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is very narrow and there is no buffer or transition zones in the west and
north east of the Tatras National Park.
The new proposal of the zonation has not yet been approved, as there
still remain disagreements between responsible ministries the Ministry of
Environment and the Ministry of Agriculture, between state administration
and environmental activists as well as between the National Park
Administration and the private land and forest owners on the principles
of zoning being imposed on private land. This relates to the requirments
of private owners, demanding compensation for the claimed reduction in
their owner rights.
This problem was identifi ed by IUCN mission to the Tatras National
Park in April 2005 (Crofts et al. 2005) concluding that there is no clear
authority and specifi cally no overall management authority for the Park.
There is no comprehensive strategy or management plan, nor a formal
provision for the preparation of such documents, the current approved
zonation system is inadequate, and the layers of government from national
to municipal level results in confusion and inconsistency to all bodies
involved. In addition, the IUCN mission identifi ed the highly polarized
views about the future management and use of the key parts of the area,
including its core, following the windstorm of November 2004. This problem
has yet to be solved, althougth the mission underlined the necessity to cope
with the pressures of different interests by supplementary and compatible
management arrangements facing the tendencies to enlarge the built-up
areas of the settlement units belonging to the town of Vysoke Tatry towards
the core zone of the national park and to meet the demands for large
recreation areas as part of the town Vysoke Tatry. These demands include
new huts, hotels, and transport facilities in the high mountain environment
with the highest degree of protection (Crofts et al. 2005).
The necessity to look after new modes of recovery management in the
affected areas safeguarding the fulfi llment of the nature protection tasks,
sustainable ecological, social and economic development in the High Tatras
Mountains is determined by the specifi c land ownership situation in the
area. In the High Tatras Nationa Park only 52% of the land is owned by
the state, the rest (48%) is privately owned. The proposal for new zoning
in the National Park as the base for the implementation of appropriate
problem specifi c management across areas with different ownership mode,
prepared by the Ministry of Environment in agreement with the Ministry
of Agriculture, remains unapproved even eight years after the disaster,
mostly due to the resistance of the land owners.
One of the basic problems is a disagreement between the National Park
Administration and the private forest owners on the principle of zoning
being imposed on private land as the private owners demand compensation
for the claimed reduction in their rights. But the contradiction can be seen
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