Economic evaluation of future management scenarios of Poloniny National Park

Abstract

Slovakia is among the countries with one of the highest percentage of forest land cover (40%) in Europe. In the past decade, from year to year, there has been an increase observed in timber extraction. The timber extraction also included national parks or internationally certified protected areas such as Natura 2000 areas or forests belonging to UNESCO cultural heritage. Even the IUCN has recently detected in Slovakia, gross interference into valuable natural ecosystems, which violates the level of assigned protection and threatens that some protected areas in Slovakia could lose their international protected status. By continuing the current system of management of protected areas in Slovakia, the maintenance of biodiversity and natural resources for future generations is in danger. When taking into consideration the continuing growth in population and the capacity of natural resources, this situation is even more alarming. It increases the importance of defining land use politics, protecting nature's core areas, and developing new instruments that would help enforce the conservation of nature on the political scene. This thesis is a first attempt to construct a powerful basis for decision making for political lobbying, which will increase the conservation of nature in Poloniny National Park. The main hypothesis behind this study is that by protecting nature's most valuable ecosystems, it will bring not only the foundation for spiritual, scientific, educational, recreational and visitor opportunities but can also contribute to the economic welfare of the local community, region or country. The most important issue is that economic benefits from protected areas are often being overlooked which causes low acceptance by public institutions and local residents, for its greater protection or expansion. In order to increase the acceptance, this thesis evaluates the expenses and revenues of stakeholders in Poloniny National Park and with the help of an economic analysis "Social Return on Investment" proves its collective profitability. Three different scenarios for the future management of Poloniny National Park (2035) were developed and compared with the current management (2012): Scenario 1 "continuing the status quo", Scenario 2 "increased exploitation" and Scenario 3 "the Wolf Mountains" which proposes a declaration of a new wilderness area of 15 000 hectares. With the help of economic decision criteria, the net profit and SROI ratio (revenues expenses ratio), an exact ranking of scenarios based on profitability was possible. Considering the ongoing discussions about the rightness of placing monetary values on ecosystem services and other abstract values, the quality of ecosystem services, option and existence values were not included in this study. Therefore, the result that scenario 2 "increased exploitation", is the most cost-effective alternative for future management of Poloniny NP, is not too surprising. Of greater interest, however, is the question whether a wilderness area in scenario 3 "the Wolf Mountains" could be more beneficial than allowing the current status quo "scenario 1" to continue. The results show that based on the evaluation of the net profit the Wolf Mountains project is under the following conditions a more profitable alternative than the current status quo: ECONOMIC EVALUATION OF FUTURE MANAGEMENT SCENARIOS OF POLONINY NATIONAL PARK 8 - Increased number of visitors from 30 000 on 385 500 in Poloniny NP, which is a number comparable to other internationally acknowledged protected areas - No timber extraction in 50% of forests in Poloniny NP (reduced timber extraction for the most important forestry state company in the national park LPM Uli- by - 40,8% and for the rest of the forestry companies by - 66,9%) - Restriction of hunting in 37% of the total hunting area in Poloniny NP It is important to emphasize that when considering the change in ecosystem services left out of the calculations, the Wolf Mountains scenario surpasses the current management of national park in all aspects. The results show that protected areas do not necessarily have to be seen as an economically passive space and an unfavorable use of land. My further recommendations are to continue developing the Wolf Mountains project, which when considering its marginal locality and the neighboring Polish and Ukrainian protected areas, could create a unique wilderness area in the heart of Europe.