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Repurchase and expropriation of protected areas

Repurchase and expropriation of protected areas

Up until the latest regime change, most of the protected areas were owned almost exclusively by state farms and co-operatives, and only to a negligible degree were these in private hands. In fact, the National Park Directorate did not have any land to manage first hand.
After the laws on co-operatives and the re-privatization of agricultural lands became effective, the ownership of the former co-operative lands in protected areas was shifted to the national park directorates. Then with the Law No. 93, 1995 about the protection level of nature conservation areas, those areas that had been privatized either by restitution or by disbursement of common property interest had to be expropriated, and the national park directorates had to be commissioned with their management. The expropriation has to be initiated and conducted by the directorates, too. Only areas without any significance for nature conservation could be acquitted as being subject to permission given by the Hungarian Minister of Environment and Water. A total of over 124,000 hectares of protected areas and those on the tentative list of protected areas are subject to this law. In practice, the law is implemented so that a certain sum is allocated to the Directorate from the national budget every year to purchase areas protected and for which protection is proposed. Protected areas owned by co-operatives are and have been expropriated. The application of the right of first refusal (as provided by Paragraph 68 (6) of Act No. 53 of 1996 on nature conservation) has been negligible.  

Utolsó módosítás: 2014. február 18., 13:48