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EC raises flap over bird protection

Expert says 'time is running out' for endangered avians

By Kimberly Ashton
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
July 25th, 2007 issue

41 Special Protection Areas were determined by national bird experts and the Environment Ministry
38 have been designated, leaving some local bird populations with unprotected breeding colonies
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Three years after the Czech Republic joined the European Union, Brussels is telling Prague to straighten up and fly right.
On June 27, the European Commission (EC) issued a warning to 11 member states, including the Czech Republic and Slovakia, to do a better job looking after their birds.
As a condition to join the EU in 2004, the country promised to create 41 Special Protection Areas as determined by national bird experts and the Environment Ministry.
As of the EC warning, 38 had been designated, leaving some local bird populations in dire straits.
The Night Heron, for example, has only three or four breeding colonies nationwide, and one of these is in a zone that lies unprotected, still awaiting designation, according to Lukáš Viktora, director of the Czech Society for Ornithology (ČSO). The society worked with the Environment Ministry four years ago in determining which areas need protection. “In general, we could say that these species could be endangered,” Viktora said.
Over the past two years, the ČSO has sent four complaints to the EC regarding Czech noncompliance with the directive.
All together, it calls for 702,194 hectares (1.7 million acres) to be protected. Currently, about 693,622 are, Viktora said. An area needs to have 10 to 15 breeding pairs to qualify for designation and zones vary vastly in size, with the smallest at 340 hectares and the largest 96,844.
“Our government is obliged to do it, but when it will be done nobody knows,” he said.
Jakub Kašpar, spokesman for the Environment Ministry, said the designation of new zones will be completed very soon.
Recently, on the cusp of the EC’s warning, the country approved one of the three areas flagged for special protection. Now the government is doing the finishing work on the creation of the two remaining zones and an official reply to the EC will be finished by early September.
The answer must be delivered within two months. “There is no danger of any penalties right now,” he said.
The work to complete the project is not related to the EC’s warning, according to Kašpar. Rather, the zones have been “declared, one after the other, over the past three years.”
Kašpar said it is unlikely the country will face any sanctions since this was the first warning it has received over bird protection.
Other endangered birds include the Common Tern and the Blue Throat, according to Viktora.
The threats to these birds include construction, which can destroy their habitats; tourism, which can disturb breeding or disturb rest during wintering seasons; and fish agriculture. The last upsets the bird population by competing for waterborne food supply. For example, Viktora said, carp fisheries stock ponds so densely with the fish that birds cannot see the other food in the water, and not all birds eat fish.
The creation of the protected zones will limit activities such as building new homes or highways in these areas, changing the levels of ponds and rock climbing, among others. These activities can only be undertaken with a permit issued by the Nature Conservation Board, he said.
Viktora said the new designations can’t come soon enough. “Time is running out, and in our country [there is] a lot of investment and a lot of new buildings,” he said.
The EC agrees. “This obligation is critical to meeting the EU target of halting the loss of biodiversity by 2010,” according to an EC press release.
The other countries included in the warning are Cyprus, Slovakia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta and Slovenia. The commission is taking violations by Austria, Germany and Poland to the European Court of Justice.
— Naďa Černá and Hela Balínová contributed to this report.

Kimberly Ashton can be reached at kashton@praguepost.com


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