Summary of the Audit Report Conservation and Protection of Biodiversity in the Area of Planned
Regional Parks of Snežnik and Kočevsko – Kolpa in the Period from 1996 to 2005
The Court of Audit of the Republic of Slovenia carried out a regularity and a performance audit of conservation
and protection of biodiversity in the area of planned regional parks of Snežnik and Kočevsko – Kolpa of the Ministry of
the Environment and Spatial Planning, the Ministry of the Agriculture, Forestry and Food and the
Slovenia Forest Service.
The audit objectives were to express an opinion on the regularity and an opinion on the efficiency of
operations in planning and implementing measures for conservation and protection of biodiversity in the
area of planned regional parks of Snežnik and Kočevsko – Kolpa in the period from 1996 to 2005.
As regards the regularity of operations of the Ministry of the Environment and Spatial Planning relating to
the conservation and protection of biodiversity, the Court of Audit expressed an unqualified opinion since it
established that the ministry failed:
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to adopt strategic documents immediately after the National Environment Protection Programme
came into force (i.e. strategic documents such as the Strategy on Conservation of Biodiversity, the
Strategy for the Environment Protection and the Action Plan) that are necessary for the
implementation of the conservation and protection of biodiversity policy,
to adopt acts on conservation of the planned protected areas in time limits defined by the National
Environment Protection Programme,
to prepare a wolf and lynx management strategy and a new brown bear management action plan in
time limits defined by the Resolution on the National Environment Protection Programme.
The Court of Audit established that the auditees were not efficient in their operations relating to the
conservation and protection of biodiversity, since:
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the Ministry of the Environment and Spatial Planning did not in a timely manner develop all strategic
documents on conservation and protection of biodiversity, by doing so it would define unified and
complete guidance for the implementation of the precautionary measures against further reduction of
biodiversity,
when the National Environment Protection Programme and the Resolution of the National
Environment Protection Programme were adopted, the Ministry of the Environment and Spatial
Planning failed to develop the activity plan on founding protected areas by defining responsible
entities, time limits for each activity and it did not define ways of monitoring its implementation,
the Ministry of the Environment and Spatial Planning did not more efficiently involve other ministries
in the process of planning and funding the planned regional parks of Snežnik and Kočevsko – Kolpa
and it did not prepare the Development and Structural Adjustments Programmes for each area of the
parks in order to increase the possibilities for a successful funding of parks and create conditions for
the comprehensive implementation of the concept of the sustainable development,
the Ministry of the Environment and Spatial Planning did not in a timely manner provide for the
preparation of the wolf and lynx management strategies allowing for the development of a targetoriented management of the populations and transparent monitoring of the situation and changes in
the population;
the Ministry of the Environment and Spatial Planning did not identify a responsible person for the
coordination of activities concerning the brown bear management and did not identify a responsible
person for monitoring the implementation of the strategy and for preparation of an efficiency
assessment of the measures implementation,
the Ministry of the Agriculture, Forestry and Food did not monitor the implementation of the
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strategies concerning the brown bear management till 2004, therefore it failed to assess the efficiency
of each measure,
the Ministry of the Agriculture, Forestry and Food did not provide for the regular monitoring of the
implementation of conclusions and decisions made by the Bark Beetle Inspection Committee relating
to timeliness of logging of conifer damaged by bark beetles and to implementation of enforcements in
line with the available funds and to preparation of assessments concerning the efficiency of the
implementation of adopted measures,
the Slovenia Forest Service did not provide for the consistent monitoring of the implementation of
the contract on logging of conifer damaged by bark beetles; it did not in a timely manner make
contracts with the service providers on logging; it did not implement necessary measures for logging;
it did not carry out control over the timeliness of the implementation of decisions and forest
rehabilitation by regions.
The Court of Audit established that the Ministry of the Environment and Spatial Planning failed to
provide for the efficient conservation and protection of the biotic diversity, since it did not in a timely
manner develop acts on protection of planned natural parks and it did not found planned regional parks
of Snežnik and Kočevsko – Kolpa in due time limits. Namely, it did not create appropriate conditions for
the implementation of the concept of the sustainable use of land and biotic diversity in the area.
The Ministry of the Environment and Spatial Planning was requested to submit to the Court of Audit a
response report indicating the corrective measures with regard to the preparation of the activity plan on founding
the protected areas by 2008 that were foreseen in the Resolution of the National Environment Protection
Programme; including all activities concerning the development of the strategy on wolf and lynx
management, the preparation of the action plan of brown bear management and the identification of a
contact person for coordination and monitoring of the implementation of the brown bear management
strategy and the action plan.
The Court of Audit submitted to the auditees the following recommendations:
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the Ministry of the Environment and Spatial Planning should before it reintroduces the funding of the
planned regional parks of Snežnik and Kočevsko – Kolpa carry out an analysis of founding the parks
and identify reasons for the lack of success;
the Ministry of the Environment and Spatial Planning should when developing plans of founding the
parks reconsider the appropriateness of all set objectives with regard to founding of parks and define
ways of achieving them;
the Ministry of the Environment and Spatial Planning should when developing plans of founding
parks reconsider appropriateness of defining areas that are included in the park and appropriateness
of defining commercial activities that shall be carried out in parks;
the Ministry of the Environment and Spatial Planning should consider the possibilities of cooperation
with the Croatian National Park of Risnjak when carrying out joint environmental projects in the area
of those parks and possibilities for the preparation of a joint management plan;
the Ministry of the Environment and Spatial Planning should, when preparing the wolf and lynx
management strategies and the brown bear management action plan, develop a communication
strategy of cooperation with the local people and develop measures for effective long-term coexistence;
the Ministry of the Environment and Spatial Planning should when preparing strategies on
management of large carnivores strengthen the cooperation with authorised bodies on the
institutional level in the Republic of Croatia, it should define common basis for managing the
populations of large carnivores and reach agreements on regular data exchange relating to the brown
bear, wolf and lynx populations and review possibilities of developing joint management strategies;
the Slovenia Forest Service should develop a system of indicators for monitoring the efficiency of
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performed measures relating to the control over the bark beetles, define their target value and
constantly monitor and analyse deviations. The cooperation with the Forestry Inspection should be
reinforced mainly in the field of timeliness of the implementation of decisions on logging due to
damage caused by bark beetles, namely by unifying the system of data submission on delays
concerning the implementation of decisions for all regions.
Ljubljana, 18 December 2006
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