The Protected Landscape Approach - Centre for Mediterranean ...

The Protected Landscape Approach: Linking Nature, Culture and Community
While the State continues to play a strong role in nature conservation in the Czech Republic,
as evidenced by legislation enacted in the post-revolutionary period, 1 a review of history
reveals a strong tradition of private conservation. For example, virgin forests in the
Novohradské hory and Šumava mountains were declared nature reserves by private land -
owners a full century before the State established national parks. Under the first Czechoslovak
Republic (1918–1939), all protected areas were established and owned by private conservation
associations, which grew and flourished during this period. A recognition of these historical
roots gives our current efforts to promote and develop land stewardship in the Czech Republic a
stronger position from which to build public support, as we can draw not only on experience
from abroad, but also from our own country.
Today, there are 24 Protected Landscape Areas (PLA – Category V) in the Czech Republic,
covering an area of 10,274km 2 (13% of the state territory) – all of them typical Central
European cultural landscapes. The country’s protected area system also includes four National
Parks, as well as Nature Reserves and Biosphere Reserves, all designated on the national level.
In addition, designated at the local level, are Protected Areas, Landscape Parks and Registered
Landscape Features. The well known Lednice-Valtice Landscape Park was inscribed as a
World Heritage Cultural Landscape in 1996. An emerging land trust movement in the Czech
Republic brings new methods for preservation of significant parts of the land scape, many of
them within or near formally protected areas.
Key land conservation challenges in the Czech Republic during the current post-communist
period include: i) the abandonment of extensive agricultural practices, leading to loss of
landscape diversity and the depopulation of rural areas; ii) uncontrolled sprawl in suburban and
recreational areas and along traffic corridors; iii) lack of a pro-active nature conservation policy
to respond to new development pressures, resulting in a broadening gap between public
opinion and the position of nature conservation authorities; iv) insufficient economic resources
for nature conservation (e.g., protected area management, compensation of landowners and
acqui si tion of new reserves); v) ongoing restitution of agricultural and forested land; vi)
continuing in consistency between agricultural and environmental governmental policies; and
vii) limited capacity of NGOs for policy involvement and coordination, while they play an
increasingly substantial role in management of protected areas.
Influence of the European Union
In May 2004, ten countries from Central and Eastern Europe joined the European Union (EU),
bringing new energy to what will be a new Europe – reunited for the first time since World War
II. Harmonization of national legal systems was a key condition for EU accession. For most of
these countries, the nature conservation legislation enacted in the early 1990s holds up well in
the context of the EU, as is the case for the Czech Nature Conservation Act of 1992. The EU
directive, NATURA 2000, has become an important influence on State nature conservation
policies in the accession countries and, to a great extent, is shaping the manage ment of
Category V protected landscapes. In the Czech Republic, the main objectives of NATURA
2000 are:
1
For example, the 1992 Act No. 114 on Nature and Landscape Conservation in the Czech and Slovak
Federal Republic.
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