Focusing on the Public

National parks are large, specially protected areas. They aim to protect natural ecosystems, support undisturbed natural processes, as well as human-determined biodiversity. However,  as the national park mission, in addition to the above mentioned, also includes enabling sustainable development, national park management authorities urgently need to ensure long-term monitoring of the fulfilling both the conservation goals and the mission. A transboundary project of the administrations of the Šumava/Bavarian Forest Mts. has mainly addressed the latter point.

The Elbe Canyon is unique not only for its landscape and natural values, but also represents a huge potential for tourist and recreational use. While the German side realised this long ago, on the Czech side there is still an effort to transform the Elbe into an industrial transport channel. The history of tourist use of this landscape dates back to the 19^th century, when one of the oldest tourist associations in Europe was established, and the Elbe Canyon became the cradle of European and world tourism together with the Alps. The fascinating landscape of Bohemian-Saxon Switzerland inspired renowned romantic artists. Today their works and later old postcards can tell us about the natural appearance of the Elbe.

The Grey wolf (Canis lupus), similarly to the other Central European large carnivores (i.e., the Brown Bear Ursus arctosand the Eurasian lynx Lynx lynx) had been severely persecuted in Bohemia and Moravia for centuries.

In the article, Miroslav Bobek, the Prague Zoo Director describes activities conducted by the zoological garden in Central Africa aiming at Western lowland gorilla protection and tropical rainforest conservation.

The author analyses the power and impacts of online social networking services and he advices how the tools can be handled for nature conservation aims.

The Lužnice River flows through the Třeboň Basin and its Protected Landscape Area (PLA) northward, being a natural axis of the region.

The Czech Society for Ornithology (CSO), in collaboration with other partners including the Nature Conservation Agency of the Czech Republic and private companies, declared the Sand Martin (Riparia riparia) as the Bird of the Year 2013.

In the Czech Republic, hundreds of educational trails were built during the past decades. Nevertheless, they are often developed by botanists or zoologists who consider any simplification of the expert/technical information towards making it more user friendly for the general public as being a no-no.

The Czech Society for Ornithology (CSO), in collaboration with other partners including the Nature Conservation Agency of the Czech Republic, declared the Western Capercaillie (Tetrao urogallus) as the Bird of the Year 2012.

The Mladeč Caves are an important speleological and particularly archaeological site, because of a ritual burial ground of anatomically modern humans Homo sapiens sapiens from the Upper Palaeolithic Age (more than 31,000 years ago) found there.