Vacaresti Park Association: Biodiversity and protected natural areas, almost ignored in PNRR

President of the Vacaresti Park Association, Florin Stoican, believes that biodiversity and natural protected areas are almost ignored and treated collaterally in the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) submitted by the Government to the European Commission, agerpres reports.

"Although there is talk in it [e.n. - PNRR] of a green Romania and reforms, I believe we are very far from that. Why? Because we are missing three things: the vision and courage necessary for reforms and state institutions capable of doing reforms. There would have been resources for that. How can we speak of green reform when biodiversity and protected natural areas are almost ignored and treated collaterally? Going green starts with protection of natural values, otherwise it's hypocrisy. What reform are we speaking of when the national natural patrimony is not a priority for the EU country with the richest biodiversity and when we aren't able to base our development on the real resources? How can we become a green country when we aim at only 45,000 ha new forests, 10,000 ha redone forests and 625 ha windbreak forests?," wrote Stoican, in a Facebook post.

According to Stoican, of all the issues of nature preservation, the National Agency for Protected Natural Areas (ANANP) "believes the priority is updating" 240 management plans for protected areas.

"Meaning the bureaucratic and expensive solving of expensive bureaucratic problems, with 0 real benefits for nature. There have been hundreds of million of euro put into these plans, without anyone ever evaluating their concrete results for nature and now another 120 million are asked to update these papers, because that's what our protected natural areas need, not monitoring, security, protection, ecological reconstruction and development. It's good, at least, that the reform of aligning to the objectives of the EU 2030 Strategy regarding biodiversity caught on, providing for 30 pct of the EU territory be in protected areas and 10 pct in strictly protected areas, even if the allotment is embarrassing, 5 million euro," he mentions.

"It's incredible that they want to 'make a national database afferent to the spatial distribution, state and conservation parameters for species and habitats in protected natural areas', when the environment authorities have already spend for this tens of millions (see the Sincron project). Otherwise, 100 million euro is to be invested in restoring the degraded forest habitats in the Natura 2000 sites and 35 million euro in restoring the meadows degraded in Natura 2000 sites, two lakes in the Danube Delta will be cleaned for 35 million euro, the sturgeon monitoring program is continued with 10 million euro, and 15 million euro are invested in the infrastructure to visit the Danube Delta," he mentions.