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11 Environment
11.1 Situation and problems
The Carpathian Mountains region represents a unique a dynamic common living
space (natural, cultural, political and socio-economic), both ecologically valuable
and important in terms of its human heritage. The region has enormous ecological
and economic potential and currently faces rapid environmental, social and politi-
cal changes. The challenge is to preserve and fulfil the region’s potential and speci-
ficity while increasing its sustainability. This will require adaquated, responsible
actions, taking into account global, regional and trans-boundary contexts and link-
ages, in order to enhance both the Carpathian environment and human livelihoods.
The current development pattern in the Carpathian region is leading to the loss
of traditional knowledge, livelihood, practices and values. Since the fall of com-
munism and over the last 18 years of transition, changes in urban and the natural
environment and its forms and structures were significant. For example, rural de-
population menaces the traditional character of the Carpathian countryside. It is
therefore extremely important that culturally sustainable and coherent policies be
formulated and implemented in the Carpathians, in order to slow down or perhaps
even reverse this trend. Policy measures must be implemented and incentives de-
veloped, so that people remain in their villages as guardians of the landscape, tra-
ditional knowledge and way of life. Education, communication and public partici-
pation, together with environmental awareness, could form the basis for creating a
sustainable environment in the Carpathian region.
The Carpathian Mountains are the largest in area, longest, most twisted and
fragmented mountain range in Europe (although having lower average altitude than
the Alps). Stretching over 8 countries, and dominated by middle and low moun-
tains, they are severely affected by human activity. Land use changes, deforesta-
tion, and extreme climatic events against the background of global environmental
change are increasing the vulnerability of these mountains to various, both natural
and anthropogenic phenomena. They exhibit great fragility, with some of the major
threats including deforestation, over-exploitation of niche resources (wood and
certain mineral ores), land use changes (land abandonment) and related land degra-
dation and elimination of traditional livelihoods.
The Carpathian Mountains include many unique landscapes, and natural and
cultural sites, which express both geographical diversity and a distinctive pattern of
regional evolution of man-environment relation over time. The Carpathians were
put on the WWF “Global 2000” list among the major ecoregions of the world for
the conservation of habitats and biodiversity.
From the bio-geographical point of view the Carpathian Mountains represent a
link between the taiga of Northern Europe and the Mediterranean ecosystems to the
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VISIONS AND STRATEGIES IN THE CARPATHIAN AREA (VASICA)
south, and also are the home of the largest pristine forests on the continent. The
rich variety of endemic plants and animals, characteristic of the Carpathian eco-
systems is an integral part of the European biodiversity. The Carpathians as a
whole are considered to be a biodiversity-rich region with an estimated minimum
of 60.000 wild species. Also, the largest population of large carnivores in Europe
are found in the Carpathians.
Efforts to maintain the diverse landscape and native flora and fauna resulted in a
well-developed network of protected areas (national and natural parks) that cur-
rently cover up to 13% of the Carpathian Mountains. The Implementation of the
Nature 2000 Network in the five EU member states should ultimately lead to the
protection of at least 15% of the Carpathian total land area.
11.2 Policy recommendations for environmental protection
11.2.1 The preservation of primeval virgin forests
Much of the Carpathian range is covered by vast areas of forests. On average, for-
est cover is nearly 60%, but the percentage varies considerably according to coun-
tries and areas. The largest forest complexes are in the Eastern Carpathians. In the
Western and Southern Carpathians substantial areas were deforested and converted
to other use of land. Deforestation and fragmentation increases from the region’s
main ridge to the peripheries.
The Carpathians area is famous for its relatively large share of natural and semi-
natural forests occurring either on areas of high elevations or in areas of rugged
topography with limited access. It is expected that these ecosystems provide shelter
to a rich variety of rare species, now extinct elsewhere due to intense forms of for-
est management. Characteristic feature of natural Carpathian forests is the large
volume of dead wood. Natural forest floors maintain over 100 cubic meters of dead
wood per hectare, while in managed forests dead wood amounts to nearly 10 cubic
meters per hectare. The lack of dead wood implies a substantial lack of biodiversity
(e.g. plants fungi and invertebrates that depend on this particular substrate for their
survival). Dead wood has many environmental values, the most important being
carbon sequestration, particularly at higher altitudes. Recently the EU proposed a
new agro-environmental scheme of financial support during the period from 2007
to 2013 that would provide opportunities for increasing the area of old wood ref-
uges.
Nearly all the remnants of natural and semi-natural forests in the Western Car-
pathian are now protected in natural reserves or national parks in the Czech Re-
public, Poland, Hungary and Slovakia, including their valuable, rare and threatened
forest ecosystems. Much larger areas of primeval and natural forests exist in Ro-
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ENVIRONMENT
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mania and in Ukraine. Not all of these areas are protected by law, but now even in
these areas selective cutting systems are employed and efforts are made to limit
forest exploitation. Forest regeneration is mostly natural, while the planting of tree
seedlings is widely used as a way to convert secondary Norway spruce stands
(plantations) into more diverse forest stands.
In general, annual timber cutting in the Carpathians is lower than the gross an-
nual increase of the volume of wood. Nevertheless, deforestation processes are
occurring in the region and can be observed in Romania and Ukraine. These proc-
esses – beyond excessive timber cutting – can be resulted from increases in soil
pollution and acidification, or from establishing new ski trails where the opening of
forest margins altered the microclimate and gave rise to bark-beetle outbreaks.
