Environment minister unveils nature protection bill

Environment and Nature Protection Minister Mihael Zmajlovic on Wednesday unveiled a nature protection bill which will be put to cabinet on Thursday, pointing out that the bill "enacts a legal framework to improve the investment climate, the quality of co-existence of man and nature and defines nature protection as a platform for development which will directly improve the quality of life."
 

"The key challenge in preparing the bill was in the general perception that protected areas and the ecological network hamper development and investment and do not contribute to significantly improving the quality of life", said Zmajlovic.

He underscored that nature protection should act as a lever to development and the new bill has incorporated changes that will facilitate this. He added that key changes related to ecological network, protected areas and treatment of species.

The ecological network will be set up as a development platform, changes in protected areas will lead to their better management and the treatment of species will deal with strictly protected species in order to preserve biodiversity, he said.

He said that the changes were being introduced to align with acquis of the European Union (EU) and with key directives, international conventions and protocols and in line with changes to Croatian legislation and the need to enact a legal framework to take on future EU regulations.

He recalled that once Croatia joined the EU, its ecological network would become part of the European network known as "Natura 2000".

(Hina)
 

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