Administrative
Problems
There is a basic need to communicate the values of the protected areas
to the public, involve them in the decision-making and designing the management
plan.
Usually there are several responsible organizations, even within one park,
and there is not enough cooperation.
Legal and Illegal Logging
Most of the European protected areas are exposed to questionable logging.
In Hungary, Czech Republic, France, Germany, and Italy, logging is a common
practice.
The Russian forest protection is weak in practice, even though it seems
to be well constituted on paper. Some of the protected areas called "zakazniks"
allow full economic activity. As a result, a significant amount of the
national parks' income is based on logging.
The result of insufficient monitoring is illegal logging. That is known
to happen on many European countries, like the Czech Republic, Estonia,
Italy, Lithuania and Slovakia.
Natural Forest in the Carpathian Biosphere Reserve, Ukraine
Hunting
Usually local inhabitants have the right to hunt even in protected areas
Road Building
Road Building Roads and other infrastructure (water pipes, electricity,
dams, sewer, skiing resorts, etc.) divide the forests in small fragments.
Non-native species
The best example of a non-native specie displacing a native one is the
story of the North- American Gray squirrel in the UK.
Mining
For example the gold mines located in the Komi Republic modify the environment
of pristine forests
Uncontrolled Tourism
Moderate, environmentally appropriate amounts of tourism is not dangerous
for protected areas, but the rapid growth of tourism is exceeding the
ecological carrying capacities of many national parks.
Forest Fire
Fire is a natural process and is important in the natural dynamics in
the taiga forests in the north. Many natural forest species that are dependent
on periodical burning now face problems of an altered and inhospitable
habitat because of modern fire surveillance and suppression.
In Finland and Sweden tests on the opportunities for restoring these natural dynamics seem promising.
On the other hand, in the Mediterranean,
they face the problem of increased risk of fires caused by human activity.
