High Tatra—The Challenges of Natural Disaster Recovery and Complex Changes - Impact of Global Changes on Mountains: Responses and Adaptation - page 366

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High Tatra—The Challenges of
Natural Disaster Recovery and
Complex Changes
Maros Finka * and Tatiana Kluvankova
INTRODUCTION: SETTING THE CONTEXT
Natural systems of High Tatras
The High Tatras mountains belong to the most valuable ecosystems in
Slovakia, a small Central European country. Nearly 60% of its surface is over
300 m, 15% over 800 m and 1% over 1,500 m above the sea level. Around 40%
of the Slovak territory is covered by forest ecosystems creating a valuable
part of the nature of Slovakia.
The High Tatras represent the fi rst European cross-border national park,
now-a-days one of the nine Slovak national parks along with 14 large scale
protect areas and 19 special protection areas of Natura 2000 in Slovakia,
creating 36% from total the state area. Despite a large proportion of protected
areas, the vulnerability of the ecosystems against increasing extreme climate
events (drought, fl oods, wind), global warming, abandonment of traditional
management of meadows and pastures, expansion of invasive plants,
fragmentation of habitats, etc. is rather high. Practices in the management