The largest protected area in the country, the Mavrovo National Park, received its status as a protected area in 1949 when the National Assembly of the Republic of Macedonia declared the forest areas around the Mavrovo Field a national treasure. But today, Mavrovo is facing the danger of forever losing the most valuable attributes that earned it protection because it does not have the legal status of a national park.
The Nature Protection Law passed in 2004, and its 2013 amendments created a legal obligation for the state to re-designate existing national parks. However, unlike the Pelister and Galichica national parks, where the process has already been completed, and in the meantime, last year, in 2021, a law was passed to declare the fourth national park in the country, Shar Planina, Mavrovo, still has an unresolved status.
The Mavrovo National Park area is home to 50 species of mammals; 129 species of birds, 11 species of amphibians (out of a total of 15 species in Macedonia), 24 species of reptiles (out of a total of 32 in Macedonia) and 924 species of invertebrates. Of these, 11 species of mammals, 45 species of birds, 2 amphibians and 13 species of reptiles are strictly protected animals according to the Bern Convention. Also, the National Park is an Emerald area, i.e. a future Natura 2000 area – part of the European network of protected areas. The Mavrovo National Park is globally recognized as one of the last habitats of the Balkan lynx (lynx lynx balcanicus), a critically endangered animal species worldwide.
Where did the process of re-proclamation of NP Mavrovo get stuck?
The process of re-proclamation of a national park consists of the following stages: preparation of a study for the valorization or revaluation of a protected area, preparation of a plan for the management of the protected area, public debate and, finally, passing of a law for (re)proclamation of a protected area.
The current status of the process of re-proclamation of NP Mavrovo is stuck at the very beginning, specifically in the preparation of the Study for the revaluation of the protected area. In fact, at the end of 2011, a study was prepared for the revaluation of the Mavrovo protected area, but things stopped here, and no one gave a decisive answer as to why this is so.
“This study is a 10-year-old document that does not contain data on the real situation with the natural heritage of the national park. The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications has asked the State University of NP Mavrovo to supplement and revise the Study in relation to the proposal-external boundaries and proposal-zoning with narrative descriptions of each of the proposed zones and GIS data, as well as specifying data for assessing the status of habitats and species of national and EU importance, which reflects their current situation and need in accordance with the monitoring carried out by the UNP Mavrovo”, states the answer received from the Ministry of Environment.
Coincidentally or not, the stoppage in the process of re-proclaiming Mavrovo as a national park coincides with the beginnings of intensified urbanization of the area around Mavrovo Lake, as well as the development of plans for the construction of infrastructure facilities in the territory now occupied by NP Mavrovo, specifically construction of small hydroelectric power stations by capturing the mountain watercourses within the protected area. The largest in terms of volume were the Boshkov Most HPP and Lukovo Pole HPP projects, but apart from them, the Government has issued concessions for another 20 small hydropower plants. Of these, four have already been built, while the construction of the remaining 16 is in status quo, due to the resistance of the local population (such as, for example, the construction of three small hydropower plants in Žirovnica) or as a result of the raised voice of the public. However, the Government has persistently extended the concession contracts of several concessionaires for years.
The Boshkov Most and Lukovo Pole hydropower projects have been put on hold after the main financiers, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the World Bank, gave up their financing, under pressure from the public and the scientific community and over 100 thousand collected signatures. The Boshkov Most project envisaged full utilization of the hydro potential of Mala Reka, i.e. its tributaries Tresonche, Rosoki, Lazaropolska reka, Valovnica, Garska, Zvonchica and Beleshnica.
Lukovo Pole, on the other hand, provided for the occupation of navigable watercourses, among which the most significant is the valley of Dlaboka Reka with the Projfelski waterfall, one of the last wild authentic beech rainforests in Europe. The problem, pointed out by numerous environmental activists and representatives of the scientific community, is that the construction of this energy project was supposed to cover a large area of the Mavrovo National Park, permanently changing and destroying the habitats of numerous protected plant and animal species, including the Balkan lynx. The importance of the Dlaboka Reka Valley speaks volumes for the fact that last year this area was inscribed in the world’s natural heritage by UNESCO.
