Council of Europe's European Diploma for Protected Areas

The European Diploma for Protected Areas is an international award granted by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe. It highlights the values of natural and semi-natural areas exceptional within Europe, which are important for the protection of biological, geological and landscape biodiversity and are managed in an exemplary manner.

Since its establishment in 1965, 74 protected areas in 29 European countries have received the European Diploma.

In Slovakia, the European Diploma was awarded to 2 territories:

  • NP Poloniny (1998) – the entire territory of the national park,
  • NNR Dobročský prales (1998) – within the scope of the Poľana Protected Landscape Area

In 2018, both protected areas received this prestigious international award again for another ten-year period.

 

Biosphere reserves

(within the UN Human and Biosphere Program - MaB)
 
The UNESCO Man and the Biosphere (MaB) program is an intergovernmental scientific program whose goal is to create a scientific base for improving the relationship between people and the environment in which they live. It represents a vision of supporting the connection between man and nature in the context of biosphere reserves (BR). Each BR performs three basic functions:
  1. Protection of biodiversity, ecosystems and landscape.
  2. Sustainable economic and socio-economic development of the local population.
  3. Support of science, research and education with an emphasis on building partnerships at the local, regional and international level.
In Slovakia, the following are declared biosphere reserves:
  • BR Poľana (1990),
  • BR Slovak Karst (1977),
  • BR Eastern Carpathians (1998; trilateral BR: Poland/Slovakia/Ukraine),
  • BR Tatry (1992; bilateral BR: Poland/Slovakia).

 

Ramsar sites

(within the framework of the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance primarily as Waterfowl Habitats, the so-called Ramsar Convention)
 
Each contracting party to the Ramsar Convention is obliged to include at least one wetland in the "List of Wetlands of International Importance" (the so-called List of Wetlands of International Importance) and to ensure adequate protection and reasonable use of these territories. Wetlands that meet international criteria in terms of ecology, botany, zoology, limnology or hydrology are included in the list.
 
The Slovak Republic has so far included 14 territories in this list, the so-called Ramsar sites:
Name of Ramsar site (RS)
Area (ha)
District
 Date of registration
1. Parížske močiare
184.0
Nové Zámky
2.7.1990
2. Šúr
1,136.6
Pezinok
2.7.1990
3. Senné - rybníky
425.0
Michalovce
2.7.1990
4. Dunajské luhy
14,488.0
Bratislava II, V, Senec, D. Streda, Komárno
26.5.1993
5. Moravské luhy (trilateral RS: Slovakia/Czech rep./Austria)
5,380.0
Bratislava IV, Malacky, Senica, Skalica
26.5.1993
6. Latorica
4,404.7
Michalovce, Trebišov
26.5.1993
7. Alúvium Rudavy
560.0
Malacky, Senica
17.2.1998
8. Mokrade Turca
750.0
Martin, Turčianske Teplice
17.2.1998
9. Poiplie (bilateral RS: Slovakia/Hungary)
410.9
Levice, Veľký Krtíš
17.2.1998
10. Mokrade Oravskej kotliny
9,287.0
Námestovo, Tvrdošín
17.2.1998
11. Rieka Orava a jej prítoky
865,0
Dolný Kubín, Tvrdošín
17.2.1998
12. Domica (bilateral RS: Slovakia/Hungary)
622.0
Rožňava
2.2.2001
13. Tisa (bilateral RS: Slovakia/Hungary)
734.6
Trebišov
4.12.2004
14. Jaskyne Demänovskej doliny
1 448,0
Liptovský Mikuláš
17.11.2006
Total
40,695.8
0.8% of the SR territory
 
Source: SNC SR

 

UNESCO World Heritage

World Heritage (WD) represents a unique value that transcends national borders, is important for current and future generations of all humanity, and its permanent protection is of the highest importance to the international community as a whole.
The protection of SD (cultural, natural and mixed) is ensured by the adoption of the Convention on the Protection of World Cultural and Natural Heritage at the UNESCO General Conference in Paris in 1972, which the SR ratified on 15 November 1990.
 
The SD list by 2022 contained 1,157 sites around the world, of which 900 are cultural, 218 are natural and 39 are mixed from the 167 member states of the Convention.
 
In Slovakia, two natural sites are included in the World Heritage List:
  • Caves of the Slovak Karst and Aggtelek Karst (Berlin, 1995), to which the Dobšinská ice cave, including the Stratenská cave and the Psie diery cave, were added in 2000 as one cave system in Duča Hill (Cairns, 2000),
  • Old beech forests and beech forests of the Carpathians and other regions of Europe (Christchurch, 2007; extension in 2011, 2017 and 2021).
 

Important underground sites for bats in Europe

(within the Agreement on the Protection of European Bat Populations - EUROBATS)
 
Rhinolophus euryale, R. ferrumequinum, R. hipposideros, Myotis bechsteinii, M. emarginatus, M. dasycneme, Nyctalus lasiopterus, Pipistrellus nathusii, Barbastella barbastellus, Miniopterus schreibersii are considered to be important species.
  • There are 83 important underground sites for bats in Slovakia.
 

International comparison

 

Contact

Mgr. Peter Kapusta, SAŽP, peter.kapusta@sazp.sk

Related definitions:

The protected area is a geographically defined area which is determined or regulated and managed in order to achieve the specific objectives of conservation.
(Art. 2 of the Convention on Biological Diversity)

Establishment of protected areas (PAs) and caring for them is an instrument of implementation of territorial protection, which should contribute to maintaining the diversity of conditions and forms of life on Earth, to the protection and sustainable maintenance of natural resources, the preservation of natural heritage, characteristic landscape and to achieving and maintaining the ecological stability.

Amendment to Act No. 543/2002 Coll. on nature and landscape protection, as amended, the definition of territories of international importance was added in § 28b.
A territory of international importance is a location that is subject to obligations and recommendations in the field of nature and landscape protection, which for the Slovak Republic result from international treaties to which it is bound, from membership in international organizations and from international programs to which the Slovak Republic has acceded. Territories of international importance consist of wetlands of international importance, sites of world natural heritage, biosphere reserves and other internationally important territories recorded in lists maintained by the competent authorities established on the basis of international treaties to which the Slovak Republic is bound, bodies of international organizations of which the Slovak Republic is a member or bodies of international programs to which the Slovak Republic has acceded

(§ 28b, paragraph 1 of Act No. 543/2002 Coll. on nature and landscape protection, as amended)

 

Methodology:

Data on the area of different categories of protected areas are provided by the State Nature Conservancy of the SR (SNC SR).

Amendment to Act No. 543/2002 Coll. on nature and landscape protection, as amended, in § 28b, the obligation for the Ministry of the Environment of the Slovak Republic to maintain and publish a list of territories of international importance according to individual categories was added.

 

Data sources:

SNC SR, MoE SR

 

Related indicators:

Related international indicators:

Linked references: