Mavrovo National Park left in legal vacuum as NGOs call for urgent re-declaration

Mavrovo National Park has been operating without an updated legal framework for years, leaving management and conservation measures incomplete and critics warning that the gap invites illegal hunting, poaching and small hydropower projects.

The park was first declared a national park by the assembly of the People's Republic of Macedonia on 19 April 1949, and remains the country's largest protected area. Environmental groups say the absence of a new declaration, a management plan and spatial zoning undermines modern protection and puts the park's habitats and species at risk.

Attention returned to the park after a YouTube video surfaced showing foreign hunters pursuing Balkan chamois in the mountains. Park director Haris Ibraimi told media that the hunt shown was not commercial but carried out as a sanitary cull within monitoring programmes and with approvals from the competent institutions, and that the involvement of foreign hunters followed established procedures and park supervision. At the same time, rangers reported and removed illegally set fishing nets from Mavrovo Lake and filed a report with the Mavrovi Anovi police station.

What is missing

Local NGO Eko-svest and other experts say the key legal instruments required by the 2004 Law on Nature Protection—re-declaration of the park, a management plan and a spatial plan—have not been adopted for Mavrovo, even though similar procedures were completed for Pelister and Galičica. That delay, they warn, has allowed commercial logging, illegal construction, poaching and hydropower projects to proceed with insufficient oversight.

Eko-svest and 21 partner organisations have delivered five concrete demands to the government: complete and adopt the re-declaration process for NP Mavrovo; place the draft law for public consultation and continue parliamentary procedures; align park management with scientific findings and proposed zoning; introduce a moratorium on activities that undermine nature protection until a full legal framework is in place; and fulfil the country's international obligations, including recommendations from the Bern Convention.

In a written statement the Ministry of Environment and Spatial Planning said, "The Ministry of Environment and Spatial Planning believes that the procedure for re-declaring NP Mavrovo should be completed, which will fulfil the obligations from the Law on Nature Protection and will lead to the adoption of a Management Plan as the basic document for the park's operation." The ministry added: "The Ministry is open to organizing a public debate at the request of civil society organisations."

Photo: press material from the event