Illegal clear-cutting, poaching and the over-exploitation of other forest products
such as mushrooms, berries and rare plants and animals are alarming phenomena
that are on the upswing.
The structure of forest ownership in the Carpathians has changed rapidly over
the last two decades. In the 1990s the majority of forests were state-owned: nearly
100% in Ukraine, over 90% in Romania, more than 80% in Hungary and Poland.
The subsequent re-privatisation and restitution of forests to private owners has
changed this situation. Nowadays privately owned forests constitute 43% in Hun-
gary, 41% in Slovakia, 40% in the Czech Republic, 20% in Poland, 8% in Romania
and there are no private forests in Ukraine. Private ownership often results in a
disintegration of forest management and fragmentation of stands. Forest privatisa-
tion also tends to place more value on economic benefits, rather than on ecological
and social values.
Timber production remains a major source of income in the Carpathian region.
However, in some areas, small sawmills and other wood processing industries have
a more social than economic character (e.g. preventing local unemployment). A
growing source of income from forests is tourism and recreation. Forest tourism
trails, hunting areas and guest rooms in mountain villages are all successful eco-
nomic activities, competing with single wood processing in the Carpathians.
11.2.2 Waste and hazardous materials disposal
Why should waste disposal be one of the most important measures in the Carpa-
thian region? Between 1990 and 1997 waste production decreased substantially in
this area. Nevertheless, this decrease was mostly due to dramatically declining
industrial and agricultural production. Since 1998, the volume of waste is again
increasing dynamically, especially the waste produced by households. In many
places waste dumping is on the rise, sometimes dramatically, as old refuse dumps
are full and there is a lack of acceptance of new sites being placed in local commu-
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VISIONS AND STRATEGIES IN THE CARPATHIAN AREA (VASICA)
nities. Furthermore, in mountainous areas there are less suitable places for refuse
dumping than in the plains and underground water streams can transport dangerous
materials more rapidly and further than on the plains. Key issues related to waste
management in the Carpathian countries are the predominance of land filling, as a
waste management option, and the problem of low recycling rates.
The greatest problem appears to be municipal waste, where the waste genera-
tion is worse than 17 years ago. The existence of obsolete hazardous chemicals
remains a major issue. One emerging problem concerns new hazardous chemicals,
and the recent “hazardous waste market”. A special category of problems is pre-
sented by brown-fields and the numerous sites which had been ruined by a variety
of waste related problems.
Moreover, major new construction projects (e.g. large dams, highways, facto-
ries, harmful mining technologies, mountain winter sport resorts) have led to se-
vere negative impacts on nature and landscapes, as well as producing additional
wastes.
The import and mass-utilisation of non-recyclable materials have increased
problems associated with waste management, especially at local level, including a
significant rise in the total amount of municipal waste. Finally, legislative, con-
ceptual, organisational and technical ignorance of the scope of problems such as
communal waste has caused the proliferation of thousands of small local waste
sites, both informal and illegal.
Municipal Waste
During the communist period municipal waste management received little at-
tention and funding. In the majority of Carpathian countries, neither relevant leg-
islation nor institutions did exist. There were many ten thousands of illegal deposits
located in forests and along the country roads. After 1990, the municipal waste
situation worsened, partly because of the collapse of the existing system of paper
and glass collection, partly because of the increasing use of the non reusable pack-
ages and the lack of municipal waste recycling. With more processed food products
and with the spread of hypermarkets and other large chain stores, increased human
consumption has resulted in greater waste production.
Hazardous Waste
Hazardous wastes and their management are a substantial programme in the
majority of the Carpathian countries. The share of processing industries is only 27–
29% as this figure indicates. This may suggest that a very large number of new
small industrial firms together are producing a fairly large part of industrial waste,
but they do not report any waste in order to avoid fees and fines.
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In Hungary, a programme to build a network of regional hazardous waste land-
fills and incinerator plants was elaborated in the mid–1980s, but has not been fully
completed due to limited financial resources.
An important emerging problem is the illegal or “semi-legal” import of hazard-
ous waste and toxic chemicals from one Carpathian county to other. E.g. hazardous
and non-hazardous wastes were transported from Germany to Hungary, simultane-
ously, hazardous materials were transported from Hungary to Ukraine , to Lviv and
Zakarpathia regions.
It is clear that the annual volume of solid waste generated in the Carpathian
countries and regions will continue to grow during the next decade, due to the in-
creasing affluence of residents, as well as changing life styles and consumption
patterns. Waste management practices need to improve as well. It is probable that a
higher share of municipal waste will be recycled, and that the environmental stan-
dards both for landfill disposals and incinerators will improve.
The majority of landfills in the Carpathian EU member states do not comply
with the standards, elaborated in the EU Landfill Directive. The non-complying
landfills will have to be either closed down and the sites rehabilitated, or updated to
comply with EU standards. Considerable investment is thus needed in this area.
On the other hand, waste legislation at the EU level is evolving, particularly
with the recent revision of the Waste Framework Directive in June 2007, address-
ing in particular the challenge of establishing a system of efficient and environ-
ment-friendly incineration of waste, characterised energy recovery and cross-
border trade of waste between EU member states. The Directive also introduces a
five-step hierarchical “order of priority” for dealing with wastes as follows:
1) prevention of wastes
2) re-use of products
3) recycling/composting
4) recovering of energy by incineration and
5) landfill disposal.
This hierarchy is to be applied “flexibly” by member states whose first priorities
in the Carpathian region must still be considered as the needs to reduce landfill
disposals and increase the recycled share of waste.