Directors of landscape parks do not have sufficient legal instruments to fight with the pressure on areas of natural beauty related to investments and settlement. They may only file requests concerning local land use plans. Most communes, though, do not have such plans and in practice officials give permits for investments in the places designated by the investor (most frequently the owner of a private plot of land).
NIK appreciates measures taken by the directors of ten audited parks who participated in administrative proceedings or provided opinions on intended actions of local governments, thus attempting to influence the planned or conducted investments in parks. Yet, the current legal status is to their disadvantage. It does not oblige the public administration authorities to inform the park directors of investment plans.
Another problem is the pressure of communal governments on Marshal’s Offices to ease bans binding in park areas. For instance, the Marshal’s Office of the Lower Silesia Region eased the ban of using motorboats in the Landscape Park of the Bóbr River Valley, the Marshal's Office of the Podlasie Region permitted on-ground works which permanently deformed the land surface in the Valley of the Narew River, whereas the Marshal’s Office of the Małopolski Region allowed for the extraction of rock and minerals for business purposes in the Kraków Valleys Landscape Park.
According to the ruling of the Constitutional Tribunal, draft resolutions on easing bans in landscape parks should be agreed upon with the Regional Directorates for Environment Protection. Yet, the NIK audit revealed that reality was different. Offices of the Marshal not always consult resolutions with the Directorates. It happens that the Directorates as such do not discharge their obligation. Besides, some cases were identified where the bans were not observed. The Head of the Włocławek Poviat permitted the extraction of aggregates in the Gostynin-Włocławek Landscape Park against the effective ban and despite the negative opinion of the park director.
The administration of already weakened parks has been transferred onto the local governments. At the beginning of 2009, they had to move a part of its staff and assets to the newly established Regional Directorates for Environment Protection. In 24 audited parks, only the Gostynin-Włocławek Landscape Park kept its property in whole. Others had to give away their cars, office equipment, software, furniture, photo cameras. In terms of personnel, the situation was dramatic in most parks. For instance, in the Wielkopolskie Province, there were 11.75 full-time employees in 13 parks. A peculiar situation occurred in the Zachodniopomorskie Province where the Province Office took the whole staff and property away from the local parks and moved them to the Regional Directorate for Environment Protection in Szczecin, and then liquidated their organisational structures. In those circumstances the parks could no longer perform their elementary tasks.
Some parks were not provided with appropriate legal status. The governors did not do it, nor did the Offices of the Marshal after 1 August 2009. The two parks audited by NIK were functioning under outdated regulations. The data of the General Directorate for Environment Protection indicate that there are three others operating in that manner. The functioning of parks situated on the area of several provinces is also troublesome. The problems in such circumstances are related e.g. to defining the actual number of landscape parks, existence of various concepts of environment protection in one park or a different way of handling relations and cooperation with the environment. For instance, in case of the Gostynin-Włocławek Landscape Park the objectives related to environment protection varied - they were different in the Kujawsko-Pomorskie Province and in the Mazowieckie Province.
NIK filed 9 de lege ferenda proposals to the Minister of Environment and the Minister of Economy. They include proposals of changes in the law (mainly in the Environment Protection Act) which will provide parks with effective protection of nature and landscape values characteristic for the given region.
In 2010, the audited landscape parks had PLN 18.5 million at their disposal. In five of them the auditors identified some cases of mismanagement. The irregularities were related to breaches of the Public Procurement Law Act, handover of defective works and payment for them as well as the failure to protect the park’s interests as early as at the stage of signing agreements with contractors.
