The Journal is published by the Nature Conservation Agency of the Czech Republic in cooperation with the Cave Administration of the Czech Republic, the Krkonoše Mts. National Park Administration, the Bohemian Forest Mts. National Park Administration, the Podyjí National Park Administration and the The Bohemian Switzerland National Park Administration. It has been published since 1946.
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Nature Conservation 1/2008 — 26. 2. 2008 — Nature and Landscape Management
Current Forestry and Nature Conservation
In the Czech Republic, forests cover one third of the whole country's territory, therefore having been a significant natural ecological potential of the landscape.
Despite the relative high forest coverage, forest management contributes to the Czech Republic's GDP by 0.7 % only. Therefore, the importance of the forest for human society would not be based only on timber production, although it is a significant renewable source of environmentally sound material. Production of timber and non-timber goods can by reached in the way which takes in account poly-functionality of the forest, the key ecosystem type in the Czech Republic's landscape. Due to a lot of drivers, the current state of forests in the Czech Republic could not be considered as an optimal. Due to in the past established Norway Spruce (Picea abies) and Scotch Pine (Pinus sylvestris) monocultures and the management based on felling by compartments or by regulated areas, having been still preferred, forests have displayed the largely simplified species and spatial structure. As a result of air pollution, the health state of particularly mountain forests has been unsatisfactory. In many areas, the state of forests is affected by overpopulated hoofed game and increasing recreational use. Despite the affects, a quarter of all forests in the Czech Republic have become a part of the Specially Protected Areas where forest are managed more naturally, the best preserved parts are being left to spontaneous development respectively. The best preserved parts of forests can be conserved only by the co-operation between foresters and nature conservationists. The State Nature Conservancy must postulate understandably the requirements for close-to-nature/semi-natural management measures, using the strategic tools set by the Act No. 114/1992 Gazette on the Protection of Nature and the Landscape. In the carefully chosen parts of the Specially Protected Areas, particularly in National Parks, natural life-supporting processes should be protected. Therefore, the current public order has to include the requirement not only for environmentally valuable raw material, i.e. for raw wood, but also for conservation and restoration of nature with natural biological diversity, contribution to soil protection, more balanced water regime in the landscape, carbon sequestration within the climate change mitigation and for providing humans with recreation possibilities in the aesthetically attractive natural environment.