BRATISLAVA – Slovakia has scrapped a controversial zoning plan for its prized High Tatras park after backlash over the government’s push to open protected forests to logging – but with EU funds at stake, the fight is far from over.

The Tatra National Park Administration (TANAP) officially withdrew its controversial zoning proposal on Tuesday after local authorities and prosecutors deemed it unlawful due to the absence of a mandatory conservation plan and other irregularities.

Zoning – the process of dividing protected areas into zones with specific levels of use and protection – is critical to aligning conservation efforts with international standards. But for local authorities and prosecutors, the rejected plan failed to safeguard primeval forests, old-growth ecosystems, and key habitats for the endangered western capercaillie, violating Slovakia’s commitments under its EU recovery plan.

TANAP has now pledged to submit a revised proposal that meets EU-mandated conditions. If Slovakia misses key milestones – including zoning completion by the first quarter of 2026 – it risks forfeiting hundreds of millions of euros in EU funding.

The High Tatras, a key alpine ecosystem and national symbol, have become a flashpoint in a wider conflict between conservationists, developers, and Prime Minister Robert Fico’s government – which faces growing scrutiny for dismantling environmental protections.

Save the capercaillie
The withdrawn plan also threatened key habitat for the western capercaillie, a protected woodland bird species that depends on uninterrupted old-growth forest. The species is already nearing collapse due to habitat loss, particularly from logging in nearby Low Tatras National Park.

In 2022, the EU Court of Justice ruled that Slovakia had failed to protect the capercaillie and its habitat, declaring that logging in sensitive zones violated EU environmental law.

In May 2025, the European Commission formally warned Slovakia to comply with the ruling or face fines. Several of the last intact capercaillie habitats would be downgraded under Olexa’s plan.

A fox in charge of the henhouse?
The now-scrapped zoning plan intensified concerns over the appointment of Peter Olexa at the head of the Tatra National Park Administration.

Olexa, a convicted poacher with no conservation background, was appointed to head TANAP in 2023 under Environment Minister Tomáš Taraba of the far-right Slovak National Party. Taraba also dismissed most national directors of Slovak national parks.

Olexa’s proposal, drafted in close cooperation with the ministry and presented in April, would have downgraded core wilderness zones and opened them to logging.

The plan drew sharp condemnation from conservationists and environmental scientists, including former park staff, who warned it would weaken protections across the region’s most sensitive ecosystems, with some calling it “pseudo-scientific nonsense”.

Former park director of 16 years Pavol Majko said it marked a return to pre-1989 levels of protection. “This is the end of the High Tatras as we know it,” he said, adding that the park is being transformed “into a logging company.” 

A broader rollback
This zoning dispute reflects a broader environmental backslide under Fico’s fourth government, which has prioritised bear culling and weakened environmental safeguards.

The European Commission recently criticised Slovakia for halting national co-financing of several EU LIFE projects and diverting substantial EU cohesion funds away from nature protection.

During an inspection visit at the environment ministry on Tuesday, Fico praised Taraba’s “vigorous” and “autonomous approach” – but neither addressed the growing controversy around national parks or conservation policy.

(cs, de)