EXECUTIVE SUMMARY - UNESCO World Heritage

Ministry of the Environment of SR provides funding for protected areas management,
approximately 250 000,− USD for Poloniny NP, Eastern Carpathians Protected Landscape
Area and Vihorlat Protected landscape Area in total. Funds are distributed via State Nature
Conservancy of the Slovak Republic run as a state budgetary organization.
5.g Sources of expertise and training in conservation and management techniques
State Nature Conservancy of the Slovak Republic and the CBR and UNNP
administrations in the Ukraine are the bodies responsible for continual development of
management and nature conservation practices and skills for various levels of protected sites
through continual training of its employees, usually having a university degree in ecology,
landscape and nature protection or forestry. That training involves the participation of
international university scholars on one hand and the engagement of the employees in
scientific research on the other hand, often as graduate students or post-docs. The rangers
must have completed their high school education. The management measures foreseen for the
buffer zones (only if necessary), which are included in a forest management plan are carried
out by forestry organizations. A high level of practical management techniques is also assured
by an intense international co-operation such as in terms of Association of the Carpathian
National Parks and Reserves (ACANAP), scientific conferences and the involvement of
NGOs and municipal governments.
5.h Visitor facilities and statistics
CBR and UNNP run special departments that serve as the main providers of guided
indoor and outdoor activities, information, expertise, instructions and assistance for visitors to
the area. Annualy, they cater for approximately 50 000 visitors. A part of the respective CBR
department in Rakhiv is a Museum of Carpathian Ecology aimed at the explanations of the
natural history of the Carpathians and etnography of that region. Main accommodation and
boarding services are available in Rakhiv hotels.
On the Slovak territory, the Visitors Centre in Nová Sedlica as an integral part of the
Poloniny NP provides the same type of visitor services. Data on numbers of visitors are
monitored and kept by the Poloniny National Park Administration and the ECPLA. According
to their records taken between 1997–2004, the Poloniny NP territory is visited by
approximately 30 000 visitors per year.
Expert guidance is also provided by the Centre for Scientific Tourism at the Slovak
Academy of Sciences (www.ecosystems.sk). In addition, it has also introduced some
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