Mountain Region in the Heart of Europe gets Legal Protection

United Nations Environment Programme

The up to 18 million people living in the Carpathian mountain region have cause to celebrate today with the entry into force of a new international treaty to conserve the area’s rich wildlife, wondrous landscapes and cultural heritage.

With the decision of Hungary, it brings to four the number of nations that have now ratified the Carpathian Convention allowing it to come into full legal life. The other three countries are the Slovak Republic, Ukraine and the Czech Republic.

The Carpathian region contains Europe’s greatest reserve of pristine forest and is a refuge for brown bears, wolves, bison, lynx, eagles and some 200 unique plant species found nowhere else in the world.

It also provides some of the Continent’s cleanest streams and drinking water supplies. The treaty covers seven countries—the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Serbia and Montenegro, the Slovak Republic and Ukraine—whose cultural heritage is also considered unique and shared.

Klaus Toepfer, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) which has played a key role in developing the Convention, said today: “The entry into force offers a beacon of hope for the people and wildlife of this region faced with the pressures of a rapidly changing world. I would urge the three countries yet to ratify to do so as soon as they can”.

“While the region is blessed with rich and bountiful natural ‘capital’, it also faces many threats including poverty, unemployment, unplanned development, over-exploitation of natural resources, pollution, deforestation, and excessive hunting,” he added.

“This legally living treaty is aimed at balancing the economic needs of the people with the need to conserve the environment. In doing so it can play a critical part in delivering sustainable development and offers a blueprint for other mountain regions in the world,” said Mr Toepfer.

Indeed UNEP has recently received requests from the South East European (Balkan) and Caucasus mountain regions to support transboundary initiatives and cooperation inspired by its work on the Carpathians.

Within the framework of the global Mountain Partnership, UNEP is also sharing its experience on the Carpathian Convention with other mountain regions such as the Andes, Central Asia and Hindukush-Karakoram-Himalaya.

The development of the Framework Convention on the Protection and Sustainable Development of the Carpathians began in 2002 during the United Nations International Year of the Mountains. It mirrors the development of the Alpine Convention which pre dates it.

The Carpathian treaty was adopted and signed in May 2003 at the fifth Environment for Europe Conference which took place in Kyiv, Ukraine by all seven countries concerned. Entry into force required the ratification of four of the seven countries which has now occurred.

The Convention lays down key principles which are spawning collaboration between the countries concerned and their local authorities, civil society organizations and committed individuals.

Actions, which will now be accelerated by the Convention’s entry into force, include ones to:

• Conserve biological and landscape diversity and use it sustainably. The planned Carpathian Network of Protected Areas will restore degraded habitats and reconnect fragmented ones to allow species to travel and migrate.

• Coordinate spatial planning in border areas. Since the Carpathians constitute a single natural region, governments aim to coordinate their national transport and energy systems and prevent cross-border pollution.

• Ensure the ‘integrated’ management of water resources and river basins. All aspects of water management, from pollution and sanitation to flood control and wetlands protection, are interdependent and need to be addressed simultaneously.

• Promote sustainable agriculture and forestry. Agricultural and land-management policies need to incorporate environmental concerns, while the multiple functions of forests must each be recognized and protected.

• Develop sustainable transport and physical infrastructure. Sensitive areas that are biologically rich serve as migration routes or have a special value for tourism should not be damaged by transport systems or development.

• Create sustainable tourism. Promoting responsible tourism and recreation facilities that protect landscapes while benefiting local communities can provide a win-win solution for people and nature.

• Advance environmentally sound industry and energy. The adverse impacts of development can be minimized through cleaner production technologies, a rapid response to industrial accidents and stricter oversight of mining operations.

• Preserve cultural heritage and traditional knowledge. Special efforts are often needed to nurture local goods and handicrafts, traditional architecture, local breeds of domestic animals, and the sustainable use of wild plants.

• Assess and monitor the environment. Key activities include research, risk assessment and identifying natural and man-made environmental hazards through early-warning systems.

• Raise awareness and educate people. Protecting the Carpathians requires the active participation of the general public in decision-making and improved public access to information.

Click here for a complete list of books about Carpathians