SWITZERLAND is financing two biodiversity projects in Slovakia intended to protect endangered ecosystems. One project is concerned with monitoring and researching forests, while the second aims to preserve and protect natural areas and habitats in the Slovak Carpathian mountains. The Swiss contribution to these two projects is around CHF4.2 million (€3.4 million), out of a total budget of CHF5.34 million (€4.3 million). The Monitoring and Research of Forest Ecosystems project helps Slovakia collect and process data required to access whether a forest has the ecological balance necessary to sustain itself, and aids with forestry planning.
The goal of the second project, called Development of Nature Conservation and of Protected Areas in the Slovak Carpathians, is to improve the protection and sustainable usage of natural areas and habitats in the Slovak Carpathians. This project will draw up guidelines for the future development of these areas and promote knowledge transfer.
The projects are part of the contribution Switzerland agreed to make, in return for preferential access to EU markets, to the twelve states that joined the EU after May 2004. The overall goal of the Swiss contribution is to reduce economic and social disparities within the enlarged EU.
