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 3/2014 — 24. 8. 2014 — On Nature in the Czech Republic — Print article in pdf
Pořízek L.: The New and Old Kokořínsko-Máchův kraj/Mácha´s Country Protected Landscape Area
It took quite long eight years to re-declare and extensively enlarge the Kokořínsko Protected Landscape Areas (PLA) by the so-called Mácha´s country (Liberec Region, northern Bohemia).
Karel Hynek Mácha was a Czech romantic poet who situated its masterpiece, the romantic poem Máj/May to the bucolic landscape there in the 1830s. In the article, the administrative aspects of the process are presented. The author describes troubles with new PLA delineation as well as lengthy negotiations with landowners, both with private owners and governmental bodies. Surprisingly, for a long time, the new PLA name had not been agreed by all the stakeholders involved. Natural and cultural beauties of the landscape within the area are really unique at least at the national level: they include, inter alia, the boreal forest-like landscape with sandstones, peat bogs, wet grasslands, semi-natural fishponds and abandoned sandpits harbouring many valuable wildlife species. Thus, a part of the former Ralsko Military Training Area and with relatively well-preserved nature has become a part of the Specially Protected Area. The area is inhabited by 163 wild animal and almost 100 wild plant species and subspecies specially protected under national legislation. Approx. 700 butterfly species have been found there. In the region, the most numerous Common crane (Grus grus) population in the Czech Republic nests. Among other remarkable taxa, the Bohemian butterwort (Pinguicula vulgarissubs. bohemica), Bohemian marsh orchid (Dactylorhizabohemica)or the Alpine longhorn (Rosalia alpina) should be mentioned. In early April 2014, a wolf was shot by a camera trap in the Břehyně-Pecopala National Nature Reserve, now being a part of the PLA. It is supposed that wolves inhabited the area less populated by humans from Germany, namely from the Lausitz/Lusatia region of Saxony where some packs of the carnivore occur and successfully reproduce. In the end, the author highlights the necessity of seeking for compromises, consensus and trade-offs. At the same time, local knowledge and patriotism in the best sense of the word play an important role in such processes.