The valley of Dlaboka Reka will become relevant again these days [4], after the environmental societies turned to the Government with a request not to extend the Agreement for the construction of the small hydropower plant “Ribnichka 7” in the Mavrovo National Park and to unilaterally terminate the agreement for this hydropower plant, whose location is located in close proximity to the UNESCO site and the beech rainforests of the valley, referring to the conclusions and recommendations that the Standing Committee of the Berne Convention made for NP Mavrovo. The concession agreement was concluded in 2015 and it expires on May 7 of this year.
What does the Berne Convention say?
The Republic of North Macedonia ratified the Berne Convention in 1997 and it is a part of the domestic legal framework, thus it is a binding international legal instrument in the field of nature conservation. The committee on two occasions brought conclusions and recommendations to the Macedonian Government for Mavrovo National Park to abandon the construction of hydropower projects. The first time was in 2015 [5] and then again in December 2021 [6]. The Convention asked the Government to cancel all approved and planned hydroelectric power plants in protected areas in the country, as well as those outside, which may have an impact on the protected zones. The recommendation of the Bern Convention applies to all energy facilities that have received concessions, but have not yet been built, for which the Government is expected to terminate the contracts.
From a total of 13 recommendations of the Standing Committee of the Berne Convention from 2021 to the Government of North Macedonia, we would single out the following:
-immediate suspension of approved concessions and those planned for the construction and implementation of a ban on hydropower plants in national parks, protected areas, UNESCO sites and other candidate sites for Emerald areas (potential future Natura 2000 sites), as their implementation will cause problems with compliance with Berne Convention;
– implementation of the new international standards for banning hydropower plants in the world at UNESCO sites, and to provide an in-depth analysis of the protected areas; to ensure an ecological water flow of the creeks and to prevent the excessive withdrawal of water in the streams within or that have an impact on the Mavrovo National Park, other protected areas;
– to ensure that the basic funding for the operation and management of the national parks in North Macedonia comes from the state budget, and not from the excessive exploitation of natural resources and other unsustainable sources of funding;
– to speed up the process of preparing the valorization study for the Mavrovo National Park, increasing efforts to complete the process of re-proclamation and adoption of a new law for the Mavrovo National Park and preparation of an effective and comprehensive plan for the management of the park;
– to ensure that there are no further extensions for applications for the legalization of structures that have been built without a permit in Mavrovo National Park, other protected areas and world heritage sites.
Battle for the salvation of Mavrovo
Already in 2013, after the construction of Boshkov Most and Lukovo Pole was announced, the civil organization “Eco-svest” submitted a complaint to the Convention, fearing that the construction of these hydro-projects would destroy the park. During that period, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) adopted a Resolution demanding the abandonment of the hydropower plant project in Mavrovo. Two years later, in 2015, the Bern Convention asked the Macedonian authorities to suspend all plans for the construction of small hydropower plants in Mavrovo and to seriously consider all the cumulative effects of the planned infrastructure projects within this national park, calling at the same time the international financial institutions in the future to carefully consider strategic assessments of their impact on the environment before deciding to finance such projects.
In response to these requests, the then Prime Minister Zoran Zaev stated on several occasions [7] that the construction of small hydropower plants in protected areas would be stopped, that all individual concessions for small hydropower plants would be reviewed and that no new permits would be issued. However, the public learned about the withdrawal of the concession permit for only one of the three small HPPs on the Žirovnica River, Žirovnica 3, but at the end of 2020 the Government extended the concession agreements for Žirovnica 5 and 6, with the rationale that the concessionaire could not fulfill his part of the agreement because he was “obstructed by the local population”.
” All concessionaires who have valid concession agreements can one day build, if they receive a construction permit from the municipality .” As long as the Government continues the contracts with the investors, the danger remains for the construction of the small hydropower plants” is the opinion of “Eco-Svest”.
