Backlash grows over urban planning provisions in Natura 2000 regions

Along the same lines, stakeholders and organizations are calling on the Ministry of Environment and Energy (YPEN) to withdraw the proposed regulation, arguing that the introduction of organized residential development within these areas alters their character and undermines the very purpose of their protection.

According to SEPOX, the proposed provision included in the draft bill of the Ministry of Environment and Energy—specifically Article 98—creates a dangerous “loophole” for intensifying development in protected areas, increasing pressure for residential and tourism development in zones of high environmental value.

Particularly problematic is the horizontal nature of the regulation, which allows up to 20% of these zones to be urbanized. Such a threshold could cumulatively lead to extensive and irreversible degradation of protected areas at the national level.

At the same time, concerns are raised regarding institutional inconsistency and lack of coordination in planning, as:
• The Special Environmental Studies (SES) and Presidential Decrees for protection have not been completed
• Local and Special Urban Plans have not provided for such expansions
• The necessary site-specific studies have not been carried out

In addition, the stipulated conditions of “integrity” and “compatibility” with the SES are considered effectively meaningless, as the studies themselves have not examined scenarios involving urban development.

SEPOX warns that the regulation poses serious risks to the non-urbanized environment, protected areas, and even surrounding settlements, whose character is threatened by uncontrolled expansion.

At a time of acute climate crisis and biodiversity loss, policies should move toward the protection and restoration of nature—not toward facilitating further construction.