Taraba to Unveil Bill to Eliminate Scrubland

Detva, May 6 (TASR) - Slovakia has the third best conditions within the entire EU for growing agricultural crops, yet it is one of the EU states least self-sufficient in terms of food production, Environment Minister Tomas Taraba (SNS nominee) said after his meeting with local food producers in Detva (Banska Bystrica region) on Monday. Taraba added that over 200,000 hectares of agricultural land have disappeared for no other reason but the presence of scrub. He declared that scrubland harms biodiversity and acquiring a permit for its removal can take more than three years in Slovakia. "Because of this, we've prepared changes to enable the cleansing of Slovakia's agricultural land in a fast-track procedure," he stated. Another benefit, in his view, is that such cleansing would decrease the number of dangerous bear encounters preventively. An environmental organisation called Ursia pointed out in response that the bill should distinguish between reasons for removing scrub. "We need trees for birds to fly over, so that they also have places to nest. We need corridors for the animals, we can't have just hills shaved smooth and without any connection to each other," underlined Jana Jankovicova of Ursia. mf/mcs