We are writing this post in response to the attacks that we’ve been facing in recent days, directly or indirectly, on ourselves and our conservation projects, which we have been working on systematically for a long time. Various political representatives, led by the candidate for the Minister of the Environment, have been saying the same thing over and over again – how BROZ is funding their work from the state budget, from which it has been sourcing 55 million euros worth of projects to protect the European ground squirrels, turtles, and others, whose relevance is obviously disregarded in these non-expert circles.
So, dear ladies and gentlemen, and especially you, our supporters, who defend us on social media and in offline discussions, and to whom this post is actually directed.
BROZ receives most of its funding together with its partner organisations in an international project competition at the European Commission in Brussels, so it is not clinging to the state budget. So much for refuting the first claim. If we, or other organisations from Slovakia, had not received funding in this project scheme, it would not have reached Slovakia at all. The funding would not have been invested in our nature, because it would have been received by nature restoration organisations in other member states.
Slovakia has no budget allocated and guaranteed for the programme period under this scheme.It is true that the Ministry of the Environment tops up the funding of these projects on a pro rata basis, depending on the statute of the institution. This puts NGOs at a disadvantage compared to state institutions, since the NGO has to raise part of the funds on its own. A state organisation, on the other hand, receives co-financing up to 100% of the project budget, which means that it is more profitable for the state organisation to draw on such grant funds than for the NGO.
So why don’t state organisations enter these Natura 2000 funding competitions directed at nature restoration directly as the main project partner?
This is a question we have been asking for a long time, them as well as our project partners, but so far we have only formulated the answer ourselves based on our experience each time.
Most of them are not able to do so under these conditions and even our project partners often find it difficult to meet the project activities on time, to dredge side arms of rivers or to implement other practical measures in the terrain, because they are much more administratively overloaded and less flexible. And this is the space for the non-governmental sector, which substitutes for state institutions, raises funds for Slovak nature and invests them exclusively in Slovak nature in this whole, in many areas cumbersome, colossus called the state.
The Ministry of the Environment subsequently reports the results of these conservation activities of NGOs as achievements and results, with which we are fulfilling the requirements of, for example, the Water Directive or the Habitats Directive within Slovakia, to which we as a country have committed ourselves. If it were not for our work, there would not be much to report to the European Commission. The Slovak Republic would be facing a lot of lawsuits and we would be paying huge fines for not taking care of nature, our forests and rivers, as we have pledged to do. So it can be said that the non-governmental sector is not only raising a great deal of money for the state through projects, but it is saving the state an even greater amount of money, and we are definitely talking about hundreds of millions of euros here.
As for the amount itself, we have no projects “underway” for 55 million. We first responded to this spreadsheet circulating on the internet back in 2021. It is a mash-up of various projects since 2010, and BROZ is not always the main applicant. It is the total for us and all project partners, including from abroad (Hungary, Austria, Czech Republic). In addition, a large amount of the Slovak part of the budget is allocated for the project partners, who are often state, public and scientific institutions.
It is a table with the figures of mostly completed projects that have been properly implemented and financially audited and their impact on habitats and species to which we have committed in the application has been assessed. In all these respects, they have been declared successfully completed by the Commission. We have even received awards from the European Commission for some of them.
BROZ has been active in the field of nature conservation for 26 years and in this time we have done a lot. Of course, this costs money, which also goes to the regions to support farmers, traditional land management and rural employment.
In regards to the projects that have been mentioned – in particular, the ground squirrel conservation project. This is a six-year, international project in which we have as partners not only relevant state institutions in Slovakia, such as the State protection of Nature of SR, the Faculty of Natural Sciences of the Charles University, the Bojnice Zoo, but also international partners from the Czech Republic and Poland. So the budget of 5.4 million euros, which we make no secret of and which is also listed on the project website, is the budget with which all project partners, including state institutions, will carry out their activities for the entire duration of the project of 6 years.
In addition, Mr. Huliak deliberately lies that this is money intended for ground squirrel watching. We would like to make an objection here as well, because if you follow us, you know how much we are doing for the European ground squirrels and, in particular, for the restoration of grazing in the countryside, in cooperation with local farmers. The European ground squirrel is a species that has declined in numbers in Slovakia by 99% over the last 60 years and is indicative of the alarming state in which our whole agricultural landscape is in. And the ground squirrel serves as the flagship species of this whole effort, so if we help it, we help other species that are tied to it, such as the many much-needed pollinators. Since the ground squirrel is a species tied to pastures, we help it most when we return animals to the landscape, release them from their barns, and let them graze freely. In doing so, we will also help farmers and herders by giving them areas of ground squirrels meadows where they can graze.
We could agree with the self-appointed representatives of the Slovak countryside on the importance of bringing grazing back into the countryside, but that would require them to take the trouble to really look at what our activities are about and recognise that they are beneficial. In addition to the introduction of grazing, we are also planting fruit trees in the countryside and clearing the original overgrown meadows of woody growth, i.e. we are returning to the landscape the mosaic that was characteristic of our ‘heritage’. In doing so, we are supporting local farmers and regional development in a big way. Part of the funding (approximately 2% of the total budget) is also allocated for monitoring and genetic research on ground squirrels. Without this, we would not be able to move forward in concrete conservation measures, and there is no need to defend this if these activities and all conservation are to be based on scientific knowledge, which certainly no one in their right mind doubts.
If there is a need for any further statements from us, we would be happy to provide them, whether in the form of interviews, answers to questions or whatever. Our projects are administratively, financially and content-wise in order, we are subject to many controls and audits and if we did not have them in order, we would not be able to continue to compete for these funds and to invest the funds in Slovak nature.
Thank you for your attention and thank you to everyone who enters Facebook and other discussions to stand up for us or other honest NGOs that are trying to make Slovakia a better place to live.