Conditions of nature protection and environmental protection in military areas
 

It seems that the military use of training grounds and nature conservation are so different forms of land use that it is very difficult or even impossible to reconcile them. We associate military exercises with destroying vegetation, scaring animals and polluting the environment.

However, it is no coincidence that several dozen Natura 2000 areas have been created in military areas.

The European ecological network Natura 2000 covers not only strictly protected areas, national parks and nature reserves. A significant part of these Natura 2000 sites includes semi-natural areas where biodiversity is closely linked to past land use. In many cases, the preservation of the current use even determines the preservation of the natural values of the area (this is the case, for example, in meadows), and in many others, human activity does not significantly affect the conservation objectives, so it can be continued without restrictions.

Conservation of nature in military areas is a very broad topic and an in-depth analysis of this topic would require the creation of a work of several volumes. Planning nature protection in each of the areas requires taking into account the specificity of a given area, making natural inventories, nature monitoring, and in order to develop a detailed methodology of works, specialists and nature protection services should be consulted.

Natura 2000 sites are the most common form of nature protection in military areas. They are supervised by the competent regional director for environmental protection or, in maritime areas, by the director of the maritime office. However, if the Natura 2000 area covers, in whole or in part, the area of the national park, the director of the national park is responsible for supervision over the Natura 2000 area within the boundaries of the national park. It should also be emphasized that in the area managed by the State Forests (State Forests), where the Natura 2000 area is located, nature protection tasks are performed by the local forest inspector independently, in accordance with the provisions of the forest management plan.

A specific document that enables effective protection of the environment at military training grounds are plans for the protection of military training grounds. It is worth emphasizing that such documents are created only for military areas with the formal status of a training ground, and they are not created, for example, for military exercise areas (which, for example, includes part of the Błędowska Desert covered by the discussed project). It is also important that due to the fact that the scope of environmental protection plans of military training grounds does not contain elements consistent with the scope of plans of protective tasks, PZOs for these areas are also created in Natura 2000 areas located on training grounds, regardless of whether a plan already exists environmental protection.

Environmental protection plans for military training grounds are prepared on the basis of the Regulation of the Minister of National Defense of 9 May 2011 on compliance with environmental protection regulations in organizational units subordinated to or supervised by the Minister of National Defense (Journal of Laws No. 2015, item 297).

Guidelines on how to prepare the training ground environmental protection plan are issued by the Head of the Armed Forces Support Inspectorate on the basis of & 7 point 4 of the Regulation of the Minister of National Defense of 24 March 2016 on compliance with environmental protection regulations in organizational units subordinated to or supervised by the Minister of National Defense (Journal of Laws of 2016, item 473). The current guidelines were issued by the Head of IWZS on December 2, 2011, based on the previous regulation of May 9, 2011 (Journal of Laws of 2011, No. 105, item 617).

Environmental protection plans for military training grounds are documents defining the scope of environmental protection and rational use of natural resources, drawn up in order to:

• minimizing the harmful impact of trained troops on the environment, 
• identifying threats and ways to counteract them, 
• enforcing compliance with applicable regulations, 
• indicating the optimization of the use of training facilities, 
• programming activities rationalizing the use of the environment, 
• shaping pro-ecological awareness in the process of training troops.

Military areas are often characterized by a large share of low-fertile habitats, which, due to their low productivity, could not be used for agricultural purposes. Such wastelands, on which military training grounds were created, were also often the basis for designating Natura 2000 areas. On the other hand, due to their specificity of closed areas, with limited human influence, they often constitute a veritable oasis for rare and endangered plants and animals.