Mountaineers, hunters, anglers and scouts together...

Mountaineers, hunters, anglers and scouts together for the guardian of nature's rights and

improvements to the Nature Conservation Act

Representatives of the Alpine Association of Slovenia, Hunters' Association of Slovenia, Fishing Association of Slovenia and Scout Association of Slovenia, who within the Non-Governmental Group for Environmental and Social Legislation have been alerting competent institutions and the wider public for several years to the need to regulate driving in the natural environment, at a joint meeting at the headquarters of the Alpine Association of Slovenia, where they were joined by a representative of the Legal-Information Centre of Non-Governmental Organisations, on Tuesday, 23 September, adopted joint positions regarding the initiative to establish the office of guardian of nature's rights in Slovenia, with which they will inform the Human Rights Ombudsman and other nature conservation organisations, and submitted proposals for improvements to the Nature Conservation Act, which they will forward to the ministry responsible for the environment.

The central topics of the September meeting of the Non-Governmental Group for Environmental and Social Legislation were the proposal to establish the office of guardian of nature's rights in Slovenia based on a similar model as operates in Tyrol in Austria and elsewhere in Europe, and the discussion on the Nature Conservation Act, which has appropriately regulated the area of driving motor vehicles in the natural environment, but unfortunately, due to interventions by MPs in the final phase of adopting the law, the penalties for driving motor vehicles in the natural environment are disproportionate to the other penalties stipulated by the law, and according to their opinion, are also significantly too low given the great negative impact of such activities.

All organisations of the non-governmental group, the Alpine Association of Slovenia, Hunters' Association of Slovenia, Fishing Association of Slovenia and Scout Association of Slovenia, are of the unanimous opinion that nature in Slovenia needs its own advocate, and following the example from abroad, they support the idea of also establishing a guardian of nature's rights in Slovenia, who would systematically deal with harmful interventions in nature and non-compliance with legislation. They are aware that in the current circumstances in Slovenia, this initiative will need more attention and that the work of the guardian of nature's rights would be very complex, so they are prepared to support the project with a network of volunteers, nature conservation supervisors and professional services within the organisations, to familiarise themselves with examples of good practice abroad, while at the same time seeking consensus with other similar nature conservation organisations and establishing cooperation with legally savvy individuals. Although decisions of such an institution might sometimes be at odds with the decisions of individual organisations, they are aware that the guardian of nature must be an independent and autonomous body. Members of the non-governmental group will, in their desire to reduce the burdensome impact on nature, long-term strive for the institutionalisation of the office of guardian of nature's rights.

Members of the non-governmental group, which unites more than 100,000 members, agree that the Nature Conservation Act Amendments and Supplements Act adopted this July has appropriately regulated the area of restricting driving of motor vehicles in the natural environment, and they advocate that the competent authorities actively supervise the implementation of the law. They want to point out that in the final phase of adopting the law in parliament, due to interventions by MPs, disproportionate penalties were set for driving motor vehicles in the natural environment compared to penalties stipulated by the law for other drivers, and they are also significantly too low given the great negative impact of such activities on the natural environment. Since the penalty for cycling outside hardened paths is higher than, for example, the penalty for driving snowmobiles or quad bikes in the natural environment, they propose penalty amounts as they were written in the draft law and changed due to MPs' interventions in the final phase of adopting the law. They give the ministry responsible for the environment the initiative to eliminate inconsistencies in the first amendment to the Nature Conservation Act and to more clearly define the terminology regulating cycling in nature (e.g. what is a hardened path) and to more precisely determine how the owner or manager of a path can oppose cycling. In their initiatives for law amendments, they also emphasise the importance of raising awareness among all visitors to nature about respecting nature. Since all the mentioned organisations actively participated in the public consultation on the Nature Conservation Act, they are unpleasantly surprised that they received no response to their proposals and comments, while also wanting to draw attention to the problematic and ill-considered intervention in the text of the law in the final phase of its adoption, which in this case caused unnecessary disproportions and ambiguities.

The Non-Governmental Group for Environmental and Social Legislation emerged from the Non-Governmental Group for Restricting Vehicle Driving, as there are still many current laws related to the activities of organisations in the group that are not only connected to the field of the natural environment. Regarding laws, they will also act proactively, not only responding to proposals but submitting their own proposals in advance. Thus, in the past, it has actively participated in developing specific content solutions in the area of regulating restrictions on driving in the natural environment. To encourage the preparation of a standalone law regulating the issue of driving in the natural environment, in June 2013 it organised a consultation in the National Council, which was attended by both non-governmental and governmental organisations.

Nowadays, it is more than obvious that the natural environment cannot withstand all the activities invented by humans. The necessity of preservation – not only of the natural environment, but also of humans – therefore requires certain self-limitations, to which human activities in nature must also be subordinated, hence the desire for improvements to the Nature Conservation Act and the appointment of a guardian of nature's rights also in Slovenia.