On Nature in the Czech Republic

Nature Conservation 2/2010 — 20. 4. 2010 — On Nature in the Czech Republic — Print article in pdf

To the 30th Anniversary of the Bílé Karpaty/White Carpathians Protected Landscape Area

authors: Karel Fajmon, Ondřej Konvička, Ivana Jongepierová

The Bílé Karpaty/White Carpathian Mts. were designated a Protected Landscape Area (PLA) in 1980 and became a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in 1996. The PLA includes hills and low mountains which were folded in the Tertiary, in the same time as the Alps were.

It stretches out over a length of 80 km along the Czech-Slovak border. Its scenery has been largely created and modified by humans: hardly anywhere else man and nature are so closely related. This is demonstrated by the diversity in (particularly plant and insect) species and communities on the one hand, and by the richness in fruit tree cultivars as well as the variety in songs, folk costumes, ornaments, customs, and traditions on the other. The White Carpathian flower meadows are among the most species-rich communities in Europe, but the broadleaved forests, particularly near-pristine oak-hornbeam and old-growth beech stands, are also of great importance. A wide range of wild plant and animal species are endemic to the Czech Republic or have the largest populations of the country here. The main tasks of the PLA Administration are yearly management and restoration of grassland communities. It also tries to prevent game feeding in nature reserves and other parts of protection zone I, and the planting of non-native conifers. Another threat to biodiversity is overpopulated game.