To the question addressed to the Government – how far is the realization of the recommendations of the Berne Convention for Mavrovo, we received an answer to turn to the Ministry of Environment and Spatial Planning. We received an answer from the Ministry that they are negotiating with donors to provide money for the completion of the Revaluation Study from 2011. The revised and supplemented Study for Mavrovo, after it is approved by the Management Board of NP Mavrovo and together with the revised Catalog of species registered on the territory of NP Mavrovo, should be submitted to the relevant Ministry and the National Council for Nature Protection for an opinion.
It was this study and the proposed law for Mavrovo, which was prepared based on that study, that caused the standoff regarding the re-proclamation of Mavrovo as a national park. “Several attempts have been made to delay the process of re-declaration of the park”, says the director of NP Mavrovo, Samir Aidini. According to him, a key problem in this whole process is zoning, where in the current Study in 2016, the zoning of the national park was changed just to fit the small hydropower plants that are planned. ” We, as the management of the park, do not agree with this “ , says Aydini, and adds: “We want the zoning to remain as in the version of 2011 , which means that hydropower plants are not built due to the devastation of the space that is being done at the construction site , and due to the fact that the capacity of the water resources is not well and accurately determined. We support this with the data on the water capacity, which are about 40 years old and do not correspond to the actual situation.”
Small hydropower plants and urbanization – the reason for the stagnation in the protection of Mavrovo
“Based on the experience with our institutions and taking into account the history of the events, our assumption is that the passing of a law that will prevent the realization of the planned small hydropower plants is avoided “, say the environmental organization “Front 21/42”. It is the direct involvement of the Berne Convention in the protection of the Mavrovo National Park that has so far prevented a law from being passed that will be in function of the Boškovo Most and especially the Lukovo Pole projects, which were to be built in the zone of strict protection, and for that purpose that area was supposed to be relegated to a zone with the lowest protection. Such attempts to legalize the destruction of the park prompted the Berne Convention to open the case for Mavrovo, “Front 21/42” recalls.
Unfortunately, the construction of small hydropower plants is not the only form of usurpation and degradation of the natural values of the Moorish area. In recent years, the intensified urbanization of parts of NP Mavrovo [8], especially in the tourist-recreational center Mavrovo and near the Mavrovo lake, represents a significant danger for this protected area. Huge multi-story buildings on the site of former pastures and country houses in the village of Mavrovo, construction of megalomaniacal complexes of luxury villas in the village of Leunovo, in conjunction with the hotel “Radika” with building permits issued by the municipality of Mavrovo Rostuše without complying with the legal obligation to request consent from the Ministry of the Environment and from the administration of the Mavrovo National Park, are just some of the examples where in recent years the laws have been circumvented and the obligations arising from them have been neglected, when it comes to the Mavrovo National Park.
“Due to the lack of a new law for NP Mavrovo and a new management plan, there are no newly established boundaries of the three zones of the park, so this is an ideal opportunity to carry out urbanization of the protected area”, according to “Eco-Svest”. But perhaps this situation is also due to the fact that the building permits are issued by the municipality without asking for an opinion or position from the management of the protected area, which is against the law, adds the answer of “Eco-Svest” to the question what is the connection between the urbanization of Mavrovo and the unfulfilled obligation of the state to revalue and re-declare this protected area a national park.
Has the time come for the state to finally stop turning a deaf ear to legal obligations, but also to the obligations and recommendations of foreign organizations for the protection of the animal world and the last European natural habitats, of which our country is a member, with all rights and obligations, only to protect the interests of a certain group that profits from the exploitation of the extraordinary natural values of Mavrovo? A seriously worked study for the revaluation of the natural values of NP Mavrovo, and then passing a law that will reflect those values and lay the foundations for their protection is the only way to protect the Mavrovo National Park as one of the most valuable hotspots of biodiversity in this region part of the Balkans, and its beauty remains available for future generations.
Author:
Jugoslava Dukovska