UNESCO World Heritage Centre
7, place de Fontenoy
75352 Paris 07 SP
FRANCE

19 June 2001
Dear Madam,
Dear Sir,


WORLD HERITAGE SITE SLOVAKIAN KARST

We are writing to you in respect of that part of your Charter which states:

"The States Parties to the Convention should inform the Committee as soon as possible about threats to their sites. On the other hand, private individuals, non-governmental organisations, or other groups may also draw the Committee's attention to existing threats. If the alert is justified and the problem serious enough, the Committee may consider including the site on the List of World Heritage in Danger"

We hereby inform you of a serious threat to the Slovakian Karst through the imminent granting of limestone exploitation licences by the Slovak Government, to foreign and Slovak mining companies, which would lead to extensive despoliation of the karst landscape in the core World Heritage site.

WHO WE ARE

Proact/EuroBirder is a group of professional and amateur ornithologists who are, inter alia, concerned with the preservation of the environment in the Western Palaearctic, with particular, but not exclusive interest, in threatened bird species and their decreasing natural habitats.

BACKGROUND

Earlier this year we were made aware of the threat to the World Heritage site, the Slovak Karst, through massive intervention in the natural environment by mining companies wishing to extract limestone by expanding current workings and developing new quarrying operations on a substantial scale. These operations, if permitted, would irreversibly destroy the character of a large part of the karst landscape.

We wrote to the responsible Slovak ministries for Agriculture, Environment and Economics urging them to reconsider plans to issue, or consent to the issue, of mining licences; and also wrote to the 2 main foreign-owned companies concerned, Carmeuse and Betox, to appeal to them to desist from implementing their expansion plans The reaction was disappointing and the situation has since worsened.


The Minister for the Environment, Dr. László Miklós, from whom we received the only official reply, is sensitive to environmental concerns and nominally a protagonist for the declaration of a Slovak Karst National Park. He does not however appear to have either the weight or resolve in government circles to push his proposals through. The issue is dominated by the stance of the Economics Ministry who have drafted a new mining law which would effectively remove, or significantly weaken, most of the present restrictions on operations in protected areas.

The Betox and Carmeuse companies sent us evasive and platitudinous replies; referring to their record in landscape restoration which would, of course, irrelevant to the coherence of the karst landscape of the region.

THE PRESENT SITUATION

In order to gain a first-hand and up to date impression of the problem, a representative of Proact/Eurobirder visited the region in mid-May. After talks with NGO representatives and scrutiny of the region, it is clear that the threat is still present, and that urgent action must be taken to prevent any irreversible action on the part of the Slovak government. Locally rumours abound that front men have been buying up parcels of karst woodland on behalf of one of the companies, although it was not possible to substantiate this.

Given the high rate of unemployment in the region, it was heartening to hear from local town and village mayors that this very visible form of environmental destruction is so strongly opposed. Although the establishment of other forms of income for the region will take time, there is considerable interest in the development of soft tourism and traditional industries, handicrafts and farming methods. These would all contribute to long-term cultural, economic and environmental stabilisation of the region.

APPEAL TO THE WORLD HERITAGE COMMITTEE

We appeal to the World Heritage Committee to intervene to save the integrity of the Slovak Karst World Heritage Site by putting it on the critical list of such sites, thus encouraging the Slovak Government to put the area under proper and adequate protection. The best way in our view of achieving the latter would be to raise the status of the area to that of a National Park; complementing the adjacent Aggtelek National Park in Hungary and preserving an integrated international protected area of European if not global importance. Additional benefits would be accrued in protecting the habitats of many species of flora and fauna, including Important Bird Areas and species under severe threat, both within and on the perimeter of the core karst region.

In the hope of a rapid and successful intervention on your part we remain,

Yours sincerely,





David Conlin
Coordinator Proact/Eurobirder

and other concerned Eurobirders, ornithologists and nature lovers, named below and representing the following countries:

Austria, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Cyprus, Denmark, Ecuador, England, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Scotland, Slovakia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United States of America, Wales

Proact © David Conlin 2001