Biodiversity

The Slovnaft complex is located in a protected area of natural water accumulation on Žitný Island, close to an area with high biodiversity – the Danube Floodplains, declared a protected landscape area (PLA) and a Ramsar site in 1993. The PLA territory of the Danube Floodplains is one of the largest inland river deltas in Europe and represents the most valuable, but also the most vulnerable, part of this internationally important site.

To protect the biodiversity of this precious area, we have financed a system which irrigates the Biskupice Arm, located in the Biskupice Floodplains area. Due to various amelioration and technical measures taken in the second half of the 20th century along the main flow of the River Danube, the Biskupice Arm was gradually left without a water supply from the Danube and thus dried out. In the past, the Biskupice Arm flow formed Kopáč Island, a nature reserve located on the left bank of the Danube, near our company. The name “island” gradually became a thing of the past because it was separated from its surroundings only by a dried up dead river arm, gradually overgrown with self-seeded trees.

During the system’s construction, unauthorized landfills and self-seeded trees were removed from the riverbed. A removal facility was built in 1997 and three diversion levels were completed later, finally followed by a 1.5 km long open channel, diverting the required amount of Danube water from Slovnaft's feed channel. Danube water, which once again flows into the Biskupice Arm thanks to this solution and the simulation of natural level fluctuations is now secured throughout the year.

As part of the protection of species diversity, we installed 50 artificial nests for house martins in 2014 in the Vlčie hrdlo area under the supervision of the Slovakian Ornithological Society. Almost all the artificial nests were successfully occupied. The main cause of danger to house martins is the loss of suitable places in which to build nests due to insulation, intolerance to birds due to the dirtying of windows and balconies and a lack of nesting material in blacktop neighbourhoods. Factory complexes have therefore become an oasis for nesting, with enough material to build nests, enough food and safety.

We seek to promote the permanent care of environmentally valuable local sites that serve the general public and support nature conservation and sustainability as part of the long-term Green Oasis programme.

We are also committed to protecting natural values and biodiversity in the Occupational Health & Safety (OHS) Policy of environmental protection and social responsibility, signed by the CEO of MOL Group, which includes SLOVNAFT, a.s.