Nature and Landscape Management

The Nature Restoration Law sets a challenging (and if fulfilled, probably effective) goal of implementing measures to improve the state of natural habitats by 2050 wherever it is needed, and by 2030 on at least 20% of EU land and sea areas. Formal implementation of established (technological) procedures for the restoration of forest habitats, only applied within the prescribed territorial scope, is not sufficient for truly improving the condition of forest habitats and the populations of wildlife bound to them. If we are to achieve real restoration of nature, how the Nature Restoration Law is implemented, will be very important. Not only in the case of forests (but especially with them), we should significantly employ the creative forces of nature itself and, simultaneously, sensibly use an active management approach.

The Czech Republic, like other EU Member States, should produce a specific proposal to increase the coverage and protection, conservation and management intensity in protected areas by the end of 2022. This follows from the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 (hereinafter, the 2030 Strategy), which considers effectively managed protected areas to be one of the key tools to halt the loss of biodiversity and, inter alia, expects to protect 30% of the land, of which one third strictly. The contributions of individual Member States should take into account different conditions and reflect their real importance for the biodiversity conservation. What can we realistically offer in the given time horizon? This is still a subject of professional debate. This article aims to summarize the starting points, the current state, quantify the possible liabilities and, thus, contribute to this discussion.

On 22 June 2022, the European Commission published a draft Nature Restoration Regulation of the European Parliament and the Council. It brings a legislative instrument to fulfil the EU Biodiversity Strategy 2030 adopted two years ago, which includes a plan for nature restoration and is one of the pillars of the European Green Deal. The European Commission thereby fulfils its task arising from the strategy, to submit a legally binding proposal for objectives in the field of nature restoration (restoration of disturbed ecosystems). The dramatic increase in extreme weather events, risks and threats in the area of living standards, security and social peace significantly increases the urgency of implementing measures aimed at restoring ecosystems, as a prerequisite for ensuring long-term food and energy self-sufficiency as well as human well-being.

Ten years ago, the Nature Conservation Agency of the Czech Republic (NCA CR) began to conclude agreements on management through public contracts, setting up both management measures to be implemented and providing landowners or tenants with a subsidy / subvention. Consequently this practice has been step-by-step applied also by other State Nature Conservancy authorities, particularly Regional Offices. At present the agreements on management are one of the principal and commonly used tools in cooperation with land managers. The NCA CR is currently taking active steps to further expand the type of cooperation with landowners, our most important partners in practical nature conservation.

Shepherd dogs guarding livestock are rightly recommended as the most effective measure against grey wolves (Canis lupus) attacking livestock. Farmers are often criticized for hesitating to acquire shepherd dogs. However, few people can imagine the long and challenging journey to a reliable working shepherd dog.

The Moravský kras/Moravian Karst (central Moravia) is the most important karst area in the Czech Republic. In addition to underground karst phenomena, we can also find surface aboveground karst phenomena there, which include sinkholes and limestone pavements. All these karst phenomena are legally protected. The uniqueness of the area is also confirmed by the only internationally protected underground wetland in the Czech Republic, which is the Podzemní Punkva/Punkva Subterranean Stream Wetland of International Importance (Ramsar Site). The karst environment needs our protection, not only below the surface but also at ground level, from where nitrates and pesticides from intensively managed karst plateaus enter the underground areas. These substances pollute groundwater, which is used as a source of drinking water and harbours a lot of animals. Changes in management around the sinkholes and above the caves implemented in 2019 and 2020, resulted not only in positive shifts in the agricultural landscape, but they also significantly contributed to improving the quality of drip water that seeps down to the caves through the soil and rocks.

Mineral and rock mining carried out for centuries has had significantly negative impacts on the landscape and the environment in the Czech Republic. By size, the most extensive destruction in the whole country has been caused by surface open-pit brown coal mining in the Krušné hory/Ore Mountains Foothills Basin, also known as the North Bohemian Basin. More than 400 km² have been affected by mining and by related infrastructure and industry there. Nowadays, when a termination of active brown coal mining termination in the Sokolov and Most Basins¹ has been in sight, the future use of the closed quarries is being discussed extensively. Experts have long been aware of the great scientific significance of abandoned non-reclaimed excavations and spoil heaps. Therefore the question of applying ecosystem restoration to the above post-industrial habitats has been even more urgent than ever before.

The Nature Conservation Agency of the Czech Republic (NCA CR) has been for ten years elaborating together with academic institutions standards in nature conservation and landscape protection. Almost thirty such standards have been published yet and approx. the same number has been under preparation. Up-to-date experience shows that the concept of standardization in various activities has proved itself successful and has fulfilled its purpose: standards are used by designers, customers, planners, project implementers, contractors, evaluators of application for a subsidy/subvention/grant and they are also applied in the State/Public Administration performance. Moreover, they are sometimes misapplied. Thus, the standards at present have been serving as a basis for establishing unified code lists of activities in nature conservation and landscape protection linked to costs of common measures and consequently for planning and documenting the interventions having been made in nature and the landscape.

In the Czech Republic, Specially Protected Area1 management has been one of the most important tasks of the State Nature Conservancy since the 1990s. Due to improving the knowledge of species and natural habitat distribution and their development as well as increasing uncertainty caused by incomplete knowledge of impacts resulted from extensive anthropogenic land-use changes and current and predicted climate change, a traditional long-term planned blueprint management has been untenable. Therefore, the Nature Conservation Agency of the Czech Republic (NCA CR) decided to apply in practice adaptive management (AM) and to introduce necessary information and economic tools for its implementation.

When mentioning the water retention, it mostly is related to water management in the open landscape. From a long-term point of view, a lot of issues should be improved and enhanced there, but water can be very well managed also in urban agglomerations. Historically, the priority in towns and cities had been to safely and as soon as possible drain off water from there. The efforts, of course, resulted in significant interventions into watercourse beds and consequently in adjacent floodplains, thus influencing the water regime.