UN Chronicle | Protecting Carpathian Forests

Protecting Carpathian Forests
By Darrell Dela Rosa for the Chronicle

Web Article

A new environmental agreement aims to conserve Europe's greatest reserves of untouched forests and large carnivores and assist mountain communities settled there. On 22 May, Central and Eastern European ministers signed the Framework Convention on the Protection and Sustainable Development of the Carpathians, intended to strengthen regional cooperation and to support local projects in the mountainous areas of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Serbia and Montenegro, Slovakia and the Ukraine.

The Carpathian region, spread over approximately 200,000 square kilometers, contains vast tracts of forest that serve as a bridge between Europe's northern forests and those in the south and west and allows bears and other species to migrate and remain healthy through genetic exchange.

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), which presided over the treaty negotiations, said that conflict with human development has drastically corroded the Carpathian region's wildlife in recent centuries and such modernization has also affected 16 million to 18 million people who call this region home. Major threats to the mountains include poverty and rising unemployment, exacerbated since communist transition began over a decade ago, as well as deforestation; fragmentation of habitats; overexploitation of natural resources; excessive pollution; and unsustainable development patterns.

The new Framework Convention acknowledges the link between environmental protection and the necessity of bringing benefits to local populations via sustainable development. Among the initiatives is the promotion of responsible tourism in which the landscapes are protected and local communities benefit. "Though less famous than the neighbouring Alps", according to UNEP Executive Director Klaus Toepfer, "the Carpathian region boasts a stunning landscape of great beauty that is rich in both wildlife and culture. This new treaty promises to help the region retain its wildness while offering its people new opportunities for improving their well-being."

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